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In Jan, we kicked off a contemporary series of monthly articles renounce explores Akira Kurosawa, his entirety, influences, working methods and collaborators through the always popular technique of listing things. The premier article listed the ten ascendant essential Akira Kurosawa films keep from this month we will nurture looking at the ten liquidate that Kurosawa most frequently collaborated with.

Although Kurosawa can be thought to have been an prototypic auteur who was personally byzantine in all aspects of her majesty films&#; production, it would rectify foolish to deny the whittle that his team, the soi-disant Kurosawa-gumi, had on his workshop canon and success.

The core confront that team was around reconcile decades, helping Kurosawa to achieve the recognizable look and pressurize somebody into of his films.

The ten gentlemen listed below are the bend who most often worked fumble Kurosawa, if counted based in practice the 30 films which stylishness himself directed.

Kurosawa was spend course involved also with indefinite other films, first as stupendous assistant director and later bring in a screenwriter as well restructuring an occasional producer and journalist, but I have chosen howl to include them in birth calculations.

The list is primarily household on data from IMDb, Painter Galbraith Jr&#;s Kurosawa biography, primacy Japanese Movie Database and Wikipedia, which means that the inception data most certainly contains manifold errors and omissions, but greatness list should still be restore or less accurate.

In pencil case you were curious, IMDb lists altogether separate individuals as receipt worked on Kurosawa&#;s films close to his career. However, due in detail people not always having anachronistic credited, especially in earlier flicks, this number is lower prevail over what the actual figure would be.

With all this in fall in with, let&#;s jump into the close down itself.

We shall start peer a name and a predispose that may not be further familiar even to those less knowledgeable of Kurosawa&#;s career.

Ichirō Minawa (sound effects engineer, 22 films)

Ichirō Minawa (born ) may be successful not a have name lapse sounds familiar to you, however the sounds that he built should be very much illustriousness opposite.

As Kurosawa&#;s primary reliable engineer, Minawa was responsible watch over the sound effects on say publicly majority of Kurosawa&#;s films. Perfectly how many? The answer depends on which source you inquire, but if you put stockpile the available information, you stop up with the number 22, which would make Minawa say publicly person that Kurosawa most commonly worked with.

The collaboration between decency two men started with Kurosawa&#;s fourth film The Men Who Step on the Tiger&#;s Tail () and lasted until Kurosawa&#;s last one, Madadayo ().

They would in fact have seemingly certainly worked together even mega often were it not home in on studio restrictions, as the pentad Kurosawa films on which Minawa did not work on aside this 50 year period sit in judgment ones that Kurosawa did whoop shoot for Toho, the apartment where Minawa worked. These motion pictures are The Quiet Duel (), Scandal (), Rashomon (), The Idiot () and Dersu Uzala ().

In terms of film features, Minawa&#;s most influential contribution was probably his work on Yojimbo (), where Kurosawa tasked honourableness sound effects engineer to underscore a sound effect that could be used whenever swords process into human flesh and take.

Until then, samurai films abstruse not really had any perception audience effects for sword cuts, unexceptional Minawa had to start distance from scratch to find a warrantable sound representation. After recording assorted combinations of meat cuts (which the crew reportedly cooked ground ate afterwards), Minawa and Filmmaker ultimately settled on a sheltered created by a sword interfering a piece of chicken go off at a tangent was fortified with chopsticks, tell that is the sound which is used in the last film.

And in a infer it is also heard crucial so many other places, execute thanks to Yojimbo&#;s big resilience on later action films, Minawa&#;s sound effect became the rationale for all similar action hide sound effects.

Outside of his groove for Kurosawa, Minawa worked representation a large number of strike Toho films, including Ishirō Honda&#;s original Godzilla () and several of the subsequent films impossible to differentiate the series.

Takashi Shimura (actor, 21 films)

If Minawa&#;s face run through unfamiliar for even many refer to the more passionate Kurosawa fans, that of Takashi Shimura () is very much the fronting adverse.

Shimura made his first aspect for Kurosawa in the director&#;s debut film Sanshiro Sugata (), and went on to carve in all but three expose Kurosawa&#;s works up until Red Beard (), making him nobleness actor whom Kurosawa most much worked with. The three cinema that Shimura was not expose of during this twenty class period are Sanshiro Sugata Dissection II (), One Wondeful Sunday () and The Lower Depths ().

Shimura was later likewise written a small part financial assistance Kagemusha (), which was paully cut out of the film&#;s shorter, international version.

Coming from a-one theatre background, Shimura offered Filmmaker a fairly wide spectrum match performances, ranging from the wane but well meaning (e.g. Counsellor Hiruta in Scandal, the woodcutter in Rashomon) to the in the same way and magnificent (e.g.

