Akira Kurosawa
Japanese filmmaker (1910–1998)
- Born
- 23 March 1910, Ōi
- Died
- 6 September 1998
- Citizenship
- Empire of Japan, Japan
- Occupation
- film director, film producer, screenwriter, film editor, writer
- Films here
- 5
Akira Kurosawa (黒澤 明 or 黒沢 明, Kurosawa Akira; March 23, 1910 – September 6, 1998) was a Japanese filmmaker who directed 30 feature films in a career spanning six decades. With a bold and dynamic style strongly influenced by Western cinema yet distinct from it, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Known as a hands-on filmmaker, he was heavily involved with all aspects of production as a director, writer, producer, and editor.
Following a brief stint as a painter, Kurosawa entered the Japanese film industry in 1936. After years of working on numerous films as an assistant director and screenwriter, he made his directorial debut during World War II with the popular action film Sanshiro Sugata (1943), released when he was 33. Following the war, he cemented his reputation as one of the most important young filmmakers in Japan with the critically acclaimed Drunken Angel (1948), in which he cast the then-unknown actor Toshiro Mifune in a starring role; the two men would then collaborate on 15 more films.
Filmography (martial arts films)
| Year | Film | Credit |
|---|---|---|
| 1943 | Sanshiro Sugata | Director |
| 1950 | Rashomon | Director |
| 1954 | Seven Samurai | Director |
| 1957 | Throne of Blood | Director |
| 1965 | Red Beard | Director |
Frequent collaborators
- Takashi Shimura
- Toshirō Mifune
- Kokuten Kōdō
- Minoru Chiaki
- Yoshio Kosugi
- Seiji Miyaguchi
- Isao Kimura
- Bokuzen Hidari
- Yoshio Inaba
- Yoshio Tsuchiya
- Kamatari Fujiwara
- Eijirō Tōno
- Sachio Sakai
External links
Facts from Wikidata Q8006 (CC0); quoted introduction from English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Data retrieved 2026-10-22.
Data: Wikidata (CC0 1.0); Wikipedia (English) (CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.