Mansaku Itami

Mansaku Itami
Mansaku Itami
Born	January 2, 1900(1900-01-02) Matsuyama, Ehime
Died	September 21, 1946(1946-09-21) (aged 46)
Nationality	Japanese
Other names	Yoshitoyo Ikeuchi
Occupation	Film director, screenwriter

Mansaku Itami (伊丹万作; real name Yoshitoyo Ikeuchi 池内義豊; 2 January 1900 – 21 September 1946^[1]) was a Japanese film director, originally from Matsuyama, Ehime. His samurai movies diverged from the norm in that they were not heroic epics of the sort which had by that time become formulaic, but rather satires that used the established symbols and iconography of the samurai culture to comment on both historical and modern society. His work was championed by the film critic Fuyuhiko Kitagawa.

He died of tuberculosis in 1946. His screenplays' popularity endured, however, and he is credited as a writer as recently as 1986's Kokushi Muso, a remake of his 1932 film of the same name.

His son Yoshihiro Ikeuchi, who later changed his name to Juzo Itami, followed in his footsteps, becoming one of the pre-eminent Japanese filmmakers of the late 20th century. His daughter Yukari married Kenzaburō Ōe, the Nobel Prize novelist. Ōe edited a collection of his father-in-law's essays.^[2]

Filmography

1. Kyojin-den (1938)
2. Atarashiki Tsuchi (The New Earth), co-directed with Arnold Fanck, also known as Die Tochter des Samurai (Daughter of the Samurai) (1937)
3. Akanishi Kakita (Capricious Young Man) (1936)
4. Chuji Uridasu (1935)
5. Kokushi Muso (1932)
6. Katakiuchi Ruten (1928)
7. Zoku Banka Jigoku: Dai Ippen (Elegy of Hell) (1928)

Additional Screenwriting Credits

1. Kokushi Muso (1986)
2. Ore wa Yojimbo (I'm the Bodyguard) (1950)
3. Te o Tsunagu Kora (Children Hand in Hand) (1948, 1963)
4. Muhomatsu no Issho (the 1958 version is also known as Rickshaw Man; the others are also known as The Life of Matsu the Untamed) (1943, 1958, 1965)
5. Hōrō Zanmai (The Wandering Gambler) (1928)
6. Tenka Taiheiki (Peace on Earth) (1928)

References

1. ^ "Itami Mansaku" (in Japanese). Nihon jinmei daijiten. Kōdansha. http://kotobank.jp/word/%E4%BC%8A%E4%B8%B9%E4%B8%87%E4%BD%9C. Retrieved 20 November 2010. 
2. ^ Itami, Mansaku (1971). Kenzaburō Ōe. ed. Itami Mansaku essei-shū. Tokyo: Chikuma Shobō. http://www.worldcat.org/title/itami-mansaku-essei-shu/oclc/25802461. 

External links

• Mansaku Itami's grave
• Mansaku Itami at the Internet Movie Database
• 伊丹万作 (Mansaku Itami) at the Japanese Movie Database (Japanese)
• Itami Mansaku at Aozora Bunko (in Japanese)

Persondata
Name	Itami, Mansaku
Alternative names
Short description	Film director, screenwriter
Date of birth	1900-1-2
Place of birth	Matsuyama, Ehime
Date of death	1946-9-21
Place of death