Minesuke Kiyokawa

Kisan Detective Story: The Mysterious Doll-Maker

1953 jidaigeki directed by Nobuo Nakagawa of Jigoku and Ghost of Yotsuya fame.

An Edoite Judge

Period film about a feudal era judge living in Edo

Forty-Eight Man

Jidai-geki by Kiyoshi Saeki

Okuni and Gohei

A high-born woman named Okuni travels around the country with Gohei, a samurai retainer who is in service to her. They are in search of Tomonojo, who has killed the man who was Okuni’s husband and Gohei’s master, and they cannot return to their lord’s home until they have fulfilled their duty of hunting down and killing Tomonojo.

A Tale of Archery at the Sanjusangendo

In A Tale of Archery, young, timid bowmaster Kazuma (Akitake Kôno) seeks to beat the archery record set by Hoshino Kanzaemon, a mysterious figure who, it is rumored, drove the previous champion (Kazuma’s father) to suicide. Possessed of much raw talent, Kazuma is also very much a coward, holing himself up in an inn run by the kindly Okinu (Kinuyo Tanaka) and generally avoiding confrontation of any sort. Despite his clandestine manner, enough of the locals know of Kazuma’s purpose and an attempt is made on his life. He is saved by Karatsu Kanbei (Kazuo Hasegawa), a samurai who offers to help Kazuma hone his archery skills, though it soon becomes clear that this apparently selfless stranger has several potentially shady ulterior motives.

Harbor of Life

Government-sponsored film set during the Pacific War, depicting the lives of people working as stevedores.

Omokage no machi

A 1942 film.

The Battle of Kawanakajima

This epic depicts the battle between Uesugi Kenshin and Takeda Shingen. The focus of the story is the struggle by the unit leader in charge of the main supply wagons and the supply troops to transport materiel to the Uesugi army. To this are added episodes involving an itinerant woman.