was a Japanese

puppet designer A puppet designer is a person who designs and creates puppets for themselves or for other ventriloquists and puppeteers. Puppetry predates recorded history, written history in many cultures , and seems to have evolved from the mask. In Eastern a ...

and maker,

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

film director, screenwriter and animator and

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

of the Japan Animation Association from 1989, succeeding founder Osamu Tezuka, until his own death. He is best-remembered in Japan as designer of the puppets for the long-running

NHK , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestr ...

live action Live action (or live-action) is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live-action with animation to create a live-action animated film. Live-action is used to define film, video ...

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...

of the ''

Romance of the Three Kingdoms ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms'' () is a 14th-century historical novel attributed to Luo Guanzhong. It is set in the turbulent years towards the end of the Han dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period in Chinese history, starting in 184 AD ...

'' in the early 1980s and ''

The Tale of the Heike is an epic account compiled prior to 1330 of the struggle between the Taira clan and Minamoto clan for control of Japan at the end of the 12th century in the Genpei War (1180–1185). Heike () refers to the Taira (), ''hei'' being the ''on'yo ...

'' in the 1990s but better-known internationally for his own animated

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

s, the majority of which are model animation but which also include the

cutout animation Cutout animation is a form of stop-motion animation using flat characters, props and backgrounds cut from materials such as paper, card, stiff fabric or photographs. The props would be cut out and used as puppets for stop motion. The world's e ...

''Tabi'' and ''Shijin no Shōgai'' and

mixed media In visual art, mixed media describes artwork in which more than one medium or material has been employed. Assemblages, collages, and sculpture are three common examples of art using different media. Materials used to create mixed media art incl ...

, French-language ''Farce anthropo-cynique''. Since beginning his career in his early twenties as a production design assistant under So Matsuyama in the

art department Art department in filmmaking terms means the section of a production's crew concerned with visual artistry. Working under the supervision of the production designer and/or art director, the art department is responsible for arranging the overall ...

Toho is a Japanese film, theatre production and distribution company. It has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. Outside of Japan, it is best known as the producer ...

in 1946, he met Tadasu Iizawa and left the film studio in 1950 to collaborate with him on illustrating

children's literature Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

with photographs of

doll A doll is a model typically of a human or humanoid character, often used as a toy for children. Dolls have also been used in traditional religious rituals throughout the world. Traditional dolls made of materials such as clay and wood are foun ...

s in dioramas, many of which have been republished in English editions by such American publishers as Grosset & Dunlap and

Western Publishing Western Publishing, also known as Western Printing and Lithographing Company, was a Racine, Wisconsin, firm responsible for publishing the Little Golden Books. Its Golden Books Family Entertainment division also produced children's books and ...

's Golden Books imprint, and trained in the art of stop motion filmmaking under Tadahito Mochinaga and, later,

Jiří Trnka Jiří Trnka (; 24 February 1912 – 30 December 1969) was a Czech puppet-maker, illustrator, motion-picture animator and film director. In addition to his extensive career as an illustrator, especially of children's books, he is best kn ...

. He is also closely associated with Tadanari Okamoto, another independent filmmaker. They collaborated in booking private halls in which to show their films to the public as the "Puppet Animashow" in the 1970s. Okamoto's last film, , had been left incomplete following his death during its production. Kawamoto completed the film. The film was based on

Kenji Miyazawa was a Japanese novelist and poet of children's literature from Hanamaki, Iwate, in the late Taishō and early Shōwa periods. He was also known as an agricultural science teacher, a vegetarian, cellist, devout Buddhist, and utopian social act ...

's short story '' The Restaurant of Many Orders''.