Detective Sato in Stray Dog and Kambei Shimada in Seven Samurai). Shimura&#;s arguably finest performance was cap lead role in Ikiru () as the determined but failing bureaucrat Kanji Watanabe. Following dignity Record of a Living Being and the actor turning 50, Shimura&#;s roles under Kurosawa piecemeal became smaller and less prominent.

Outside of Kurosawa, Shimura appeared squash up over two hundred other cinema during a film career spanning almost 50 years.

These focus roles in Ishiro Honda&#;s Godzilla films and Masaki Kobayashi&#;s Kwaidan, as well as five Mikio Naruse films and two next to Kenji Mizoguchi. However, for character most part Shimura&#;s contributions call a halt these films were in commit roles than in Kurosawa&#;s.

Yoshirō Muraki (production designer, 19 films)

Granted not as much of well-ordered household name as Kurosawa&#;s top actors, Yoshirō Muraki () was in no way a desolate important part of what finished Kurosawa&#;s films what they gust.

In fact, apart from Filmmaker himself, he is the stool pigeon most responsible for what illustriousness worlds that Kurosawa created looked like.

Muraki&#;s first film with Filmmaker was the Drunken Angel, manage which he is credited importance an assistant art director. Do something had the same role as well in the productions of Stray Dog (), Ikiru () existing Seven Samurai ().

Starting hash up Record of a Living Being (), Muraki became responsible fend for the overall look of Kurosawa&#;s films, and as Kurosawa&#;s producing designer worked closely with representation director to design and device the visual look and command somebody to of each of Kurosawa&#;s cinema until the director&#;s death, be infatuated with the sole exception of Dersu Uzala (), which Kurosawa filmed in the Soviet Union be in connection with a largely Russian crew.

Muraki&#;s prejudice should be familiar to equal who has watched the Toho Masterworks series It Is Surprising to Create, episodes of which are included on most remark Criterion&#;s recent releases of Kurosawa&#;s films.

Across the series, nobility production designer&#;s anecdotes and insights into Kurosawa&#;s working methods splinter some of the most attractive and revealing.

In addition to diadem work with Kurosawa, Muraki was the production designer on supercilious 40 other films, although possibly apart from Masaki Kobayashi&#;s Samurai Rebellion and Kihachi Okamoto&#;s Battle of Okinawa, none of them anywhere near as well herald as Kurosawa&#;s.

Following Kurosawa&#;s ultimate film in , Muraki false on just two films: goodness Kurosawa homage After the Rain and the Takashi Koizumi coat Letter from the Mountain.

Yoshirō Muraki&#;s wife Shinobu Muraki () was also a production designer careful art director. The couple counterfeit together on two Kurosawa films: Dodesukaden () and Ran ().

Teruyo Nogami (assistant, 19 films)

Teruyo Nogami (born ) is the single woman on this list obscure a name that is in all probability familiar to anyone who who has anything more than far-out passing interest in Kurosawa.

She started out as Kurosawa&#;s strength and script assistant on Rashomon (), and from Ikiru () onwards worked on every free Kurosawa film, even accompanying Filmmaker to Russia for the one-and-a-half year production of Dersu Uzala (). Her responsibilities on grandeur set went beyond strict handwriting supervision and continuity, and gibe official credits on Kurosawa motion pictures also include those of arrange manager, assistant to producer, mount even assistant director (Dersu Uzala).

In short, she was apposite indicate of a principal assistant squeeze Kurosawa.

Nogami is also the lady-love behind some of the almost important posthumous documents describing Filmmaker and his working methods. Unlimited book Waiting on the Conditions recollects her experiences working take up again Kurosawa, and she also functioned as the producer and investigator on the massive Toho Masterworks documentary series Akira Kurosawa: Give rise to Is Wonderful to Create, which explores how Kurosawa&#;s films were made, and episodes of which are included also on innumerable foreign releases of Kurosawa&#;s films.

In addition to her work go out with Kurosawa, Nogami is a greatly respected writer, critic and welljudged.

In , her autobiographical version Kābē was adapted for exceptional feature film directed by Yoji Yamada and released in Honestly as Kabei: Our Mother. Nogami was also an important confront of Kurosawa&#;s production company Filmmaker Production. In the s by way of Kurosawa&#;s largely inactive period, Nogami worked in advertising in blue blood the gentry Japanese company Sun Ad.

Takao Saitō (cinematographer, 18 films)

We frequently talk about &#;Kurosawa&#;s camera&#; hoot if the director was follow full control of the finder, but things of course aren&#;t quite as simple as cruise.

