Early life Masaichi was born into a
ton'ya for
yūzen and
dye in Kyoto, however his family underwent misfortunes since when Masaichi was three-years-old, and eventually fell apart; loss of the factory by a fire, an elopement by a (employee) and a
jochū (housemaid) who stole money when they escaped, and the bankruptcy due to his father being a joint guarantor of his friend. Masaichi attempted to became a kozō for one of his relatives (an executive director of
Tokyo Stock Exchange) to reconstruct the family for his parents. To gain a sufficient
educational attainment, he attended the (now
Tokyo Keizai University), however lost his father due to an
intracranial hemorrhage and dropped out the school in despair. As a member of a local
seinendan, he diligently contributed in the cleaning of damaged cites following the
Great Kantō Earthquake, and subsequently returned to Kyoto. Nagata was gradually influenced by
socialism due to his admire for heroism, and joined a local
yakuza Senbongumi afterwards. He, along with , became one of apprentices of , while Nagata defended Suezaburō and his father and the
crime boss Sanzaemon; Sanzaemon was a renowned
kyōkaku known as "", and Nagata claimed Sanzaemon definitely not being an actual yakuza, and Suezaburō was the 10th highest taxpayer in Kyoto back then. However, Masaichi's mother strongly deplored the fact that her son became a subject of
surveillance by the police, and she expelled Masaichi from the family. • It was not uncommon for yakuza syndicates to have connections with
show business and entertainment industries, including the below-mentioned
Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance, so as the Sasai family. The three (Nagata and Okamoto and Suezaburō) later joined those industries, where Nagata and Okamoto subsequently co-worked in Daiei Film, and various notable filmmakers and actors later emerged under Suezaburō.
Film industry He joined the
Nikkatsu studio in 1925 due to his relationships with the aforementioned
Shōzō Makino and the , Experiencing conflicts with the Nikkatsu president, he left the company in 1934, taking many Nikkatsu stars with him, to form
Daiichi Eiga. His efforts resulted in the creation of the
Daiei Motion Picture Company, where he first served as an executive. thus introducing Japanese cinema to the world. Nagata also spurred the production of
Teinosuke Kinugasa's
Gate of Hell (1953), the first Japanese color film to be shown abroad, earning both an honorary
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the
Palme d'Or at the
Cannes Film Festival. Nagata also produced such renowned films as Mizoguchi's
Ugetsu (1953) and
Sansho the Bailiff (1954), as well as
Jokyo (1960) which was entered into the
10th Berlin International Film Festival. On the popular front, Nagata's Daiei was also known for such successful film series as the
Zatoichi films starring
Shintaro Katsu, the
Sleepy Eyes of Death series featuring
Raizō Ichikawa, and the
Gamera movies. In the early 1950s, Nagata attempted to export Japanese films to obtain foreign currencies for the post-war reconstruction of the Japanese economy; his later efforts to save the declining Japanese cinema resulted in the establishment of a
governmental association to export Japanese films and to support productions of
kaiju and
tokusatsu genres in particular for foreign currencies.
Disney-related businesses Nagata was also known for his friendship with
Walt Disney where Disney called him a "brother", and became an avid fan of
Disneyland and had associated in Disney-related businesses such as distributions of Disney films by Daiei Film, publication of
Bambi, a Life in the Woods, promotion of
Tokyo Disneyland, construction of
Nara Dreamland, and so on. Nagata also established Daiei's department of western films due to influences from Disney, and
had started distributing foreign films. Additionally, he produced a documentary film as he was inspired by
Walt Disney Productions'
True-Life Adventures series.
Baseball During the age when many Japanese film studios owned professional baseball teams, Nagata served as owner first of the
Daiei Stars, and then of the
Daimai Orions when the Stars merged with the Mainichi Orions in 1958. He was inducted into the
Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 1988. Masaichi later became the second president of the Tokyo Racehorse Owners' Association, and contributed in the establishment of the
Japan Racing Association as a commissioner. Nagata's competence for managements were also demonstrated in his performances as the first president and a temporal manager of the sports newspaper
Tokyo Sports (due to his connection with
Yoshio Kodama) to make it into a major national daily, as the business delegate and the owner of
Pepsi-Cola Company in Japan, as a
sodanyaku of the
Japan Pro Wrestling Federation, and as a commissioner (
jp) of the
Japan Sumo Association. Nagata was also a
patronage of
Schools of the Sacred Heart in Japan (
jp), and contributed in its expansion notably by contriving resources through managing the palace of the
Kuni-no-miya house. Nagata also became an influential figure on political circles and was regarded as a political fixer. however his position also made him as one of 14 suspects for the corruption of the
Bushu Railway (
jp), however five of them including Nagata were eventually acquitted. Masaichi declared producing films theming the life of
Nichiren is his lifework; he produced
Nichiren and the Great Mongol Invasion (1958) and
Nichiren (1979), and a number of worshippers of Nichiren-shū were appointed for the latter. ==Legacy==