Yasujirō Shimazu

Yasujirō Shimazu (島津 保次郎, Shimazu Yasujirō, 3 June 1897 – 18 September 1945) was a Japanese film director and screenwriter who played a key role in developing the shōshimin-eiga (common people drama) genre at Shōchiku studios during the pre-World War II era in Japan.

Born in Tokyo, Shimazu was the second son of Otojirō Shimazu, a merchant who ran a long-established seaweed business named Kōshū-ya located directly in front of the main Mitsukoshi department store in Nihonbashi. He joined Shōchiku in 1920 after responding to an advertisement and began his training under Kaoru Osanai. He made his directorial debut in 1921 at Shōchiku's newly established Kamata studio, where he directed both comedies and melodramas, often focusing on the lives of the lower middle class. His films *Our Neighbor, Miss Yae* (1934) and *A Brother and His Younger Sister* (1939) are considered among his most accomplished works.

By the late 1930s, Shimazu moved to Tōhō studios, where he collaborated on several projects with the Manchuria Film Association. He died of cancer shortly after the end of World War II. Several notable directors, including Heinosuke Gosho, Shirō Toyoda, Kōzaburō Yoshimura, and Keisuke Kinoshita, began their careers as his assistants.