Editing Takashi Shimura (section)

==Early life==
Shimura was born {{nihongo|Shōji Shimazaki|島崎 捷爾|Shimazaki Shōji}} in [[Ikuno]], [[Hyōgo Prefecture]], Japan.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.allcinema.net/prog/show_p.php?num_p=46229 |title=志村喬について 映画データベース |publisher=allcinema |access-date=2020-03-11}}</ref> His forebears were members of the [[samurai]] class: in 1868 his grandfather took part in the [[Battle of Toba–Fushimi]] during the [[Boshin War]]. Shimura entered Ikuno Primary School in 1911 and [[Kobe]] First Middle School in 1917. He missed two years of schooling because of a mild case of [[tuberculosis]], and subsequently moved to the prefectural middle school in [[Nobeoka]], [[Miyazaki Prefecture]], where his father had been transferred by his employer, Mitsubishi Mining. At Nobeoka Middle School, he excelled in English and became active on the literary society's magazine, to which he contributed poetry. He also became a star of the rowing club.

In 1923, he entered [[Kansai University]], but after his father's retirement the family could no longer afford the fees for a full-time course and he switched to the part-time evening course in English literature, supporting himself by working at the [[Osaka]] municipal waterworks. Among the teachers in the English Literature Department were the playwright Toyo-oka Sa-ichirō (豊岡佐一郎) and the Shakespeare scholar Tsubouchi Shikō (坪内士行). These two inspired in Shimura an enthusiasm for drama. He joined the University's Theatre Studies Society and in 1928 formed an amateur theatrical group, the Shichigatsu-za (七月座) with Toyo-oka as director. He began to miss work because of the time he spent on theatrical activities and eventually lost his job. He then left university to try to earn a living in the theatre. The Shichigatsu-za turned professional and began to tour, but got into financial difficulties and folded.<ref name="Kodansha-EoJ">Shimura Takashi // Encyclopedia of Japan (CD-ROM). — Kodansha Ltd, 1999. — {{ISBN|978-4062099370}}.</ref>