Hayao Miyazaki

This legend of the Japanese world of animation tied the knot with Akemi Ota, who is also an animator. The couple later became parents to two boys named Koisuke and Goro.

Miyazaki has a son named Goro, who also ventured into direction through the 2006 film titled 'Tales From Earthsea'. The movie went on to be a well-acclaimed work and raked in millions at the Japanese box office.

The acclaimed animation creator has mentioned that the works of the iconic Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, like 'Rashomon' and 'Seven Samurai' have greatly inspired him and attributes the latter as the reason behind his success.

Hayao was born on January 5, 1941 at Bunkyo ward, located in Japan’s capital city, Tokyo. Of the four children born to his father Katsuji Miyazaki, an aeronautical engineer, Hayao was the second.

Japan was severely affected by World War II when Hayao was just an infant. His family relocated to Utsunomiya city owing to the unsafe situation in the capital city.

Miyazaki started his elementary education at an institution in Utsonomiya city and later moved to various other schools such as ‘Eifuku Elementary School’ and ‘Omiya Junior High’.

Since a really young age Hayao was interested in ‘Manga’, a Japanese style of comic. He started reading a lot of these books as a kid and even dreamt of authoring a work of the same kind someday.

While studying at the ‘Toyotama High School’, Miyazaki happened to watch the animated movie ‘The Tales of The White Serpent’ and was really fascinated by the actress who played the lead and the film as a whole.

The young man started pursuing his dream, of making a career in animation, in 1963, when he joined the Japanese animation giant, ‘Toei Animation Pvt Ltd’. During his time here, Miyazaki got to work on projects like ‘Wolf Boy Ken’ and ‘Watchdog Bow Bow’.

The animator earned the praises of the ‘Toei’ workers, after he improved the script of their project ‘Gulliver Travels To The Moon’ and became successful in arriving at a convincing end to its story.

Miyazaki got the opportunity to work on the 1968 animated project ‘Hols: Prince Of The Sun’, for which he essayed the role of the chief animator and scene designer. The very next year he worked on the animated project ‘Puss in Boots’.

The year 1971 was one of the most important years of Hayao’s career. He moved from ‘Toei’ to an animation firm called ‘A Pro’ this year and worked on ‘Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves’ as well as ‘Animal Treasure Island’.

He even worked on the animated manga series titled ‘Lupin III’ in 1971. 14 episodes of this animated series were co-directed by Miyazaki himself.

Although this genius has won numerous awards for various works, he has also been praised for being experimental. One such film which deviated from the norm and yet won the hearts of the audience is 'Howl's Moving Castle'. The movie won Hayao a lot of acclaim, awards and was even screened at the 'Venice International Film Festival'.