Nobuo Nakagawa

**Nobuo Nakagawa** (中川 信夫, *Nakagawa Nobuo*, April 18, 1905 – June 17, 1984) was a Japanese film director, screenwriter and editor. He is known for the stylized, folk tale-influenced horror films he made in the 1950s and 1960s.

## Nobuo Nakagawa

### Occupation

Film director
Screenwriter
Editor

### Main works

Enoken no Tobisuke bôken ryokô
Shishun no izumi
The Ghost of Yotsuya
The Sinners of Hell
Nendo no Omen yori: Kaachan

## Biography & Career

Born on April 18, 1905 in Kyoto, Nobuo was early on influenced by proletarian literature and wrote amateur film reviews to the Kinema Junpō film magazine. His father, Takejiro Nakagawa, was a shin (chief of Itamae) at Arashiyama's culinary inn "Arashikyokan," and his mother, Sono, was the head of the inn. After graduating from Tachibana Jinjo Elementary School, Nakagawa entered the former Ikuei Commercial School (currently Ikuei High School) in Hyogo Prefecture before graduating in 1924.

Inspired to become a literature, he wrote a novel in the doujinshi (Japanese term for self-published print works, such as magazines, manga, and novels) "Phantom Fish" (幻魚, *Maboroshi-gyo*), but thought that he had to graduate from college to become a novelist, so he gave up the path and proceeded to the film industry in order to become a director. After working as an amateur film critic in the Kinema Junpo reader's contribution section, Nobuo joined Makino Production in 1929 and became an assistant director and worked under Masahiro Makino. During his time at the studio, he was strongly influenced in filmmaking techniques by directors Itaro Yamagami, Mansaku Itami, Yasujiro Ozu and others.

In August 1930, ​​when the Makino studio was delayed in salary due to the recession caused by the Great Depression all across the world and went into bankruptcy, Nobuo served as a record clerk on the employment side. After Makino temporarily suspended production in December of the same year, he spent a year unemployed and spent the time writing screenplay. In 1931, he opened his own coffee shop "Crow" in Sannomiya, Kobe. In 1932 after the studio closed down their production, Nobuo switched to Utaemon Ichikawa's production company (Professional Utaemon), which is presided over by actor Utaemon Ichikawa, as an assistant director and made his debut as a director in 1934 with Yumiya Hachiman Ken. This film was presented as a promotion test, and his actual debut work is "The Face of Tokai" in 1935.

After the merge of Utaemon Ichikawa Production with Shochiku in 1936, he later moved to Toho in 1938 through Makino Talkie KK. There he mainly directed war documentaries and comedies starring comedian star Enoken (Ken'ichi Enomoto), but due to the decrease in the number of movies produced during the World War II, Toho was canceled their production in 1941. In that same year, Nobuo was invited by Goro Sodaibo, the producer of the production department of Shochiku Production, to be transfer to the newly formed studio, but soon the Shochiku Kyoto Studio will reduce the production system and merge with Shochiku Ofuna Studio. He first went to Tokyo and headed to Ofuna with the intention of becoming an assistant director for his life, but it ended in failure as the studio wanted him to directed his own film independently. The following year in 1942, he went to China as cameraman and directed the documentary film "Zhehan Railway Construction" during the Second Sino-Japanese War with his fellow film crew.

Nobuo continued to directed for two years after returning to Japan for the marriage of his producer and his newly wedded bride, but the film was incinerated at the end of the war without being completed due to bombing raids and the Allied Occupying Japan in 1945. After returned from Shanghai in 1946 for a tour, Nobuo joined Daido Film, which was established by director Tomiyasu Ikeda, but he has few jobs and need to secure his finances. After the war, he participated in poetry doujinshi before returning making films. In November 1946, his poet entry "Chi-Nashi" was selected as the first prize in the psalm section of "New Constitution Promulgation Memorial Literature" sponsored by Shinko Evening Newspaper, and won the Governor's Award.

In February 1947, his submitted work won a prize in the "Hyogo Kenminka", which was adapted by the prefecture to commemorate the promulgation of the newly Constitution of Japan. That year, Nobuo happened to meet film critic Tsuneo Hazumi, which the two worked together during filming in China, in Kyoto. At the recommendation of Shintoho, which was created by union workers who went on strike at the Toho Studio, he was transferred to Shintoho and returned as a movie director with "Basha monogatari" in 1948 as a first post war comedy. Even after the company shifted back to the studio system of producer Mitsugi Okura, the company mass-produced works produced by Okura, and after "Kaidan Kasane-ga-fuchi" in 1957, one of the classic ghost stories of the company's summer business that Nobuo took it on from a story called *Shinkei Kasanegafuchi* by San'yūtei Enchō.

After the bankruptcy of Shintoho in 1961 and after making an exclusive contract with Toei Kyoto Studio and International Television, Nobuo began making his own independent movies. He finally left the film industry by completing his another film "Okatsu the Fugitive" (1969) produced by Movie Studios, and left in 1979 after direct TV dramas.

From 1977 to 1982, Nobuo wrote a six self-made scripts in the Kanagawa Prefectural Arts Festival Theater Screenplay Contest, in all of which won prizes. In 1982, he returned to the film industry for the first time in 13 years with "The Living Koheiji", in collaboration between the Isoda office and ATG (Art Theatre Guild) (produced in 1981). In 1982, Nobuo received the Fumiko Yamaji Cultural Foundation Special Award for his filmmaking techniques.

In 1984, his 1959 film "The Ghost of Yotsuya" will be screened at the Pesaro Film Festival in Italy, and an invitation will be received. Nobuo couldn't attend the festival because he suffered from stroke and became unconscious. He died of heart failure on June 17, 1984 in Tokyo at the age of 79. The name of the priest is Ryojiin Eido Nisshin, and the graveyard is the Sagami Reien Memorial Park in Aiko District, Kanagawa Prefecture. On June 21, 1985, the "Memorial Meeting for Nobuo Nakagawa Kantoku" was held at the Shinjuku Cross-legged to commemorate the anniversary of the anniversary was held every year with the consensus of the participants, and in 1987, the name has been changed to "Sake Beans".

## Filmography

* All films on IMDB

.