Biography

Born in 1925, from an early age Kawamoto was captivated by the art of doll and puppet making. After seeing the works of maestro Czech animator

, he first became interested in stop motion puppet animation and during the 1950s began working alongside Japan's first puppet animator, the legendary Tadahito Mochinaga. In 1958, he co-founded Shiba Productions to make commercial animation for television, but it was not until 1963, when he traveled to

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

to study puppet animation under Jiří Trnka for a year, that he considered his puppets to have truly began to take on a life of their own. Trnka encouraged Kawamoto to draw on his own country's rich cultural heritage in his work, and so Kawamoto returned from

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

to make a series of highly individual, independently produced artistic short works, beginning with ''Breaking of Branches is Forbidden'' (''Hana-Ori'') in 1968. Heavily influence by the traditional

aesthetics Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed t ...

Nō is a major form of classical Japanese dance-drama that has been performed since the 14th century. Developed by Kan'ami and his son Zeami, it is the oldest major theatre art that is still regularly performed today. Although the terms Noh and ' ...

Bunraku (also known as ) is a form of traditional Japanese puppet theatre, founded in Osaka in the beginning of the 17th century, which is still performed in the modern day. Three kinds of performers take part in a performance: the or (puppeteers ...

-style puppetry and

kabuki is a classical form of Japanese dance- drama. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily-stylised performances, the often-glamorous costumes worn by performers, and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers. Kabuki is though ...

, since the '70s his haunting puppet animations such as ''The Demon'' (''Oni'', 1972), ''Dōjōji Temple'' (''Dōjōji'', 1976) and ''House of Flame'' (''Kataku'', 1979) have won numerous prizes internationally. He has also produced cut-out (''kirigami'') animations such as ''Travel'' (''Tabi'', 1973) and ''A Poet's Life'' (''Shijin no Shogai'', 1974). In 1990 he returned to Trnka's studios in Prague to make ''Briar Rose, or The Sleeping Beauty''. In Japan, he is best known for designing the puppets used in the long-running TV series based on the Chinese literary classic ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms'' (''Sangokushi'', 1982–84), and later for ''

'' (''Heike Monogatari'', 1993–94). In 2003, he was responsible for overseeing the ''

Winter Days is a 2003 in film, 2003 Japanese anime film directed by Kihachirō Kawamoto. It is based on one of the ''renku'' (Collaborative poetry, collaborative linked poems) in the 1684 collection of the same name by the 17th-century Japanese poet Matsuo Ba ...

'' (''Fuyu no Hi'') project, in which 35 of the world's top animators each worked on a two-minute segment inspired by the ''renka'' couplets of celebrated poet Matsuo Bashō. '' The Book of the Dead'' (''Shisha no Sho'') is Kawamoto's only feature length animation, 1981's ''Rennyo and His Mother'' (''Rennyo to Sono Haha'') being a

live-action Live action (or live-action) is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live-action with animation to create a live-action animated film. Live-action is used to define film, video ...

puppet film. It had its world premiere as a part of a Special Retrospective Tribute at the 40th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (July 1–9, 2005, Karlovy Vary,

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

Filmography

Short films

*

*
Anthropo-Cynical Farce
' (''Farce anthropo-cynique'', January 1, 1970, 8 min., from a story by

Riichi Yokomitsu was an experimental, modernist Japanese writer. Yokomitsu began publishing in dōjinshi such as ''Machi'' ("Street") and ''Tō'' ("Tower") after entering Waseda University in 1916. In 1923, he published ''Nichirin'' ("The Sun"), '' ...

) *

*

*

*

*

*
* Opening titles of the film in question.
* *

Feature films

* * *

DVD releases

Short films

''Winter Days''

See ''

''.

''The Book of the Dead''

References

External links

Interview
with Kihachirō Kawamoto at Web site ''Midnight Eye''

at ''Nishikata Film Review''
Kawamoto: The Puppet Master
a season centred on Kawamoto's films which toured the United Kingdom in 2008
Iida City Kawamoto Kihachirō Puppet Museum
official Web site
Japan Animation Association
official Web site * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kawamoto, Kihachiro 1925 births 2010 deaths Anime directors Anime screenwriters Annie Award winners Japanese animators Japanese film directors Puppet designers Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun, 4th class Stop motion animators People from Tokyo