was a Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese film director

Film director

A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

 most famous for his youth films (seishun eiga). Graduating from Nihon University

Nihon University

Nihon University is the largest university in Japan. Akiyoshi Yamada, the minister of justice, founded Nihon Law School in October 1889....

, he started out at the Shochiku

Shochiku

is a Japanese movie studio and production company for kabuki. It also produces and distributes anime films. Its best remembered directors include Yasujirō Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi, Mikio Naruse, Keisuke Kinoshita and Yōji Yamada...

 studio in 1939 and directed his first film in 1952. He moved to Nikkatsu

Nikkatsu

is a Japanese entertainment company well known for its film and television productions. It is Japan's oldest major movie studio. The name Nikkatsu is an abbreviation of Nippon Katsudō Shashin, literally "Japan Cinematograph Company".-History:...

 in 1954 and, while working in a variety of genres, became most famous for his youth films starring Sayuri Yoshinaga, Yujiro Ishihara

Yujiro Ishihara

was a Japanese actor and singer born in Kobe. His elder brother, Shintaro Ishihara, is an author, politician, and the current Governor of Tokyo. Yujiro debuted in 1956 in "Season of the Sun," based on a novel written by his brother...

, and Hideki Takahashi

Hideki Takahashi

is a Japanese actor. Born in Kisarazu, Chiba near Tokyo, he attended Ichikawa Gakuen and later Nihon University.- Filmography :He made his debut with Nikkatsu and acted in youth-oriented films. After becoming a star in television jidaigeki, he turned out hit after hit...

. In the 1970s, he remade some of these films with the idol singer Momoe Yamaguchi

Momoe Yamaguchi

is a former Japanese singer, actress, and idol whose career lasted from 1972 to 1980. In that time, she became one of the most notable singers in Japanese music, and an acclaimed actress. She withdrew from the entertainment business at the peak of her career to marry her frequent costar, fellow...

 and her future husband Tomokazu Miura

Tomokazu Miura

is a Japanese actor. Born January 28, 1952 in Enzan, Yamanashi, his real name is Miura Minoru . He attended Hino high school in Tokyo, and married actress and singer Momoe Yamaguchi in 1980...

. The Katsumi Nishikawa Memorial Film Museum was opened in his hometown of Chizu, Tottori

Chizu, Tottori

is a town located in Yazu District, Tottori, Japan.As of 2003, the town has an estimated population of 9,009 and a density of 40.11 persons per km². The total area is 224.61 km².- External links :*...

, in 2001. Nishikawa published several books, including one about his war experience and another about filming Yasunari Kawabata

Yasunari Kawabata

was a Japanese short story writer and novelist whose spare, lyrical, subtly-shaded prose works won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968, the first Japanese author to receive the award...

's The Dancing Girl of Izu

The Dancing Girl of Izu

"The Dancing Girl of Izu" or , published in 1926, was the first work of literature by Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata to achieve great popular and critical acclaim. Kawabata would win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968...

several times. He died of pneumonia on April 6, 2010.

Selected filmography

• The Dancing Girl of Izu
  The Dancing Girl of Izu
  "The Dancing Girl of Izu" or , published in 1926, was the first work of literature by Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata to achieve great popular and critical acclaim. Kawabata would win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968...
  
  (1963)
• The Dancing Girl of Izu (1974)
• Shunkinshō
  Shunkinsho (film)
  Shunkinsho, or A portrait of Shunkin is a film based on a short story by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki . It stars Momoe Yamaguchi and Tomokazu Miura. It was made in 1976. The director was Katsumi Nishikawa...
  
  (1976)

External links