Shirō Toyoda (豊田 四郎, Toyoda Shirō, 3 January 1906 – 13 November 1977)[1][2] was a Japanese film director and screenwriter who directed over 60 films during his career which spanned 50 years.[3] He was denoted for his high-quality adaptations of works of many important twentieth-century Japanese writers.[1][2][4]
Career
Born in Kyoto, Toyoda moved to Tokyo after finishing high school. Intent on becoming a theatre playwright at first,[5] he studied scriptwriting under the pioneering film director Eizō Tanaka.[2][5] He joined the Kamata section of the Shōchiku film studios in 1925 and worked as an assistant director under Yasujirō Shimazu, before giving his directorial debut in 1929.[2][5] Forced to continue to work as an assistant director,[2] and dissatisfied with the material he was given at Shochiku,[5] he moved to the independent Tokyo Hassei Eiga Shisaku studio (later Toho).[5] There he directed the successful Young People (1937) and gained a reputation for directing literary adaptations with a humanistic touch, in particular Uguisu (1938) and Spring on Leper's Island (1940).[1][5]
^"豊田四郎 (Toyoda Shirō)". Japanese Movie Database (in Japanese). Retrieved 8 January 2022.
^ abcdJacoby, Alexander (2008). Critical Handbook of Japanese Film Directors: From the Silent Era to the Present Day. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press. pp. 313–316. ISBN978-1-933330-53-2.
^ abcdefghAnderson, Joseph L.; Richie, Donald (1959). The Japanese Film – Art & Industry. Rutland, Vermont and Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Company.
