[1][2] Kawashima was born in Mutsu, Shimokita District, Aomori Prefecture.

[2][3] After graduating from Meiji University's Department of Literature,[2] he entered the Shōchiku studios and served as an assistant director under Minoru Shibuya, Yasujirō Shimazu, Hiroshi Shimizu and others.

[2] After the war, Kawashima made many comedies at Shōchiku,[2] but it was not before his move to Nikkatsu in 1955 that his work received critical acclaim.

[1] At Nikkatsu, he directed such notable works as Burden of Love (1955), Suzaki Paradise: Red Light District (1956, Kawashima's own personal favourite of his films),[1] and Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate (1957).

In his remaining years, Kawashima worked at multiple studios—Daiei, Tokyo Eiga, and Toho—continuing to create satirical works like Temptation on Glamour Island (1959), Room for Let (1959), and The Graceful Brute (1962), as well as literary adaptations like Women Are Born Twice (1961) and The Temple of Wild Geese (1962).