--- name: "Masaki Kobayashi" canonical: "https://film.one/person/masaki-kobayashi" fi1m_id: "masaki-kobayashi" imdb_id: "nm0462030" tmdb_id: 76978 wikidata_id: "Q445807" roles: ["Director"] born: "14 February 1916" died: "4 October 1996" reviewed_on_fi1m: 2 average_as: "director" average_over: 1 updated: "2026-09-26T15:42:23.281246+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Masaki Kobayashi ## Identity Masaki Kobayashi - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/masaki-kobayashi - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** masaki-kobayashi - **IMDb ID:** nm0462030 - **TMDB ID:** 76978 - **Wikidata ID:** Q445807 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masaki_Kobayashi, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q445807, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0462030/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/76978 Director. Born 14 February 1916 in Otaru, Hokkaidō, Japan. Died 4 October 1996. ## Details - **Work:** Director - **Born:** 14 February 1916, Otaru, Hokkaidō, Japan - **Died:** 4 October 1996 - **Also known as:** Масаки Кобаяси, 小林正树, 고바야시 마사키, 코바야시 마사키, 마사키 고바야시, 마사키 코바야시 - **Titles on Fi1m:** 2: 1 directing, 1 other - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masaki_Kobayashi, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q445807, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0462030/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/76978 ## Fi1m on Masaki Kobayashi > Masaki Kobayashi makes the cruelty of rigid social codes hard to look away from. We rate his exacting cinema highly: its anger is persuasive, its staging precise, though he sometimes keeps pressing a point we have already understood. In *Harakiri* (1962), the arrangement of people across the wide frame tells us who expects to be obeyed. Masaki Kobayashi lets those defending the code of honour look comfortable with their authority, and gives us time to find that confidence disturbing. Yoshio Miyajima’s cinematography makes their command of the space visible without anyone needing to explain it. The film is harrowing, and its severity is earned. That concern with the person expected to submit runs through a career that began with films about social problems. The nine-and-a-half-hour *The Human Condition* trilogy (1959–1961) was the breakthrough, before the turn towards period films in *Harakiri*, *Kwaidan* (1964) and *Samurai Rebellion* (1967). The stylised colour ghost stories of *Kwaidan* make an intriguing departure within that sequence. *Samurai Rebellion*, starring Toshirō Mifune, returns to the individual resisting an oppressive code. His strongest ally in *Harakiri* is Tatsuya Nakadai, a collaborator across nine films, beginning with *Black River* (1957). As the ronin Hanshiro Tsugumo, he holds his feelings beneath a controlled manner, making the formal exchanges tense enough to sustain our attention. Kobayashi trusts him to carry passages that could otherwise become forbidding. Shinobu Hashimoto’s screenplay keeps the challenge to the code of honour tied to the people it hurts. Hisashi Sagara’s editing sets ceremonial order beside flashbacks of suffering. Tōru Takemitsu’s music adds unease without making the pain seem grand. We were horrified by *Harakiri* because the people observing its rules are so willing to accept the suffering those rules cause. His patience is not always rewarded: *Harakiri* occasionally takes longer than it needs. The tendency to press a point leaves less room for tenderness, a limitation worth acknowledging in work we admire this much. Start with *Harakiri*, even if a prolonged argument over a samurai code sounds like the last thing the evening needs. ## Biography Masaki Kobayashi was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. He was born on 14 February 1916 in Otaru, Hokkaido, and died on 4 October 1996 in Tokyo. He studied at Waseda University and began working in film as an assistant director at Shochiku Studios in 1941. Kobayashi is known for directing *The Human Condition* trilogy (1959–1961), *Harakiri* (1962), *Kwaidan* (1964) and *Samurai Rebellion* (1967). He also directed *The Inheritance* (1962), *Hymn to a Tired Man* (1968), *Inn of Evil* (1971), *The Fossil* (1975), *Tokyo Trial* (1983) and *The Empty Table* (1985). He was married to Chiyoko Fumiya from 1952 and was a second cousin of actress Kinuyo Tanaka. