Hiroshi Inagaki

Hiroshi Inagaki (Japanese: 稲垣 浩, Hepburn: Inagaki Hiroshi, 30 December 1905 – 1 May 1980) was a Japanese filmmaker who worked on over 100 films in a career spanning over five decades.

He is one of the most successful and critically acclaimed filmmakers in the history of Japanese cinema, having directed several jidaigeki epics such as the 1954 Academy Award-winning film Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto, and its two sequels (1955's Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple (1955) and 1956's Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island).

Returning to Nikkatsu, he continued making jidaigeki and participated in the Naritaki Group of young filmmakers such as Sadao Yamanaka and Fuji Yahiro who collaboratively wrote screenplays under the made up name "Kinpachi Kajiwara".

[2] Inagaki later moved to Daiei and then Toho, where he made big budget color spectacles as well as delicate works depicting the feelings of children.

[4] The color remake, Rickshaw Man (1958), won the Golden Lion award at that year's Venice Film Festival.