Was Ozu an artist or a craftsman? The question seems weird; it has a
point. It's like with Vivaldi: did he compose 300 concertos, or one
concerto 300 times?

Let's take only the Noriko Trilogy. Are there three movies, or is
there only one, crafted three times with slight variations? So the
question is: did Ozu create 58 movies, or only one for 58 times? As
his first films are now lost (no more originals, no more copies,
nothing), you could find here a reason :) Just kidding.

The answer is that Ozu was interested in certain aspects of the
Japanese cultural space, he was exploring ways to express these
aspects in the movie art and he aimed to improve them continuously.

With each new movie the setting becomes more precise, the position of
the camera becomes more precise, the faces of the actors become closer
to the archetypal.

And the story becomes more and more elliptic. Any non-essential
accessory disappears. With any new film, Ozu is more and more
minimalistic.

Let's take Tôkyô monogatari. The old parents are getting ready for the
trip to Tokyo and tell a neighbor who's passing by the window that
they will meet one of their sons at Osaka.

Their stop at Osaka is not in the movie; their railroad trip neither:
they are not necessary in the economy of the story, while the
preparations of their son from Tokyo to bring them home and the
reaction of his kids are shown: they are essential and they carry
somehow the ellipses (the parallel events from Osaka and from the
railroad trip).

When they come back from Tokyo, the parents have to stop at Osaka for
a few days, as the mother is ill. The movie shows only their son,
complaining at office of his troubles with the old guys. Again, his
complain carries somehow the ellipses (mother getting ill, their
unexpected stop at Osaka).

The old guys come back at home and mother collapses. The movie shows
only the son from Tokyo getting the news and his discussion with the
sister, her proposal to go both to their parents, and to take also
with them the mourning dresses just in case.

So nothing is useless in the story; the economy is total; Ozu has
ruthlessly cut anything non-essential.