Biography
Yoshikata Yoda was a Japanese screenwriter. After working at Sumitomo Bank, he joined Nikkatsu's Kyoto studio in 1930 to study screenwriting and wrote his first screenplay in 1931. He later taught screenwriting at Osaka Art College.
He is best known for his long collaboration with director Kenji Mizoguchi, beginning in 1936 with Osaka Elegy and Sisters of the Gion and continuing until 1955. His screenplays for Mizoguchi include The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum (1939), The Life of Oharu (1952), Ugetsu (1953), Sansho the Bailiff (1954) and Princess Yang Kwei-fei (1955). He wrote more than 130 screenplays between 1931 and 1989, including for Bushido: The Cruel Code of the Samurai (1963), which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.
