Editing Mansaku Itami

{{short description|Japanese film director}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2018}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Mansaku Itami
| image              = Mansaku Itami.jpg
| alt                = 
| caption            = Mansaku Itami
| birth_date         = {{birth date|df=yes|1900|1|2}}
| birth_place        = [[Matsuyama]], [[Ehime]], Japan
| death_date         = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1946|9|21|1900|1|2}}
| death_place        = 
| nationality        = Japanese
| other_names        = Yoshitoyo Ikeuchi
| known_for          = 
| children           = [[Juzo Itami]]
| relatives          = [[Hikari Oe]] (grandson)
| occupation         = Film director, screenwriter
}}
'''Mansaku Itami''' (伊丹万作; real name Yoshitoyo Ikeuchi 池内義豊; 2 January 1900&nbsp;–&nbsp;21 September 1946<ref name="kotobank">{{cite web|url=http://kotobank.jp/word/%E4%BC%8A%E4%B8%B9%E4%B8%87%E4%BD%9C|title=Itami Mansaku|work=Nihon jinmei daijiten|publisher=Kōdansha|language=Japanese|accessdate=20 November 2010}}</ref>) was a Japanese [[film director]] and [[screenwriter]] known for his critical, sometimes satirical portraits of Japan and its history. He is the father of the director [[Juzo Itami]].

==Career==
Originally from [[Matsuyama, Ehime]], Itami joined the [[Nikkatsu]] studio in 1927, but the very next year moved to the actor [[Chiezō Kataoka]]'s company, [[Chiezō Productions]], where he made his directorial debut with ''Adauchi Ruten''.<ref name=kotobank />  His [[samurai films]] diverged from the norm in that they were not heroic epics of the sort which had by that time become formulaic, but rather [[satire]]s that used the established symbols and iconography of the samurai culture to comment on both historical and modern society. His work was championed by the film critic [[Fuyuhiko Kitagawa]]. His most famous work is ''[[Akanishi Kakita]]'', which is based on a story by [[Naoya Shiga]] and still survives (unlike many of his other films).

In 1937, he collaborated with director [[Arnold Fanck]] on a German-Japanese co-production, starring the young [[Setsuko Hara]]. This eventually became two slightly different films: ''Atarashiki Tsuchi'' (''The New Earth'') in Japan, while ''Die Tochter des Samurai'' (''Daughter of the Samurai'') was the German version.

He died of [[tuberculosis]] in 1946.  His screenplays' popularity endured, however, and he is credited as a writer as recently as 1986's ''Kokushi Muso'', a remake of his 1932 film of the same name.

==Family==
His son Yoshihiro Ikeuchi, who later changed his name to [[Juzo Itami]], followed in his footsteps, becoming one of the pre-eminent Japanese filmmakers of the late 20th century. His daughter Yukari married [[Kenzaburō Ōe]], the [[Nobel Prize in Literature|Nobel Prize]]-winning novelist. Ōe edited a collection of his father-in-law's essays.<ref>{{cite book|last=Itami|first=Mansaku|title=Itami Mansaku essei-shū|year=1971|publisher=Chikuma Shobō|location=Tokyo|oclc=25802461|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/25802461|editor=Kenzaburō Ōe}}</ref>

==Filmography==
*''Adauchi Ruten'' (仇討流転) (1928)
*''Zoku Banka Jigoku: Dai Ippen (Elegy of Hell)'' (1928)
*''[[The Peerless Patriot]]'' (国士無双 Kokushi musō) (1932)
*''Chuji Uridasu'' (1935)
*''Akanishi Kakita (Capricious Young Man)'' (1936)
*''Furusato (Hometown)'' (1937)
* ''[[The Daughter of the Samurai]]'', co-directed with [[Arnold Fanck]] (1937)
*''[[The Giant (1938 film)|Kyojin-den]]'' (1938)

==Additional Screenwriting Credits==
*''Tenka Taiheiki (Peace on Earth)'' (1928)
*''Hōrō Zanmai'' (The Wandering Gambler) (1928)
*''Muhomatsu no Issho'' (the 1958 version is also known as ''[[Rickshaw Man]]''; the others are also known as ''The Life of Matsu the Untamed'') (1943, 1958, 1965)
*''Te o Tsunagu Kora'' (Children Hand in Hand) (1948, 1963)
*''Ore wa Yojimbo (I'm the Bodyguard)'' (1950)
*''Kokushi Muso'' (1986)

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.horror-house.jp/e/cat2/mansaku-itami-19001946.html Mansaku Itami's grave]
* {{IMDb name|id=0411632|name=Mansaku Itami}}
* {{jmdb name|id=0029590|name=伊丹万作 (Mansaku Itami)}}
*[http://www.aozora.gr.jp/index_pages/person231.html Itami Mansaku] at [[Aozora Bunko]] (in Japanese)

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Itami, Mansaku}}
[[Category:Japanese film directors]]
[[Category:Japanese comedy film directors]]
[[Category:Japanese satirical film directors]]
[[Category:Japanese satirists]]
[[Category:20th-century deaths from tuberculosis]]
[[Category:1900 births]]
[[Category:1946 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Matsuyama, Ehime]]
[[Category:German-language film directors]]
[[Category:20th-century Japanese screenwriters]]
[[Category:Tuberculosis deaths in Japan]]