Yoda Yoshikata

(1909-91). Screenwriter. Born in Kyoto. As screenwriter for Mizoguchi Kenji's Naniwa erejii (1936, Osaka Elegy) and Gion no shimai (1936, Sisters of the Gion), Yoda concentrated on reproducing natural-sounding dialogues, unusual in the early period of talking pictures. Yoda wrote the majority of Mizoguchi's screenplays, including Saikaku ichidai onna (1952, The Life of Oharu), Ugetsu monogatari (1953, Ugetsu), Sanshō-Dayū (1954, Dayū the Bailiff), and Chikamatsu monogatari (1954, A Story from Chikamatsu). (adapted from Japan: An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Tokyo: Kodansha, 1993)