Akira Kurosawa is read about 4,556 times a day, in 158 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 15 October 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 390 days, one point a day.
Something wrong?He made samurai films that rewrote what cinema could do - then watched Hollywood steal the grammar and sell it back. Thirty features across sixty years, each one a lesson in how to frame a rainstorm or cut a sword fight so it lands like truth.
A life in dates
MadadayoFilm, Director, Writer1990Fukuoka Asian Culture PrizeAward
DreamsFilm, 1990Director, Writer1986Amanda Award for Best Foreign Feature FilmAwardBlue Ribbon Awards for Best FilmAwardMainichi Film Award for Best DirectorAward1985“In a mad world, only the mad are sane!”In their wordsRan (1985)1982“Human beings are unable to be honest with themselves about themselves. They cannot talk about themselves without embellishing.”In their wordsCriterion Collection essay on Rashamon, excerpted from Something Like an Autobiography as translated by Audie E. Bock (1982)1981“Although human beings are incapable of talking about themselves with total honesty, it is much harder to avoid the truth while pretending to be other people.”In their wordsSomething Like an Autobiography (1981)“No matter where I go in the world, although I can't speak any foreign language, I don't feel out of place. I think of the earth as my home.”In their wordsSomething Like an Autobiography (1981)“Ignorance is a kind of insanity in the human animal. People who delight in torturing defenseless children or tiny creatures are in reality insane.”In their wordsAkira Kurosawa Something Like an Autobiography (1981)Blue Ribbon Awards for Best FilmAwardDavid di Donatello for Best Foreign DirectorAwardMainichi Film Award for Best FilmAward1980Hōchi Film Award for Best PictureAward
KagemushaFilm, 1980Director, Writer1978
The South Bank ShowSeries1977David di Donatello for Best Foreign DirectorAward1974
Spécial cinémaSeries1966Blue Ribbon Awards for Best FilmAward1965
Red BeardFilm, Director, Writer1964Mainichi Film Award for Best ScreenplayAward1962
SanjuroFilm, Director, Writer1960
The Bad Sleep WellFilm, Director, Writer1959Blue Ribbon Awards for Best FilmAwardSilver Bear for Best DirectorAward1957
The Lower DepthsFilm, Director, Writer1952
IkiruFilm, Director, Writer1950
RashomonFilm, Director, Writer1948
Drunken AngelFilm, Director, Writer1945
Sanshiro Sugata, Part TwoFilm, Director, Writer1943
Sanshiro SugataFilm, Director, Writer1910Born23 March 1910Also in Deutsch
Photos 8
Akira Kurosawa - Handprints in Ueno Park, Tokyo - DSC07986
Akira Kurosawa and Mikio Naruse during the shooting of Nadare, 1937
Akira Kurosawa handprint in Cannes
Akira Kurosawa, Ishiro Honda, Senkichi Taniguchi, and Kajiro Yamamoto.jpg?width=1200)
Akirakurosawa-onthesetof7samurai-1953-page88 (cropped)
An'yo-in Kamakura Kurosawa Akira's Grave
In their own words 7
, I like silent pictures and I always have. They are often so much more beautiful than sound pictures are. Perhaps they had to be.
In a mad world, only the mad are sane!
Human beings are unable to be honest with themselves about themselves. They cannot talk about themselves without embellishing.
Filmography 40
BDBabenco: Tell Me When I Die
WCWhat Is Cinema?
KWKurosawa's Way
TWThe Sea Is Watching
ARAfter the Rain
DHDora-heitaMAMadadayo
RARhapsody in AugustDRDreams
RARan
AKA. K.KAKagemusha
DUDersu Uzala
DDDodes'ka-denRBRed Beard
SSSanshiro Sugata
HLHigh and LowSASanjuro
YOYojimboTWThe Bad Sleep Well
TFThe Hidden Fortress
TBThrone of BloodTDThe Lower Depths
IFI Live in Fear
SSSeven SamuraiIKIkiru
TTThe Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail
VSVendetta of a Samurai
TIThe IdiotRARashomon
SCScandal
SDStray Dog
TDThe Quiet DuelDADrunken Angel
OSOne Wonderful Sunday
STSnow Trail
NYNo Regrets for Our YouthSTSanshiro Sugata, Part Two
TBThe Most BeautifulSSSanshiro Sugata223 credits on file
Television 2
TSThe South Bank ShowSCSpécial cinémaAwards
Family
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Kurosawa started as a painter before entering the Japanese film industry in 1936, spending years as an assistant director and screenwriter until his debut with Sanshiro Sugata in 1943, released when he was 33. After the war, Drunken Angel (1948) established him as a major young voice and introduced his collaboration with an unknown actor named Toshiro Mifune - they'd make 15 more films together. Rashomon took the Golden Lion at Venice in 1951 and cracked open Western markets for Japanese cinema for the first time, setting off a wave of international recognition. Through the 1950s and early 1960s he directed roughly a film a year - Ikiru, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, Yojimbo, High and Low, Red Beard - each one studied, adapted, and lifted by filmmakers worldwide. His output slowed after the mid-1960s, but Kagemusha and Ran proved the edge hadn't dulled. He accepted an honorary Oscar in 1990 and died in 1998, posthumously named "Asian of the Century" in arts and culture - one of five people credited with shaping Asia across a hundred years.
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