Satsuo Yamamoto

Yamamoto was born in Kagoshima City. After leaving Waseda University, where he had become affiliated with left-wing groups, he joined the Shochiku film studios in 1933, where he worked as an assistant director to Mikio Naruse.^[2][3] He followed Naruse when the latter moved to P.C.L. film studios (later Toho) and debuted as a director in 1937 with Ojōsan.^[2][3] During World War II he directed the propaganda films Winged Victory and Hot Winds^[1][4] before being drafted and sent to China.^[3]

After returning to Japan, Yamamoto's first film was War and Peace,^[5] co-directed with Fumio Kamei.^[1][4] Being a communist and an active supporter of the union during the Toho strikes, he left the studio in 1948 after the strikes' forced ending and turned to independent filmmaking.^[3][6] The commercially successful Street of Violence (1950) was produced by a committee named after the film's original title Bōryoku no machi,^[7] while the left-wing production company Shinsei Eiga-sha ("New star films"), formed by former Toho unionists, produced the anti-war film Vacuum Zone (1953), which film historian Donald Richie called "the strongest anti-military film ever made in Japan" in 1959.^[4] The 1959 Ballad of the Cart was produced by the National Rural Film Association and won him the Mainichi Film Award for Best Director.^[8]

In the 1960s, Yamamoto again worked for major companies like Daiei and Nikkatsu, directing films like Band of Assassins (1962), The Ivory Tower (1966) and Zatoichi the Outlaw (1967).^[9] He died in Tokyo on 11 August 1983, at the age of 73.^[2]

Kinema Junpo Awards

Yamamoto received the Kinema Junpo Award for Best Director for Ivory Tower, which was also awarded Best Film.^{[citation needed]}

Blue Ribbon Awards

Yamamoto won the Blue Ribbon Award for Best Director for Shōnin no isu and Nippon dorobō monogatari (both 1965).^[11] Ivory Tower was awarded Best Film the following year.^{[citation needed]}

Mainichi Fim Awards

Yamamoto was awarded Best Director at the Mainichi Film Awards for Ballad of the Cart and Ningen no kane (both 1959),^[8] Ivory Tower,^[12] Men and War^[13] and Barren Land.^[14] Ivory Tower, Barren Land and Nomugi Pass^[15] were winners in the Best Film category.

Festival prizes

Ivory Tower was entered into the 5th Moscow International Film Festival where it was awarded the Silver Prize.^[16]

• Yamamoto Satsuo: My Life as a Filmmaker (私の映画人生, Watakushi no eiga jinsei), published in English in 2017 by University of Michigan Press, translated by Chia-ning Chang.^[17] - It is an autobiography that was first published after Yamamoto died.^[18]