Yoji Yamada

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Template:Nihongo is a Japanese film director, best known for his film series Otoko wa Tsurai yo and the Samurai Trilogy (The Twilight Samurai, The Hidden Blade and Love and Honor). Yamada has directed 91 films<ref name=HR/> and is well regarded by critics throughout the world. His Tora-san series holds the Guinness World Record for the longest-running film series starring the same actor.<ref name=HR/>

Early life

Yamada was born in Osaka, but due to his father's job as an engineer for the South Manchuria Railway, he was brought up in Dalian, China, from the age of two.<ref name="BYU">Template:Cite web</ref> Following the end of World War II, he returned to Japan and subsequently lived in Ube in Yamaguchi Prefecture.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> After receiving his degree from Tokyo University in 1954, he entered Shochiku and worked under Yoshitaro Nomura as a scriptwriter and as an assistant director.<ref name="BYU" />

Career

He wrote his first screenplay in 1958Template:Cn and directed his first movie, a drama titled Nikai no Tanin, in 1961.<ref name=HR/>

He once served as president of the Directors Guild of Japan,<ref name="Nenpyo">Template:Cite web</ref> and is currently a guest professor of Ritsumeikan University.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Yamada continues to make films to this day. His latest feature Tokyo Taxi will screen at the 38th Tokyo International Film Festival prior to its release on November 21, 2025.<ref name=HR/> He is also chairing the festivals’s Kurosawa Akira Award jury.<ref name=HR/>

Tora-san series

Template:BLP unreferenced section Known in Japan under the title Otoko wa Tsurai yo, his Tora-san series features traveling merchant Torajirō, who is always unlucky in love. Since the lead role in every Tora-san movie was played by Kiyoshi Atsumi, his death in 1996 put an end to the series and Yamada moved on to other movies. Although Yamada is known for his long-running series of movies—four films in the A Class to Remember series, 13 in the Free and Easy (Tsuribaka Nisshi) series—none has reached the prolific numbers of the Tora-san series. Over a period of about 25 years, 48 Tora-san films were made, all of them starring Atsumi, and the majority written and directed by Yamada.

Notable awards

Yamada has received multiple accolades in Japan, including: the Minister of Education Award for Fine Arts and the Mainichi Art Award (1970); the Kikuchi Kan Prize (1972); the Medal with Purple Ribbon and the Asahi Prize (1996); the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette (2002); membership in the Japan Art Academy (2008); and the Order of Culture (2012).<ref name=HR/>

His movies have won the Best Picture award at the Japanese Academy Awards four times: in 1977 for The Yellow Handkerchief, in 1991 for My Sons, in 1993 for A Class to Remember, and in 2002 for The Twilight Samurai, which was nominated for the 76th Academy Awards' Best Foreign Language Film. He won the Japan Academy Prize for Director of the Year three times. His 1984 film, Tora-san's Forbidden Love, was nominated for the Golden Prize at the 14th Moscow International Film Festival.<ref name="Moscow1985">Template:Cite web</ref>

His 2004 film, The Hidden Blade, was nominated for sixteen awards and won three.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2010, Yamada was honored at the 2010 Berlin Film Festival with a screening of his latest film Otōto during the awards ceremony, as well as receiving a Berlinale Camera award for his numerous contributions to the festival's program.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The 38th Tokyo International Film Festival is presenting its Lifetime Achievement Award to Yamada in 2025.<ref name=HR>Template:Cite web</ref>

Works

Films

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Screenplays

Honours

References

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