Kenji Mizoguchi

Born 16 May 1898
Hongō, Tokyo, Empire of Japan
Died 24 August 1956 (aged 58)
Kyoto, Japan
Occupations Film director, screenwriter
Years active 1923–1956
Notable work
The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums (1939)
The Life of Oharu (1952)
Ugetsu (1953)
Sansho the Bailiff (1954)

Kenji Mizoguchi (溝口 健二, Mizoguchi Kenji; 16 May 1898 – 24 August 1956) was a Japanese filmmaker who directed roughly one hundred films during his career between 1923 and 1956. His most acclaimed works include The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums (1939), The Life of Oharu (1952), Ugetsu (1953), and Sansho the Bailiff (1954), with the latter three all being awarded at the Venice International Film Festival. A recurring theme of his films was the oppression of women in historical and contemporary Japan. Together with Akira Kurosawa and Yasujirō Ozu, Mizoguchi is seen as a representative of the "golden age" of Japanese cinema.

Mizoguchi was born in Hongō, Tokyo, as the second of three children, to Zentaro Miguchi, a roofing carpenter, and his wife Masa. The family's background was relatively humble until the father's failed business venture of selling raincoats to the Japanese troops during the Russo-Japanese War. The family was forced to move to the downtown district of Asakusa and gave Mizoguchi's older sister Suzu up for adoption, which in effect meant selling her into the geisha profession.