Nomura Yoshitaro (野村芳太郎)
Yoshitaro NOMURA (April 23, 1919 - April 8, 2005) was a Japanese movie director. Nomura was from Kyoto Prefecture.
Summary
Nomura's father Hotei NOMURA was a pioneering Japanese movie director who also worked as the general manager of Shochiku Kamata Studio. In 1941, after graduating from Keio University Faculty of Letters, Nomura joined Shochiku Ofuna Studio. In 1946, being discharged from the military service after World War II, Nomura worked as Assistant Director to Akira KUROSAWA making his directorial debut with "Pigeon" in 1952.
While Nomura made a wide variety of entertainment films including period and soap dramas, the movie that made him famous was "Harikomi" (The Stakeout) (1958, starring Minoru OKI), a film adaptation of a novel written by Seicho MATSUMOTO.
Nomura received the Jury's Special Awards at Moscow International Film Festival for "Suna no Utsuwa" (A Castle of Sand) made in 1974 and, in 1978, established a production company "Kiri Productions" with Seicho MATSUMOTO but that company was dissolved in 1984.
Nomura also produced "Hakkodasan" (Mt. Hakkoda) (the film adaptation), "Kinema no Tenchi" and "Amagi goe." Yoji YAMADA and Azuma MORISAKI were among Nomura's pupils.
At 12:15 a.m. on April 8, 2005, Nomura died succumbing to pneumonia at a hospital in Tokyo. Died at the age of 85. Nomura's posthumous Buddhist name (Jodo Shinshu sect (the True Pure Land Sect of Buddhism)) is 映芳院釋顕真.