Kako Zanmu, born Kaku Yasugoro (賀古保五郎) in Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan, was a Japanese film director, producer, and novelist. He began his career in the arts as a playwright for new-school theater and later joined the Shochiku Kamata Studio (松竹蒲田撮影所), a major Japanese film studio. Zanmu graduated from the Nikolai Seminary (ニコライ神学校) and contributed to the literary magazine Bungakkai (文学界) with new-style poems and novels. He was also a disciple of novelist Kawakami Bizan (川上眉山) and worked as a journalist for the Chuo Shinbun (中央新聞).

In 1912, after Shochiku rebuilt the Second Kyogoku Sumo Hall (第二京極角力常設館) into the Taishoza Theater (大正座), Zanmu became a playwright there. A fire destroyed the theater in 1915, prompting a temporary closure. Zanmu then joined the script department of the Natural Color Motion Picture Company (天然色活動写真株式会社), writing scripts for serialized films.

Zanmu made his directorial debut with The Cursed Priestess (呪の巫女) after Shochiku established the Kamata Studio in 1920. Despite financial difficulties, which led the studio to incorporate both new- and old-school directors, he remained with Shochiku. Following the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, which damaged Kamata Studio, production moved to Shimokamo Studio (下加茂撮影所) in Kyoto, where Zanmu continued making period films. In 1924, he moved to Toa Kinema (東亜キネマ) and co-directed Bushido, Japan's first international collaborative film, with German director Heinz Karl Heilant.

Zanmu’s wife was actress Nakagawa Yoshie (中川芳江), and his sister-in-law was actress Komatsu Midori (小松みどり). He passed away from a chronic heart-related asthma condition on March 21, 1938, in Tokyo, at the age of 69.

(Source: kisskh) Edit Biography