Yasujirō Ozu, after growing up in Tokyo and in Mie Prefecture and engaging in a very brief career as a schoolteacher, was hired by Shochiku, through family connections, as an assistant cameraman in 1923. He became an assistant director in 1926 and a full director in 1927. He would remain an employee of the company for the rest of his life. His debut film was "Sword of Penitence" ("Zange no Yaiba", 1927), which was to be the only film of his career in the "jidaigeki" (period film) genre. (The work is today considered a lost film.) He later saw the film in a theatre and felt it was not truly his. From 1928 on, Ozu made only films of the "gendaigeki" type (that is, set in modern Japan rather than ancient times), generally within the already established "shomingeki" genre.