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, britannica.com.* ## On Fi1m (2) ### Directed (1) — the average rests on these - *Harakiri* (1962), Fi1m 91, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/harakiri.md) ### Also credited (1) — thanks, archive footage, uncredited - *Tokyo Olympiad* (1965), Fi1m 88, Thanks — [page](https://film.one/film/tokyo-olympiad.md) ## Complete filmography (34) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Unification of Japan 62* (2024), Actor - *Final Approach* (2004), series, Executive Producer - *Dora-heita* (2000), Screenplay - *The Empty Table* (1985), Director, Screenplay - *Tokyo Trial* (1983), Writer, Director - *Glowing Autumn* (1978), Director - *The Fossil* (1975), Director - *Fossil* (1972), series, Director, Creator - *Inn of Evil* (1971), Director - *Dodes'ka-den* (1970), Executive Producer - *Hymn to a Tired Man* (1968), Director - *Samurai Rebellion* (1967), Director - *Tokyo Olympiad* (1965), Thanks — Fi1m 88, [page](https://film.one/film/tokyo-olympiad.md) - *Kwaidan* (1965), Director - *Harakiri* (1962), Director — Fi1m 91, [page](https://film.one/film/harakiri.md) - *The Inheritance* (1962), Director, Producer - *The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer* (1961), Producer, Director, Screenplay - *The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity* (1959), Producer, Screenplay, Director - *The Human Condition I: No Greater Love* (1959), Director, Screenplay - *Black River* (1957), Director - *I Will Buy You* (1956), Director - *The Thick-Walled Room* (1956), Director - *Fountainhead* (1956), Director - *Beautiful Days* (1955), Director - *Three Loves* (1954), Director, Writer - *Somewhere Beneath the Wide Sky* (1954), Director - *Sincere Heart* (1953), Director - *Youth of the Son* (1952), Director - *Carmen Comes Home* (1951), Assistant Director - *Broken Drum* (1949), Screenplay, Assistant Director - *Yotsuya Ghost Story Part 1* (1949), Assistant Director - *Apostasy* (1948), Assistant Director - *The Portrait* (1948), Assistant Director - *The Revenge Champion* (1931), Screenplay ## Gallery - ![Masaki Kobayashi (1960)](https://film.one/media/person/102974/gallery-79ca1941239d.jpg) Masaki Kobayashi (1960) — キネマ旬報社, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ad/Kinema-Junpo-1960-October-late-1.jpg/1280px-Kinema-Junpo-1960-October-late-1.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![『上意討ち 拝領妻始末』のスタッフとキャスト。前列左から、仲代達矢、小林正樹、三船敏郎、田中友幸。後列左から、松江陽一、山田一夫、奥山重之助、田実泰良。 (1967)](https://film.one/media/person/102974/gallery-fa37fee80d84.jpg) 『上意討ち 拝領妻始末』のスタッフとキャスト。前列左から、仲代達矢、小林正樹、三船敏郎、田中友幸。後列左から、松江陽一、山田一夫、奥山重之助、田実泰良。 (1967) — キネマ旬報社, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8e/Kinema-Junpo-1967-June-late-1.jpg/1280px-Kinema-Junpo-1967-June-late-1.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Masaki Kobayashi](https://film.one/media/person/102974/gallery-5bc8af2de6f1.jpg) Masaki Kobayashi — 新潮社　撮影者不明, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Masaki_Kobayashi.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Masaki Kobayashi](https://film.one/media/person/102974/gallery-c8da3cdce784.jpg) Masaki Kobayashi — Image via TMDB - ![Masaki Kobayashi](https://film.one/media/person/102974/gallery-57cc4d953104.jpg) Masaki Kobayashi — Image via TMDB ## Awards ### Other awards — 4 won - Medal with Purple Ribbon 1984: Medal with Purple Ribbon (won) - Sutherland Trophy 1967: Sutherland Trophy (won), for *Samurai Rebellion* - Jury Prize 1965: Jury Prize (won), for *Kwaidan* - Jury Prize 1963: Jury Prize (won), for *Harakiri* *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/masaki-kobayashi