Hôtei Nomura

Biography

Hôtei Nomura (November 13, 1880 – August 23, 1934) was a film director, screenwriter and producer who lived during the Taisho period and early Showa period. He is one of the individuals responsible for laying the groundwork of the Japanese film industry. Nomura's father was in the business of making scenery and signs for theaters in Kyoto. The nature of his father's business meant that he had a connection to Kyoto's theatre industry from a young age, and he was close friends with Shochiku founders Matsujiro Shirai and Takejiro Otani. In 1897, he served as the projectionist's assistant for the French engineer François-Constant Girel, in Japan's first-ever show of the Lumiere brothers' cinematograph. When Shochiku formally began producing films in 1920, Nomura was appointed to its board of directors. His use of contemporary drama actors in classical productions and realism in 'classical drama moving pictures' became the model for subsequent period dramas, and his apprentices included future director Heinosuke Gosho. He is also known to have given their first role to two great Japanese actresses: Kinuyo Tanaka (in Genroku Onna, at the age of fourteen) and Hideko Takamine (in Mother,…

Directed

1. The Genealogy of Women (1934) — Director
2. Chikyodai (1932) — Director
3. Mother (1929) — Director
4. Constellations on Earth, Part One: Earth Chapter (1934) — Director
5. Constellations on Earth, Part 2: Constellations (1934) — Director
6. Useless Button (1926) — Director
7. Umi no yôbigôe (1922) — Director
8. Shin Yotsuya Ghost Story (1932) — Director
9. The Woman and the Pirate (1923) — Director
10. Tokyo ondo (1933) — Director
11. Island Girl (1933) — Director
12. Kanji no yoi eiga shû 'Neko' (1924) — Director
13. A Woman from the Genroku Era (1924) — Director
14. Symphony of Youth (1928) — Director
15. 天龍下れば (1933) — Director
16. The Village Where the Skylark Sings (1929) — Director
17. Woman of Suffering (1931) — Director
18. The Golden Demon (1932) — Director
19. Clear and Cloudy (1933) — Director
20. Daphne (1933) — Director
21. Storm in the City (1934) — Director