the script was developed by yasujirō ozu and his long-time collaborator kōgo noda over a period of 103 days in a country inn in chigasaki. ozu, noda and cinematographer yūharu atsuta scouted locations in tokyo and onomichi for another month before shooting started. shooting and editing the film took place from july to october 1953. filming locations were in tokyo (adachi, chūō, taitō and chiyoda), onomichi, atami and osaka. most of indoor scenes were shot at the shochiku ōfuna studio in kamakura, kanagawa. ozu used the same film crew and actors he had worked with for many years. actor chishū ryū said that ozu was always happiest when finishing the final draft of a script and that there were never any changes to the final draft.