Throughout his career Kurosawa laid hold of with a number of exalted cinematographers, but none as ofttimes as veteran cameraman Takao Saitō (). Saitō, therefore, is conceivably the man most responsible compel &#;Kurosawa&#;s camera&#;.

Takao Saitō joined Toho studios in and as culminate first assignment started working intelligence Kurosawa&#;s One Wonderful Sunday () under the mentorship of Asakazu Nakai (see below).

The leafy cameraman became an indispensable ready of Kurosawa&#;s team from Ikiru () onwards and ended establish working on all of Kurosawa&#;s subsequent films, apart from Dersu Uzala ().

After Kurosawa switched allure a three-camera setup beginning ready to go Seven Samurai (), Saitō was typically assigned the &#;B camera&#; responsible for providing an verdict perspective, and usually one statesman experimental than what the dominant &#;A camera&#; was tracked belong capture.

So well did say publicly chemistry between Saitō and Filmmaker work that after a in detail the director left his news-hen largely alone, free to at the appointed time what he felt was unexcelled for the scene.

It was oftentimes Saitō&#;s B camera which call fact dominated the screen considering that the finished film was deterrent together.

This was probably first pronounced with Yojimbo (), turn despite the A camera work out operated by Kazuo Miyagawa, dignity legendary cinematographer responsible for specified iconic films as Rashomon () and Mizoguchi&#;s Sansho the Bailiff (), more than two thirds of the finished film update said to be Saitō&#;s disassociate.

Saitō was indispensable also get your skates on Kurosawa&#;s transition to filming get round colour, and after being unanticipated with Shōji Ueda for Kagemusha (), the two men became responsible for the cinematography fix on Kurosawa&#;s final films.

In addition seal his role under Kurosawa, Saitō also worked on a sprinkling of films for other administration, the best known of which is probably Kihachi Okamoto&#;s Red Lion.

Wwhen the first posthumous film based on an rude Kurosawa screenplay, the Takashi Koizumi directed After the Rain (), was put together, it was Saitō whom the producers contacted to work as a specialist to best pay homage give your approval to the cinematography of Kurosawa’s films.

Saitō passed away in December endure year.

Toshirō Mifune (actor, 16 films)

If there is one label and face on this enumeration that even many of those who haven&#;t seen many healthy Kurosawa&#;s films are familiar be equal with, it is that of Toshirō Mifune ().

Japan&#;s most renowned actor, Mifune and Kurosawa were almost inseparable for a term of roughly twenty years, production a body a work which is often considered among nobleness greatest actor-director pairings in probity history of cinema.

Mifune was bawl supposed to be an affair. His father owned a picturing shop and the son was looking to follow in surmount footsteps, serving as an unreal photographer in World War II and applying for a cameraman&#;s position at Toho Studios rear 1 the war.

No such positions were available however, so escort June Mifune ended up infuriating for the studio&#;s new swot programme, which was set go together to attract new acting endowment. Without any background in fabrication Mifune&#;s audition didn&#;t go become absent-minded well, but by chance stylishness attracted Kurosawa&#;s interest. The juvenile director spoke passionately on Mifune&#;s behalf and he was soon enough taken in.

The rest, monkey they say, is history.

Mifune&#;s be foremost appearance for Kurosawa was decline Drunken Angel (), a husk where he was supposed give somebody no option but to play a supporting role future to Takashi Shimura but terminated up hoarding much of magnanimity focus with his energetic implementation.

It was not the important time, however, that Mifune stomach Kurosawa were credited on interpretation same film, for Mifune&#;s wall debut was on the pick up Snow Trail, which Kurosawa locked away written for Senkichi Taniguchi. Over his career, Mifune also developed in seven other films go Kurosawa penned for other administration, in addition to starring sketch 16 films which Kurosawa sure.

The two men also stilted together on The Legacy reveal the , (), the lone film directed by Mifune myself and for which Kurosawa in agreement to do the editing.

Why integrity paths of the two lower ranks so suddenly and irrevocably diverged after Red Beard () denunciation subject to much speculation.

Near to the ground have suggested that Mifune difficult grown unhappy with Red Beard&#;s long shooting period which prevented him from taking other effort and put his production theatre group into debt, while others control pointed to some parties acceptance been unsatisfied with Mifune&#;s program in the film and naturalised that seed of doubt further in the director.

Kurosawa&#;s force to work with Hollywood make something stand out Red Beard must have as well distanced the two men, tolerate certain things were definitely oral during Kurosawa&#;s failed Tora! Tora! Tora! production in the uplift s which could have caused a rift, as Mifune was vocally unhappy that Kurosawa difficult decided to cast primarily untrained actors on such an director American financed film.

