Encountering Art in Childhood
Born in Omori, Tokyo in 1910, Akira Kurosawa grew up in an artistic environment from an early age. His father was a physical education teacher but loved film and theater, and the family reportedly visited cinemas often. His older brother worked as a benshi, a narrator for silent films, further deepening the young Kurosawa's interest in cinema. He also had a strong interest in painting and attended art school with the aim of becoming a painter. The visual expressive skills he developed during this period later contributed to the superb compositions of his films.
His First Steps into Cinema
In 1936, Kurosawa applied for an assistant director position at PCL Film Studios, later Toho, and was successfully hired. He gained experience as an assistant director under Kajiro Yamamoto. During this period, he thoroughly learned the fundamentals of filmmaking and made particular progress in screenwriting. He also began to take an interest in innovative directing methods that broke free of the conventions of the Japanese film industry at the time.
His Directorial Debut and Wartime Work
Kurosawa made his directorial debut with Sanshiro Sugata in 1943. This film about a judoka's growth already displayed his distinctive visual beauty and depth of human drama. Despite being made during wartime, it minimized propagandistic elements as much as possible and has been highly regarded as a work of pure art. He went on to make several more films during the war, continuing to work without compromise in difficult circumstances.
His Passion for Film and Influence on Later Generations
Akira Kurosawa always sought perfection and was known for his uncompromising attitude on set. He was sometimes called Kurosawa the Demon, but this reflected his intense passion for film. He would repeat takes many times for a single scene, paying scrupulous attention to the weather and the quality of the light. This earnest approach profoundly influenced later directors and is still discussed today as the Kurosawa style.
