Movies
TV Shows
People

Hiroshi Teshigahara

Known For
Directing

Known Credits
2

Gender
Male

Birthday
January 28, 1927 (99 years old)

Place of Birth
Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan

Hiroshi Teshigahara

Biography

Hiroshi Teshigahara (January 28, 1927 – April 14, 2001) was an avant-garde Japanese filmmaker.

He was born in Tokyo, son of Sofu Teshigahara, founder and grand master of the Sogetsu School of ikebana. He graduated in 1950 from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music and began working in documentary film. He directed his first feature film, Pitfall (1962), in collaboration with author Kōbō Abe and musician Tōru Takemitsu. The film won the NHK New Director's award, and throughout the 1960s, he continued to collaborate on films with Abe and Takemitsu while simultaneously pursuing his interest in ikebana and sculpture on a professional level.

In 1965, the Teshigahara/Abe film Woman in the Dunes (1964) was nominated for an Academy Award and won the Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. In 1972, he worked with Japanese researcher and translator John Nathan to make the movie Summer Soldiers, a film set during the Vietnam War about American deserters living on the fringe of Japanese society.

From the mid-1970s onwards, he worked less frequently on feature films as he concentrated more on documentaries, exhibitions and the Sogetsu School and became grand master of the school in 1980.

In 1978, Teshigahara Hiroshi directed the final two episodes of the long running and popular Japanese television series Shin Zatouichi, starring Shintarō Katsu as the blind wandering Yakuza. During Akira Kurosawa's 5 year hiatus from filmmaking, he watched a lot of television and was particularly taken by the final episode of Shin Zatouichi - Episode: Journey of Dreams (1978). The influence of this particular episode included the initial casting of Shintaro Katsu in the lead roles in Kagemusha and the extended artistic dream sequences contributed to those seen in Kagemusha (1980).

On the first anniversary of his death, April 14, 2002, a DVD box set containing his best known work was released in Japan in commemoration.

Known For

Directing

1992Basara: The Princess Goh...Director
1989Rikyu...Director
1985Basara no Hana (Flowers of Extravagance)...Director
1984Antonio Gaudí...Director
1981Moving Sculpture: Jean Tinguely...Director
1974Zatoichi Monogatari...Director
1972Summer Soldiers...Director
1970240 Hours in One Day...Director
1968The Man Without a Map...Director
1967Explosion Course...Director
1966The Face of Another...Director
1965Jose Torres II...Director
1964Ako...Director
1964That Tender Age...Director
1964Woman in the Dunes...Director
1962Pitfall...Director
1962Sculptures by Sofu - Vita...Director
1959Jose Torres...Director
1959Gaudi, Catalunya...Director
1959Drumu To Shonen...Director
1958Tokyo 1958...Director
1957The World Is Terrified: The Reality of the “Ash of Death”...Co-Director
1957Ikebana...Director
1956It Is Good to Live...Co-Director
195512 Photographers...Director
1953Hokusai...Director

Writing

1992Basara: The Princess Goh...Writer
1989Rikyu...Writer
1974Zatoichi Monogatari...Writer
1964Ako...Writer
1958Yurakucho 0 Street...Screenplay
1958Tokyo 1958...Screenplay

Production

1984Antonio Gaudí...Executive Producer
1958Tokyo 1958...Producer
1953Hokusai...Associate Producer

Editing

1984Antonio Gaudí...Editor
1958Tokyo 1958...Editor
1955Wheat Will Never Fall...Editor

Camera

1972Summer Soldiers...Director of Photography
1959Jose Torres...Director of Photography

Art

1958The Living Sea...Production Design

Crew

1958Living in a Rough Sea...Cinematography
1957Record of Bloodshed: Sunagawa...Cinematography

Acting

1992Dream Window: Reflections on the Japanese Gardenas
1958Yurakucho 0 Streetas Ryoji (Poet)