One Big Happy Family? The Social Relationships and Legacy of the Kinoshita-gumi

The interpersonal relationships in Japanese film production under the studio system have often been represented in familial terms, as the work commonly took place in teams (kumi) built around individual directors. Arguably, none of these possessed the intimacy and longevity of the one devised by Kinoshita Keisuke at Shōchiku, the core of which comprised his actual family members. The line-up of the Kinoshita-gumi also included a number of protégés who subsequently went on to have careers as some of the most important directors of their generation (Kobayashi Masaki, Teshigahara Hiroshi, Yoshida Kijū) as well as several hitherto understudied filmmakers and writers (Kawazu Yoshirō, Matsuyama Zenzō, Ōtsuki Yoshikazu, Yamada Ta’ichi). While such master-apprentice relationships have been at times regarded as oppressive, according to the reminiscences of former crew members, the nurturing and supportive Kinoshita seems to have been an exception to the rule. The aim of this chapter is to delineate the Kinoshita-gumi and its inner relationships and by so doing to identify the scope and influence of its working methods and thematic preoccupations beyond Kinoshita’s own directorial features as well as to chart his legacy as it extended to popular television drama series in the late 1960s and beyond.