Departures of note

Toshio Masuda was a Japanese film director and screenwriter who became one of the most successful commercial filmmakers of his era. Born in Kobe in 1927, he entered the film industry in 1950 and rose through the ranks at Nikkatsu, where he directed 52 films between 1958 and 1968 and became the studio's top action director. He made 25 films with superstar Yujiro Ishihara, including Rusty Knife and Red Handkerchief, and helped define the Nikkatsu action style. After leaving the studio system, Masuda took on large-scale productions, co-directing the Japanese segments of the American-Japanese war epic Tora! Tora! Tora! and directing war films such as The Battle of Port Arthur, The Great Japanese Empire, and Zero Fighter Burning. He also directed the Space Battleship Yamato animated films, which became a cultural phenomenon in Japan, and worked across genres from idol films to period dramas. Masuda received the Medal with Purple Ribbon in 1993 and the Order of the Rising Sun, Fourth Class, in 1999. He died of old age in Tokyo in August 2026 at the age of 98.