Born in Namegata District, Ibaraki, Yanagimachi attended the Faculty of Law at Waseda University but began studying filmmaking.

[1] Working as a freelance assistant director after graduating, he started his own production company in 1974 and produced the documentary film God Speed You!

His 1982 work Saraba Itoshiki Daichi showed in the Competition at the Berlin Film Festival.

), on ethnic minorities in Japan (Ai ni Tsuite, Tokyo), as well as on Asia (Shadow of China and the documentary Tabisuru Pao-jiang-hu).

Yanagimachi was awarded the Geijutsu Senshō Prize in 1985 by the Agency for Cultural Affairs.