Tamizo Ishida

Tamizō Ishida (石田民三, Ishida Tamizō; 7 June 1901 – 1 October 1972) was a Japanese film director and screenwriter.[1][2][3] He is most noted for his 1938 historical drama film Fallen Blossoms, which is now regarded as one of the outstanding works of 1930s Japanese cinema.

Ishida was born in Masuda (now Yokote), Akita Prefecture, Japan.[3][4] He gave his directing debut at Toa Kinema in 1926, specialising in chanbara (sword fight) films,[1][4] the majority of which are regarded as lost.[1] In the mid-1930s, Ishida made himself a name with literary adaptations, often in collaboration with the Bungakuza theatre troupe,[1] and films with female casts.[4] Nowadays, his films set in entertainment districts are regarded as his standout works,[4] most notably the 1938 Fallen Blossoms, a formally innovative film about the inhabitants of a Kyoto geisha house in the late Edo period.[1][4] Other notable films of the era include Yoru no hato (1937), Mukashi no uta and Hanatsumi nikki (both 1939), Keshōyuki (1940, based on a story by Mikio Naruse) and Asagiri gunka (1943).[1][4] After the end of World War II, Ishida directed only one more film before his early retirement from film business, instead running a teahouse with his wife in Kamishichiken, Kyoto.