Hiroshi Teshigahara

Directing·Jan 28, 1927·Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan

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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.

Film	Credit
Dream Window: Reflections on the Japanese Garden1992 · Actor	Actor
Basara: The Princess Goh1992 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
Rikyu1989 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
BBasara no Hana (Flowers of Extravagance)1985 · Director	Director
Antonio Gaudí1984 · Director	Director
Moving Sculpture: Jean Tinguely1981 · Director	Director
Summer Soldiers1972 · Director, Director of Photography	Director, Director of Photography
240 Hours in One Day1970 · Director	Director
The Man Without a Map1968 · Director	Director
Explosion Course1967 · Director	Director
The Face of Another1966 · Director	Director
Jose Torres II1965 · Director	Director
Ako1964 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
That Tender Age1964 · Director	Director
Woman in the Dunes1964 · Director	Director
Pitfall1962 · Director	Director
Sculptures by Sofu - Vita1962 · Director	Director
Jose Torres1959 · Director, Director of Photography	Director, Director of Photography
Gaudi, Catalunya1959 · Director	Director
DDrumu To Shonen1959 · Director	Director
Yurakucho 0 Street1958 · Ryoji (Poet), Screenplay	Ryoji (Poet), Screenplay
Tokyo 19581958 · Director, Screenplay, Producer	Director, Screenplay, Producer
Ikebana1957 · Director	Director
12 Photographers1955 · Director	Director
Hokusai1953 · Director	Director