Toshio Masuda
Japanese film director · Japan · On the map · Directors · Born 1927 · age 99
Toshio Masuda is a Japanese film director. He developed a reputation as a consistent box office hit-maker. Over the course of five decades, 16 of his films made the yearly top ten lists at the Japanese box office - a second place record in the industry.
Toshio Masuda is read about 107 times a day, in 11 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 6 November 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 101 days, one point a day.
Something wrong?A life in dates
Father and Son HawkSeries, Director1992
三国志Series, Creator
Heavenly SinFilm, 1992Director1990Blue Ribbon Awards for Best DirectorAward
Miyamoto MusashiSeries, 1990Director1989
Company ExecutivesFilm, Director1985
Love: Starting on a JourneyFilm, Director, Writer1983
Battle AnthemFilm, Director1982
Future War 198XFilm, Director1981
The Battle of Port Arthur: Will Love Die?Series, Director, Writer1979
Space Battleship Yamato: The New VoyageFilm, Director, Writer1977
High Seas HijackFilm, Writer1974
Prophecies of NostradamusFilm, Director, Writer1973
Lone Wolf and CubSeries, Director1972
Shadow HuntersFilm, Director1969
The CleanupFilm, Director1968
Monument to the Girl's CorpsFilm, Director1965
Showdown in the Red ValleyFilm, Director1962
Keep Your Chin UpFilm, Director1957
The ChampionFilm, Writer1927Born5 October 1927People around Toshio
Close ties
Tetsurō Tamba Toshio directed Prophecies of Nostradamus (1975)
Yūjirō Ishihara Toshio directed Rusty Knife and Red Handkerchief
Ruriko Asaoka Toshio directed Shadow Hunters (1972)
Takeshi Aono Toshio directed Be Forever Yamato (1980)- Masako Natsume Toshio directed The Battle of Port Arthur (1980)
Joe Shishido Toshio directed Rusty Knife and Velvet Hustler
Akira Kobayashi Toshio directed Rusty Knife (1958)
Tetsuya Watari Toshio directed Outlaw: Gangster VIP (1968)
Mari Shiraki Toshio directed Where the Horizon Meets the Sun (1961)
Mitsuo Hamada Toshio directed Hitoribotchi no futari daga (1962)- Yoshinobu Nishizaki Produced Space Battleship Yamato (1977)
Sayuri Yoshinaga Toshio directed Hitoribotchi no futari daga (1962)
Tatsuya Fuji Toshio directed Kill the Night Rose (1966)- Kei Tomiyama Toshio directed Be Forever Yamato (1980)
Yōko Asagami Toshio directed Be Forever Yamato (1980)
Osamu Kobayashi Toshio directed Be Forever Yamato (1980)
Tamio Kawachi Toshio directed The Imperial Japanese Empire (1982)
Leiji Matsumoto Also in Space Battleship Yamato (1977)
Hideaki Nitani Toshio directed Man at the Bullfight (1960)
Yoshito Yasuhara Toshio directed Be Forever Yamato (1980)
Kayo Matsuo Toshio directed The Battle of Port Arthur (1980)
Yoshio Inaba Toshio directed The Battle of Port Arthur (1980)
Masao Shimizu Toshio directed Rusty Knife (1958)
Izumi Ashikawa Toshio directed Otoko to otoko no ikiru machi (1962)
Filmography 40
140 credits on file
Television 5
Awards
About this person
Between 1958 and 1968 he directed 52 films for the Nikkatsu Company. He was their top director of action films and worked with the company's top stars, including Yujiro Ishihara with whom he made 25 films. After the breakdown of the studio system, he moved on to a succession of big-budget movies including the American-Japanese co-production Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) and the science fiction epic Catastrophe 1999: The Prophecies of Nostradamus (1974). He worked on such anime productions as the Space Battleship Yamato series. His corporate drama Company Funeral (1989) earned him a Japanese Academy Award nomination and wins at the Blue Ribbon Awards and Mainichi Film Awards. In Japan, his films are well-remembered by fans and called genre landmarks by critics. He remains little known abroad save for rare exceptions of his post-Nikkatsu work such as Tora! Tora! Tora!. However, a number of his films were screened in a 2005 Nikkatsu Action Cinema retrospective in Italy, and a few have since made their way to the United States. In 2009, he helped produce Space Battleship Yamato: Resurrection.
