Akira Kurosawa

Lore & Background

Kurosawa was born on March 23, 1910, in Ōi Town, Ebara County (now Higashi-Ōi in the Shinagawa ward of Tokyo). After a brief stint as a painter, he entered the Japanese film industry in 1936. Following years as an assistant director and screenwriter, he made his directorial debut during World War II with the popular action film Sanshiro Sugata (1943). After the war, he cemented his reputation with Drunken Angel (1948), casting the then-unknown Toshiro Mifune, with whom he would collaborate on 15 more films.

Rashomon (1950) premiered in Tokyo and became the surprise winner of the Golden Lion at the 1951 Venice Film Festival, opening Western film markets to Japanese films. Kurosawa directed approximately one film per year through the 1950s and early 1960s, including Ikiru (1952), Seven Samurai (1954), Throne of Blood (1957), The Hidden Fortress (1958), Yojimbo (1961), High and Low (1963), and Red Beard (1965). He became less prolific after the 1960s, though later works such as Kagemusha (1980) and Ran (1985) continued to receive critical acclaim.

Reader's Guide

Akira Kurosawa's significance lies in his role as a bridge between Japanese and Western cinema. His film Rashomon (1950) won the Golden Lion at the 1951 Venice Film Festival, a surprise success that opened Western film markets to Japanese films for the first time, leading to international recognition for other Japanese filmmakers. His career, spanning six decades and 30 feature films, was marked by a hands-on approach as director, writer, producer, and editor. In 1990, he accepted the Academy Honorary Award. Posthumously, he was named 'Asian of the Century' in the 'Arts, Literature, and Culture' category by AsianWeek magazine and CNN, cited as one of five people who most prominently contributed to the improvement of Asia in the 20th century. His legacy is honored by retrospectives, critical studies, and biographies in print and video.

Did You Know?

• Kurosawa was the seventh child of a moderately wealthy family, growing up with three older brothers and three older sisters.
• His older brother Heigo, a benshi (silent film narrator), took him to view devastation after the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, encouraging him to face his fears.
• He entered the film industry in 1936 after submitting an essay to P.C.L. that questioned the state of Japanese cinema, though the exact wording of his remarks is not directly recorded.
• Kurosawa's directorial debut was the popular action film Sanshiro Sugata (1943), released when he was 33.