Shimazu was born in Tokyo,[a] the second son of merchant Otojirō Shimazu. His father owned a long-established seaweed business named Kōshū-ya directly in front of the main Mitsukoshi department store in Nihonbashi.[4]
Shimazu entered Shōchiku in 1920 after answering an advertisement and began training under Kaoru Osanai.[3] He gave his debut as director in 1921 at Shōchiku's recently established Kamata studio,[3] directing both comedy and melodrama films, often depicting the everyday life of the lower middle classes.[1]Our Neighbor, Miss Yae (1934) and A Brother and His Younger Sister (1939) are regarded as his most exemplary and best films.[1][5] By the end of the 1930s, he moved to Tōhō studios, where he made some films in cooperation with the Manchuria Film Association.[6] He died of cancer just after the war ended.[2] Many famous directors, such as Heinosuke Gosho, Shirō Toyoda, Kōzaburō Yoshimura, and Keisuke Kinoshita, started their careers as his assistant.[1]
^ abcdJacoby, Alexander (2008). Critical Handbook of Japanese Film Directors: From the Silent Era to the Present Day. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press. pp. 264–268. ISBN978-1-933330-53-2.
