Minoru Murata

Minoru Murata
Minoru Murata in 1929
Born	March 2, 1894(1894-03-02) Tokyo
Died	June 26, 1937(1937-06-26) (aged 43)
Nationality	Japanese
Occupation	Film director, screenwriter, actor

Minoru Murata (村田 實, Murata Minoru^?, 2 March 1894 - 26 June 1937) was a Japanese film director, screenwriter, and actor who was one of the major directors of the silent era in Japan.

Career

Born in Tokyo, Murata started out as a shingeki actor on the stage.^[1] Murata's troupe appeared in the first "pure films" directed by Norimasa Kaeriyama at Tenkatsu in 1918. On the recommendation of the playwright Kaoru Osanai, he then joined Shochiku in 1920 and participated in the actors school Osanai ran there.^[1] He ended up directing Souls on the Road (1921), a ground breaking reformist film that fortunately is one of the few films surviving from that era. Murata later moved to Nikkatsu, where he directed such critical hits as Seisaku's Wife (1924) and The Street Juggler (1925) which were "important in establishing the form of Japanese films about contemporary life."^[2] He later worked at Shinkō Kinema. He started up the important journal, Eiga kagaku kenkyū, in 1928 with Kiyohiko Ushihara, and helped found the Directors Guild of Japan in 1936, becoming its first president.^[3] Often battling illness, he died suddenly in 1937.

Selected filmography

• Souls on the Road (Rojō no reikon 路上の霊魂) (1921)
• Seisaku's Wife (Seisaku no tsuma 清作の妻) (1924)
• The Street Juggler (Machi no tejinashi 街の手品師) (1925)
• Nichirin (日輪) (1926)
• Muteki (霧笛) (1934)

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Murata Minoru" (in Japanese). Nihon jinmei daijiten + Plus. Kōdansha. http://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%9D%91%E7%94%B0%E5%AE%9F. Retrieved 12 January 2011. 
2. ^ Anderson, Joseph L.; Richie, Donald. The Japanese Film: Art and Industry (Expanded ed.). Princeton: Princeton University Press. p. 49. ISBN 0691007926. 
3. ^ "Nihon Eiga Kantoku Kyokai nenpyō" (in Japanese). Directors Guild of Japan. http://www.dgj.or.jp/about_g/chronology.html. Retrieved 16 July 2010. 

External links

• Minoru Murata at the Internet Movie Database
• Murata Minoru at the Japanese Movie Database (Japanese)

Persondata
Name	Murata, Minoru
Alternative names
Short description	Japanese film director
Date of birth	2 March 1894
Place of birth	Tokyo
Date of death	26 June 1937
Place of death