Akira Kurosawa

During the production of ‘The Most Beautiful’, Kurosawa met Yōko Yaguchi, an actress. He and Yaguchi fell in love, despite their professional differences and constant fighting, and married on May 21, 1945. Yaguchi abandoned her acting career and dedicated herself to her family. They lived together till Yaguchi’s death in 1985.

The couple had two chilren; a son, Hisao, and a daughter, Kazuko. Hisao went on to produce a few of Kurosawa’s films while Kazuko became a noted costume designer.

While wrapping up the post-production of ‘The Sea is Watching’ (1995), he broke the base of his spine after a nasty slip. His directing career ended and he was confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

Akira Kurosawa was born on March 23, 1910, in Tokyo, Japan. He was the youngest of eight children born to Isamu and Shima. His father was a member of a former samurai family who later became a teacher at the Army's Physical Education Institute. His father was a progressive thinker who considered films and theatre to have educational merit.

In school, Akira was inspired by his elementary school teacher, Mr. Tachikawa, who helped him discover the joys of drawing. He also learnt calligraphy and Kendo swordsmanship.

Among the seven siblings, the one who influenced Kurosawa the most was Heigo, his senior by four years. He encouraged young Akira to face his fears and confront unpleasant truths which would later become the basis for many of his films.

During the 1920s, Heigo became a narrator for silent films and thus, Kurosawa was exposed to films, theatre, and circus performances. He gave up his ambition to become a painter when he realized his art was not enough to provide a living.

When Akira was 23, Heigo committed suicide. This was as a major tragedy in his life that would affect him deeply and left a lasting sense of loss.

Akira Kurosawa began his career in 1936 as an assistant director at Photo Chemical Laboratories (known as P.C.L) cinema studio. He mostly worked under Kajiro Yamamoto who had taken a liking to him. He was given more responsibilities as a result and he dabbled in errands from stage construction to film development.

He made his debut as a director in 1943, with the film ‘Sanshiro Sugata’. The film was caught in a censorship battle because it was deemed too “British-American”. The intervention of director Yasujirō Ozu made the movie see the light of day. It was a story of Japanese judo masters of the 1880s and became a critical and commercial success.

He then directed ‘Ichiban Utsukushiku’ (The Most Beautiful) in 1944; the movie was about wartime female factory workers. It was on this movie’s sets that he met his future wife, Yōko Yaguchi.

His first major work, ‘Yoidore Tenshi’ (Drunken Angel) was released in 1948. It won rave reviews and was chosen as the “Best Film of the Year” by the Kinema Junpo critics’ poll. He cast Toshiro Mifune, then an unknown actor, as the lead and thus began their long collaboration.

With producer Sōjirō Motoki and directors Kajiro Yamamoto, Mikio Naruse, and Senkichi Taniguchi, he formed an independent production unit called Eiga Geijutsu Kyōkai (Film Art Association). The first film under this banner was the modest hit, ‘The Quiet Duel’.

‘Rashomon’ (1950), a period film became his first notable work winning him numerous accolades and acclaim. The film’s minimalist sets, simple sound and light systems, and technical expertise were influenced by his love of silent cinema and modern art.