Konuma Masaru 小沼勝
Japanese film director (1937–2023) whose films included the 1974 adaptation of Dan Oniroku's Flower and Snake; Japanese Wikipedia records more than forty Nikkatsu Roman Porno works.
Konuma Masaru (小沼勝) was a Japanese film director who worked at Nikkatsu and later directed television productions as a freelancer. Japanese Wikipedia gives Konuma’s birth date as December 30, 1937, and death date as January 22, 2023. The Daily Sports newspaper reported the death on February 9, 2023, after Nikkatsu announced it.
Career
Japanese Wikipedia says Konuma graduated from Nihon University’s College of Art film department in 1961 and joined Nikkatsu as an assistant director. Japanese Wikipedia dates Konuma’s directorial debut, Kashin no izanai, to 1971. Kotobank’s Nihon Jinmei Daijiten Plus entry gives the same debut film and records that Konuma went freelance in 1981 and later directed television productions. The Daily Sports report counts 47 films by the time Nikkatsu’s Roman Porno line ended in 1988, while Wikipedia says Konuma made more than forty Roman Porno titles and describes the SM-themed ones as Konuma’s specialty. Wikipedia also lists television suspense dramas among Konuma’s credits, and it names NAGISA, which it says won the grand prize in the children’s film section at the 2001 Berlin International Film Festival.
Flower and Snake and other films
Konuma directed the 1974 Nikkatsu film Hana to hebi (Flower and Snake), based on the story by Dan Oniroku and starring Tani Naomi. Daily Sports names it, together with Ikenie fujin from the same year, among Konuma’s works. Japanese Wikipedia reports that changes to the original angered Dan, that Konuma then made many SM films not based on Dan’s stories, and that the two reconciled a few years later, after which Konuma again filmed Dan’s work.
The Wikipedia filmography lists further titles with the words for tying or rope in them: Kifujin shibari tsubo (1977), Dan Oniroku shōjo shibari-ezu (1980) and Nawa to chibusa (1983).
Japanese Wikipedia’s filmography also lists Konuma as a participant in Sadistic & Masochistic (2001). Daily Sports adds that director Nakata Hideo, who began as Konuma’s assistant, made a documentary about Konuma in 2000.
See also the Flower and Snake (1974) entry in the library.