In a tribute that’s as overdue as it is fitting, the 38th Tokyo International Film Festival will present its Lifetime Achievement Award to filmmaker Yoji Yamada, whose extraordinary career has spanned more than six decades and nearly the entire postwar evolution of Japanese cinema.

Yamada made his directorial debut in 1961 with the domestic drama Nikai no Tanin and has since gone on to helm 91 films — from intimate portraits of ordinary Japanese life to sweeping period dramas that revitalized the jidaigeki form. His beloved Tora-san series, about a lovelorn traveling salesman ( Tora-san, Our Lovable Tramp ) — 50 films released between 1969 and 1995 — became a national institution and remains recognized by Guinness World Records as the longest-running film series starring the sam

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