Ito Daisuke was a Japanese film director and screenwriter born in Uwajima City, Ehime Prefecture. He is one of the famous directors who laid the foundation for historical films, and is also called the "father of historical films".

After graduating from junior high school, he gave up going to school due to his father's death and worked as a draftsman at the Kure Naval Arsenal.

In 1924, he made his directorial debut with "Shuchu Nikki". In the same year, "Ken wa Sabaku" became his first historical drama.

In 1925, he joined Toho Film Manufacturing Co., Ltd. and directed and wrote the company's first film, "Kemuri", but left the company after just one film and established the Ito Film Research Institute.

In 1929, he directed "Issatsu Tashoken" at Utaemon Ichikawa Production and "Zanjin Zanbaken" starring Tsukigata Ryunosuke at Shochiku Kyoto Studio. Both films are known as masterpieces of ideological films influenced by socialist ideas at the time, and the former has been censored by the Ministry of the Interior, with more than 300 feet removed from the finished film.

In 1932, he established a new movie company independent of Nikkatsu with Murata Minor, Tasakata Tomotaka, Uchida Tomu, and others, but it was dissolved in 1933. After that, he returned to Nikkatsu.

Ito participated in the establishment of the Directors Guild of Japan in 1936.

In 1961, he released "Hangyakuji" and won the Blue Ribbon Award for Director, making it a masterpiece after the war.

He was selected as a Person of Cultural Merit in Kyoto City in 1972. In 1978, he won the Yamaji Fumiko Film Achievement Award.

He died at a hospital in Kyoto Prefecture on July 19, 1981 due to renal failure.