Masaki Kobayashi (小林 正樹, Kobayashi Masaki, February 14, 1916 – October 4, 1996) was a Japanese film director and screenwriter, best known for the epic trilogy The Human Condition (1959–1961), the samurai films Harakiri (1962) and Samurai Rebellion (1967), and the horror anthology Kwaidan (1964).

[7] Due in part to Aizu's influence, Kobayashi decided to study East Asian art and philosophy.

[7] While attending Waseda University, Kobayashi would visit Shochiku Studio to watch Kinuyo Tanaka, his second cousin, while she worked.

[1][7] While at Shochiku, Kobayashi assisted Hiroshi Shimizu on Dawn Chorus and Hideo Ōba on Kaze kaoru niwa.

[7] During this time, Kobayashi began writing a book set in Nara, about an Oriental art scholar who enlisted in the army.

[7] However, Allied submarines prevented the Azabu Third Regiment from reaching the Philippines, so they headed for Okinawa Island instead.

[7] While traveling to Okinawa, Kobayashi's group diverted to Miyako-jima in the Ryukyu Islands, where they remained until the end of the war.

[7] Kobayashi's time on the island was difficult, with his group frequently resorting to eating grasshoppers and dogs to survive.

[7] He kept a diary during his time on Miyako-jima, which documented his experience in the war and included an I-novel about the loss of his youth.

[7] Kobayashi regarded himself as a pacifist and a socialist, and resisted by refusing promotion to a rank higher than private.

[10] Kinoshita had Shochiku purchase the rights to the Jinkō Teien novel, with the intent of the novel being used for Kobayashi's debut film.

[11] This film features scenes shot inside the same church that Kobayashi and Chiyoko Fumiya were married in.

[13] In 1957, Black River was released, about the crime and prostitution that arised around US bases in Japan during and after the American occupation.

[13] From 1959 to 1961, Kobayashi directed The Human Condition (1959–1961), a trilogy on the effects of World War II on a Japanese pacifist and socialist.

[14] In 1964, Kobayashi made Kwaidan (1964), his first color film, a collection of four ghost stories drawn from books by Lafcadio Hearn.

[16] In 1968, Akira Kurosawa, Keisuke Kinoshita, Kon Ichikawa and Kobayashi founded the directors group, Shiki no kai-The Four Horsemen Club, in an attempt to create movies for younger generations.

[19] One of his grand projects was a film on Yasushi Inoue's novel about Buddhist China, Tun Huang, which never came to fruition.