Masahiro Shinoda (1931-2025) and Japan Society

**Masahiro Shinoda and Shima Iwashita at Japan Society, 1999 © Gregory Cherin**

Japanese Cinema lost one of its giants on March 25, 2025. Born in 1931 in Gifu (the central part of mainland Japan), Masahiro Shinoda experienced the drastic political and social changes and upheavals of WWII and postwar Japan as a teenager. Throughout his films he continued to explore the relationship between individuals and society. As a student at Waseda University, Shinoda majored in Japanese classic theater studies, where he was also recognized as a noted long distance runner. Although he wanted to become a scholar, the death of his mother, who was his financial sponsor, compelled him to take a job.

In 1953 Shinoda entered Shochiku Studio where he made his first film, One Way Ticket to Love, in 1960. Together with Nagisa Oshima and Yoshishige “Kiju” Yoshida he was soon considered one of the most representative directors of the Japanese New Wave Cinema movement. After making masterpieces such as Assassination (1964), With Beauty and Sorrow (1965) and Samurai Spy (1965), Shinoda left Shochiku in 1966. In 1967, he married Shochiku’s top star Shima Iwashita, and they formed an independent production company, Hyogen-sha. The Shinoda-Iwashita team produced a number of ambitious and important films including Double Suicide (1969), The Scandalous Adventures of Buraikan (1970), Himiko (1974), MacArthur’s Children (1984) and Takeshi (1995). All of these were shown internationally, and were also either premiered or screened at Japan Society. Other films that Shinoda introduced at Japan Society include Demon Pond (1979) starring Tamasaburo Bando, Sharaku (1995) and Owl’s Castle (1999). A special discussion and reception held in 1999 brought Shinoda and Iwashita to Japan Society, where they both spoke with humor and elegance about their work to a spellbound audience of New Yorkers.

Shinoda wrote books on theater, Sergei Eisenstein, film theory and much more. An erudite lecturer, his topics ranged from history, literature, arts, music, philosophy, the sciences, and sports to current affairs, illuminating almost every possible field. His introductions were not limited to information on his production history and actors but contextualized his themes from the most unexpected aspects, demonstrating that films can reflect highly complicated ideological and cultural dynamics crossing time and space.

L-R: Demon Pond’s U.S. premiere was held at Japan Society to inaugurate the 1979 establishment of the Japan Film Center, a formalized, year-round film program, with Shinoda and star Tamasaburo Bando in attendance; Shinoda and composer Tan Dun at Japan Society’s Owl’s Castle premiere, 2001.

His cousin, avant-garde calligrapher Toko Shinoda, told Shinoda about the exciting art scene in 1950s and 1960s New York. Shinoda’s own interest in avant-garde art was evident from the beginning of his career, through collaborations with theater director Shuji Terayama and novelist Taeko Tomiyama as his screenwriters, and in music by composer Toru Takemitsu. It was through Takemitsu that Shinoda discovered contemporary composer Tan Dun and asked him to contribute a piece of music to Owl’s Castle. During my tenure at Japan Society, Shinoda asked the Film Program to deliver video cassettes of his films to Tan Dun in advance, and we also did some of the research for Spy Sorge (2003). We were honored to contribute to Shinoda’s films in these very modest ways. As was the case with many of the films first presented at Japan Society, other U.S. venues would often screen these films afterwards. Owl’s Castle was screened at the first edition of Tribeca Film Festival in 2002. Shinoda’s generosity was extensive—in 1998, he made a new 35mm print of Silence (1971) with English subtitles for our screening when Japan Society’s Performing Arts program presented its theatrical version. Japan Society was privileged to enjoy a close relationship with this Japanese film master, as did I.

**Shima Iwashita, Masahiro Shinoda and Donald Keene at Japan Society, 1999 © Gregory Cherin**

I first met Shinoda in 1975 when I was a graduate student in Tokyo and worked as his interpreter. After that, he would invite me to his screenings and talks. As an enthusiastic fan of his films, I was thrilled to be able to speak with him and hear his insights. He was also kind enough to write me letters of recommendation for the Fulbright Program and U.S. universities, thus making my graduate study possible at New York University. I began working at Japan Society’s Film Program in 1986 and used every excuse to screen Shinoda’s films under various themes—for example, Killers in Parade (1961) for the American Culture Seen in Japanese Film series; Punishment Island (1966) for the Films of the 1960s; Akuryo Island (1981) for Crime and Passion; The Dancer (1989) for Japanese Abroad; and so on. The final film by Shinoda that I presented at Japan Society was in 2004, when we hosted the U.S. premiere of Spy Sorge. It turned out to be his last film.

Shinoda received many honors outside of Japan Society, attending his own retrospectives at MoMA in the 1970s and at the New York Film Festival in 2010. For Film at Lincoln Center’s Takemitsu retrospective in the late 1990s, Shinoda was invited to discuss his close collaboration with the composer. Director Shunji Iwai flew from Los Angeles to attend the screening of The Ballad of Orin (1977) at NYFF’s screening, as this was his favorite film. Screenwriter and director Paul Schrader contacted us when Japan Society screened Pale Flower (1965) on a rare 35mm print. In 1986, Martin Scorsese introduced Shinoda at Japan Society’s U.S. premiere of Gonza the Spearman and made sure to meet up with him nearly every time that he visited New York. Shinoda was not only beloved by film fans, he was also a revered colleague of filmmakers and beyond. He will be greatly missed.

Kyoko Hirano is an independent scholar and a former Japan Society film curator (1986-2004). She received a Ph.D. in Cinema Studies from New York University and has taught at NYU, New School University, Temple University Japan Campus and Meiji Gakuin University, among others. She has served as a jury member for the Berlin International Film Festival and Hawaii International Film Festival as well as a selecting member for the film section of the Japanese Ministry of Education’s Geiijutsu Sensho Award. She currently serves on the steering committee of the National Film Archive of Japan.