Steven A. Jones

Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998) was a Japanese film director. Considered one of the greatest directors not only of Japanese cinema, but also of East Asian cinema and world cinema history, Kurosawa directed many masterpieces such as Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Dersu Uzala, and Ran. He was born in Tokyo in 1910, the youngest of seven children. His father was a teacher at a military academy. Kurosawa had a peaceful childhood, during which the most influential person was his older brother Heigo, a benshi (silent film narrator) in Japan's silent film era. Following his brother's suggestions, Kurosawa had the opportunity to watch many cinematic classics and also pursued painting. After his brother's suicide at a young age, Kurosawa suffered a great shock, and some time later began his career in cinema as an assistant director at PCL Production Company. He assisted renowned directors of the time such as Hidesuke Takizawa, Kajiro Yamamoto, and Mikio Naruse. His first film, Sugata Sanshiro (The Legend of Judo), was directed in 1943. He then directed films such as Ichiban Utsukushiku (Most Beautiful), 1944; Tora no O wo Fumu Otokotachi (Those Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail), 1945; Waga Seishun ni Kuinashi (No Regrets for My Youth), 1946; Yoidore Tenshi (Drunken Angel), 1948; Nora Inu (Stray Dog), 1949; and Shubun (Scandal), 1950, establishing himself as one of Japan's most important film directors. Rashomon (1950), which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, introduced him to the West. The film, in which a bandit's murder of a samurai and rape of his wife are recounted from the perspectives of the bandit, the samurai, the wife, and a woodcutter who witnessed the events, is a powerful work exploring the relativity of truth. The film's new shooting and narrative techniques brought Kurosawa international success. Later films included The Idiot (1951), a Dostoyevsky adaptation; Ikiru (To Live), 1952; Seven Samurai (1954); Throne of Blood (1957), a Shakespeare adaptation; The Lower Depths (1957), a Gorky adaptation; The Hidden Fortress (1958); Yojimbo (1961); and Red Beard (1965). From the 1940s to the mid-1960s, Kurosawa worked with the same team: Fumio Hayasaka composed the music, Asakazu Naki was the cinematographer, and Takashi Shimura and Toshiro Mifune starred in many of his films. Many of Kurosawa's films inspired Hollywood films. For example, Seven Samurai inspired The Magnificent Seven, The Hidden Fortress inspired Star Wars, and Yojimbo inspired A Fistful of Dollars. In the late 1960s, he went to Hollywood to work on Tora! Tora! Tora!, but returned to Japan after leaving the project unfinished. In the mid-1970s, he went to the Soviet Union and filmed Dersu Uzala, a story of friendship between a Russian officer and a Mongol hunter in the early 20th century. The film won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1976. His later works include Kagemusha (The Shadow Warrior), 1980; Ran (1985), another Shakespeare adaptation; Dreams (1990); and Rhapsody in August (1991). Ran received four Academy Award nominations. After suffering a stroke in 1998, he died in Setagaya at the age of 88 and was buried at the An'yo-in Buddhist Temple in Kamakura. Akira Kurosawa also has a book translated into Turkish, titled Kurbağa Yağı Satıcısı (The Frog Oil Seller). He was married to actress Yoko Yaguchi from 1945 until his death in 1985 and had a son, Hisao (b. 1945), and a daughter, Kazuko (b. 1954).