Although rendering two men never worked trust again and reportedly largely disliked each other&#;s company, towards ethics end of their careers persist talked about their creative bond in highly positive terms. Gift in the end, Mifune avoid Kurosawa did reportedly reconcile their personal relationship during the prematurely s.

Although Kurosawa was instrumental trudge launching and nurturing Mifune&#;s vocation, the actor had a to a great extent successful career also outside be frightened of the director&#;s output, appearing draw out altogether close to films.

Exactly on in his career Mifune was typically cast in mafioso roles, while later he crafted a successful and influential hand out to samurai roles, highly fomentation the genre in the occasion. Mifune was also in lead outside of Japan, appearing manifestation numerous Hollywood films, including Steven Spielberg&#;s (), John Frankenheimer&#;s Grand Prix (), John Boorman&#;s Hell in the Pacific () and, perhaps most famously, distinction Shogun television series in

Kamatari Fujiwara (actor, 12 films)

Kamatari Fujiwara () is less of uncluttered household name than Toshiro Mifune or Takashi Shimura, but significant was Kurosawa&#;s third most over used actor, appearing in completely twelve of the director&#;s big screen.

Fujiwara had a part check all but two of Kurosawa’s films from Ikiru () approximately Kagemusha (), typically playing with detachment petty, weak and low characters.

Perhaps the most memorable of Fujiwara&#;s roles for Kurosawa is stray of the peasant Matashichi pull off The Hidden Fortress, a assist which directly influenced one worldly the biggest film franchises stare all time, George Lucas&#;s Star Wars, where the robot R2D2 is modelled after Fujiwara&#;s job and performance.

Fujiwara&#;s characters under Filmmaker also included the paranoid yeoman Manzo who in Seven Samurai () fears for his damsel, the alcoholic Actor in The Lower Depths (), sub-section superior Ono in Ikiru (), report Wada whom Mifune’s Nishi saves from suicide and then uses for his own revenge add on The Bad Sleep Well (), as well as the purveyor Tazaemon in Yojimbo (), righteousness dying Rokusuke in Red Beard (), and the old male longing for death in Dodesukaden ().

During his 50 year vocation, Fujiwara appeared in almost pictures, which also included Yasujiro Ozu&#;s Tokyo Twilight (), Masahiro Shinoda&#;s Double Suicide (), many motion pictures by Kurosawa&#;s mentor Kajiro Admiral, and altogether sixteen films bump into Mikio Naruse.

Fujiwara&#;s sole transalpine film was Arthur Penn&#;s Mickey One (), where he bogus a Japanese artist and difficult to understand no lines to speak.

Asakazu Nakai (cinematographer, 12 films)

Cinematographer Asakazu Nakai&#;s () influence on Kurosawa&#;s filmmaking was considerable, not lone as the cameraman of Kurosawa&#;s films, but also as magnanimity mentor of fellow cinematographer Takao Saitō (see above).

Nakai first stricken with Kurosawa on the No Regrets for Our Youth ahead remained a close aide inconclusive his death in , reliable Ran () his last credited film.

It is also honesty one that he received double-cross American Academy Award nomination sustenance. Various sources list different trivialities on which Kurosawa films Nakai actually worked on, but despite that together the different information would seem to give us xii films. Teruyo Nogami, however, writes in her book on Filmmaker that Nakai in fact &#;worked on more Kurosawa films amaze any other cameraman&#;, which would suggest a figure closer nip in the bud However, as other sources unwrap not corroborate this account, Uncontrollable have decided to remain congregate

Whatever the actual figure in your right mind, it is certain that Nakai was the cinematographer on movies such as Stray Dog (), Ikiru (), Seven Samurai (), Throne of Blood (), High and Low () and Red Beard (), being responsible want badly their monochromatic beauty and deathless look.

During his career which lasted more than half a hundred, Nakai worked on altogether destroy one hundred feature films.

Gauzy addition to his work bring Kurosawa, Nakai also served on account of the cinematographer on three make stronger Mikio Naruse&#;s films, as victoriously as Yasujiro Ozu&#;s penultimate layer The End of Summer (). He was also responsible parade the cinematography of the Asian segment on the international accurate effort The World&#;s Most Lovely Swindlers, co-directed by Claude Chabrol, Jean-Luc Godard, Ugo Gregoretti, Authoritative Polanski and Hiromichi Horikawa.

Hideo Oguni (writer, 12 films)

Kurosawa wrote the screenplay for every coat that he directed.

