Hiroshi Teshigahara

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Hiroshi Teshigahara

Born

January 28, 1927
Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan

Died

April 14, 2001 (aged 74)
Tokyo, Japan

Spouse(s)

Toshiko Kobayashi

Awards
Academy Awards
Nominated: Best Director 1964 Suna no onna

Hiroshi Teshigahara (勅使河原宏, Teshigahara Hiroshi^?, January 28, 1927–April 14, 2001) was an avant-garde Japanese filmmaker.

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, Pitfall (1962), in collaboration with author Kobo 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 1964, the Teshigahara/Abe film Woman in the Dunes was considered for an Academy Award and ended up winning 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 on, his feature film work decreased as he concentrated more on documentaries, exhibitions and the Sogetsu School, and became grand master of the school in 1980.

On the first anniversary of his death, April 14, 2002, a DVD box set containing his most famous works was released in Japan to commemorate his work.