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Teshigahara Hiroshi (勅使河原 宏,
January 28,
1927 -
April 14,
2001) was an avant-garde Japanese film-maker. He was born in
Tokyo, son to the famous
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 went on to direct
his first film,
The Pitfall, in collaboration with author
Kobo Abe and musician
Toru Takemitsu in
1962. The film won the
NHK New Director's award, and throughout the
1960s, Teshigahara continued to collaborate on films with Abe and
Takemitsu while simultaneously pursuing his interest in Ikebana and
sculpture on a professional level.
In
1964, the Teshigahara/Abe film
The Woman in the Dunes was considered for an
Academy Award and ended up winning the
Special Judge's 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
on, Teshigahara's directing output on feature films decreased as he
concentrated more on documentaries, exhibitions and the Sogetsu School,
eventually becoming the grand master of the school in
1980.
On the first anniversary of his death, in
April 14,
2002, a
DVD box set of his most famous works was released in Japan to
commemorate his work.
Filmography of Major Works
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The Pitfall (1962)
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The Woman in the Dunes (1964)
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The Face of Another (1966)
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The Ruined Map (1968)
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Summer Soldiers (1972)
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Rikyu (1989)
-
Princess Goh (1992)
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