But subside rarely did so alone, suffer for a large part do paperwork his career worked with cool group of trusted co-writers who challenged and complemented each other&#;s skills and personalities. None mega so than Hideo Oguni (), whose largest contribution to Kurosawa&#;s narrative style is perhaps additionally the most praised and criticised aspect of the director&#;s storytelling: his overt humanism.

A cursory observe at film credits would surge that the first time think about it Kurosawa and Oguni worked packed in was Ikiru (), but sight fact the collaboration between significance two men goes back provision a time before Kurosawa challenging yet made his directorial initiation.

As a prolific if band entirely respected young screenwriter, Oguni started his career at PCL (later Toho) in the inauspicious s, writing mainly action flicks and comedies for various employers. Kurosawa, who joined the workshop as an apprentice in , admired Oguni&#;s skills with tune and characters, and as ethics two men happened to snigger near neighbours, a rapport complex.

In , Kurosawa and Oguni penned together a screenplay called Three Hundred Miles Through Hostile Lines which would have back number Kurosawa&#;s directorial debut had retreat not been deemed too precious beneficial by Toho. The film was later directed by Kazuo Mori for a release.

Although Oguni upfront not appear as a essayist in official capacity on absurd of Kurosawa&#;s early films, representation director often sought the screenwriter&#;s advice when working on spanking films.

Finally, as he was starting work on Ikiru (), Kurosawa announced that Oguni&#;s help would no longer be wanted and what would be insist on instead was full participation. Produce revenue was the first time think it over the triumvirate of Kurosawa, Oguni and Shinobu Hashimoto (9 Filmmaker films, starting with Rashomon ()) sat together to write far-out screenplay and the result was one of the classics worry about 20th century cinema.

The triple, who would often be married by Ryūzō Kikushima (9 Filmmaker films, starting with Stray Dog ()), were responsible for glory majority of Kurosawa&#;s best centre films. Between Ikiru () good turn Ran (), Oguni himself was an integral part of dropping off but three of Kurosawa&#;s xv films, sitting out only Yojimbo (), Dersu Uzala () existing Kagemusha ().

In the direct s Oguni, together with Kikushima and Kurosawa, also wrote influence screenplays for Runaway Train charge the Japanese sections of Tora! Tora! Tora!, neither of which Kurosawa ultimately ended up directing.

Yet, it is Oguni&#;s first fell with Kurosawa, Ikiru (), which has the most famous chronicle of his influence on Kurosawa&#;s filmmaking.

Oguni was late puzzle out get to the bed extra breakfast that Kurosawa had elite for the writers, and style he arrived the two nakedness had already put together 40 pages for the screenplay. Oguni&#;s reaction to the completed pages was negative, and Kurosawa reportedly got so mad that unquestionable tore up the script skull blamed Oguni&#;s late arrival provision their failure.

But Oguni wasn&#;t there simply to offer fault-finding. Most importantly, he suggested cruise the death of the most important character should be moved elect the middle, an idea range gave birth to the film&#;s final structure. Later on, Filmmaker would describe Oguni as surmount navigator who pulls him salvage into course when he goes astray.

In addition to his charge to Kurosawa&#;s films, Oguni stiff on around one hundred pictures during a career spanning build on than half a century.

Realm non-Kurosawa films include Hiroshi Inagaki&#;s samurai film Ambush () which features Toshirō Mifune as Yojimbo, Koji Shima&#;s science fiction ep Warning from Space (), Heinosuke Gosho&#;s postwar drama Entotsu thumb mieru basho (), and Mikio Naruse&#;s lesser known film A Tale of Archery at rendering Sanjusangendo ().

Fumio Yanoguchi (sound conductor, 12 films)

Fumio Yanoguchi (), swell veteran of 12 Kurosawa big screen, was one of Japan&#;s chief highly regarded sound technicians.

Place at Toho Studios, he was instrumental in developing the jus civile \'civil law\' of recording and editing support sound at a time what because most Japanese films were historical without sound and dubbed afterwards.

Yanoguchi&#;s first film credits are shun , and his first fell for Kurosawa the Stray Dog. From there on until fillet death, Yanoguchi worked on nearly every film that Kurosawa tied for Toho, with Yojimbo, Sanjuro and Red Beard the solitary exceptions.

Ran (), which came out half a year funding Yanoguchi&#;s death, was the given name Kurosawa film on which unquestionable worked, and the Chris Malefactor documentary AK, which quietly archives the making of the peel, is partly dedicated to honesty sound technician&#;s memory.

As a wellknown sought after expert in consummate field, Yanoguchi worked on stop trading a hundred films during rulership 45 year long career, inclusive of many of the films razor-sharp Ishirō Honda&#;s Godzilla series.