Saburo Murakami (Japanese: 村上 三郎, Hepburn: Murakami Saburō; June 27, 1925 – January 11, 1996) was a Japanese visual and…
Saburo Murakami (Japanese: 村上 三郎, Hepburn: Murakami Saburō; June 27, 1925 – January 11, 1996) was a Japanese visual and performance artist. He was a member of the Gutai Art Association and is best known for his paper-breaking performances (kami-yaburi) in which he burst through kraft paper stretched on large wooden frames. Paper-breaking is a canonical work in the history of Japanese post-war art and for the history of performance art. Murakami's work includes paintings, three-dimensional objects and installation as well as performance, and is characterized by a highly conceptual approach that transcends dualistic thinking and materializes in playful interactive forms and often thematizes time, chance and intuition.
Famous People Born in 1920s
1920s: 838 people
Sonoko Sugimoto (杉本苑子; June 26, 1925 – May 31, 2017) was a Japanese novelist. She was best known for writing historical…
Sonoko Sugimoto (杉本苑子; June 26, 1925 – May 31, 2017) was a Japanese novelist. She was best known for writing historical fiction.
Masanori Tokita (Japanese 鴇田 正憲, Tokita Masanori; June 24, 1925 – March 5, 2004) was a Japanese football player. He…
Masanori Tokita (Japanese 鴇田 正憲, Tokita Masanori; June 24, 1925 – March 5, 2004) was a Japanese football player. He played for the Japan national team.
Masaru Urata (Japanese: 浦田勝 Urata Masaru; 20 June 1925 – 5 March 2026) was a Japanese politician. A member of the…
Masaru Urata (Japanese: 浦田勝 Urata Masaru; 20 June 1925 – 5 March 2026) was a Japanese politician. A member of the Liberal Democratic Party, he served in the House of Councillors from 1983 to 1989 and again from 1992 to 1998. Urata died in Tamana on 5 March 2026, at the age of 100.
Masahide Ōta (大田 昌秀, Ōta Masahide; 12 June 1925 – 12 June 2017) was a Japanese academic and politician who served as…
Masahide Ōta (大田 昌秀, Ōta Masahide; 12 June 1925 – 12 June 2017) was a Japanese academic and politician who served as the governor of Okinawa Prefecture from 1990 until 1998. After starting his career as a professor at the University of the Ryūkyūs, he wrote books in English and Japanese, mostly about the Battle of Okinawa and Japan–United States bilateral relations following World War II. After his retirement as professor he was elected as governor and was best known for his strong stand against occupation of prefectural lands by military bases of United States, going against the Japanese central government at the time.
Hideji Ōtaki (大滝 秀治, Ōtaki Hideji; June 6, 1925 – October 2, 2012) was a Japanese actor. He served as President of the…
Hideji Ōtaki (大滝 秀治, Ōtaki Hideji; June 6, 1925 – October 2, 2012) was a Japanese actor. He served as President of the Mingei Theatre Company.
Yasuo Yuasa (湯浅 泰雄, Yuasa Yasuo; 1925–2005) was a Japanese philosopher of religion. Yuasa is known for his works on the…
Yasuo Yuasa (湯浅 泰雄, Yuasa Yasuo; 1925–2005) was a Japanese philosopher of religion. Yuasa is known for his works on the theory of the body in Western and Asian philosophy and for his teaching. He has been referred to as "one of the most provocative and far-reaching" among Japan's contemporary philosophers.
Yasuo Mizui (水井 康雄, Mizui Yasuo; 30 May 1925 – 3 September 2008) was a Japanese stone sculptor who lived in France. He…
Yasuo Mizui (水井 康雄, Mizui Yasuo; 30 May 1925 – 3 September 2008) was a Japanese stone sculptor who lived in France. He specialized in abstract art forms for public sculpture, often within architectural contexts, and participated in several sculpture symposia across Europe, the United States, Israel, and Japan.
Kunio Makino (27 May 1925 (Taisho 14) – 1 October 1986 (Showa 61)) was a Japanese painter, born in Hatagaya…
Kunio Makino (27 May 1925 (Taisho 14) – 1 October 1986 (Showa 61)) was a Japanese painter, born in Hatagaya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo.
Tsutomu Kawabuchi (Japanese: 河渕 務; 16 May 1925 – 19 January 2014) was a Japanese ice hockey player, coach and…
Tsutomu Kawabuchi (Japanese: 河渕 務; 16 May 1925 – 19 January 2014) was a Japanese ice hockey player, coach and administrator. He won Japanese hockey championships as a player and as a coach with Iwakura, and later coached the Japan men's national ice hockey team, and the Japan women's national ice hockey team. He was president of the Hokkaido Ice Hockey Federation for twenty years, and later founded a women's ice hockey club. He served with the Japan Ice Hockey Federation and was involved in organizing the first IIHF Asian Oceanic U18 Championships, and sat on the Japanese Olympic Committee where he played an integral role in introducing women's ice hockey at the Winter Olympic Games. He was recognized for his contributions to international ice hockey with induction into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2004.
Hiroyuki Kanai (金井 宏之, Kanai Hiroyuki; 16 May 1925 in Amagasaki – 26 January 2012) was a Japanese businessman, writer…
Hiroyuki Kanai (金井 宏之, Kanai Hiroyuki; 16 May 1925 in Amagasaki – 26 January 2012) was a Japanese businessman, writer and philatelist.
Koji Nakanishi (中西 香爾, Nakanishi Kōji; May 11, 1925 – March 28, 2019) was a Japanese chemist who studied bioorganic…
Koji Nakanishi (中西 香爾, Nakanishi Kōji; May 11, 1925 – March 28, 2019) was a Japanese chemist who studied bioorganic chemistry and natural products. He served as Centennial Professor of Chemistry and chair of the Chemistry Department at Columbia University.
Sugako Hashida (橋田 壽賀子, Hashida Sugako; May 10, 1925 – April 4, 2021) was a Japanese scriptwriter. She is known…
Sugako Hashida (橋田 壽賀子, Hashida Sugako; May 10, 1925 – April 4, 2021) was a Japanese scriptwriter. She is known particularly for writing the NHK Asadora Oshin, and was considered Japan's most successful TV drama scriptwriter. She established Hashida Cultural Foundation. Her real name was Sugako Iwasaki (岩﨑 壽賀子, Iwasaki Sugako).
Sunao Tsuboi (坪井 直, Tsuboi Sunao; May 5, 1925 – October 24, 2021) was a Japanese anti-nuclear, anti-war activist, and…
Sunao Tsuboi (坪井 直, Tsuboi Sunao; May 5, 1925 – October 24, 2021) was a Japanese anti-nuclear, anti-war activist, and teacher. He was a hibakusha, a survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, and was the co-chair of Nihon Hidankyo, a Japan-wide organisation of atomic and hydrogen bomb sufferers. He was awarded the Kiyoshi Tanimoto peace prize in 2011.
Komimasa Tanaka (田中 小実昌, Tanaka Komimasa; April 29, 1925–February 29, 2000) was a noted Japanese writer, essayist, and…
Komimasa Tanaka (田中 小実昌, Tanaka Komimasa; April 29, 1925–February 29, 2000) was a noted Japanese writer, essayist, and translator.
Masatarō Shimizu (清水 正二郎, Shimizu Masatarō; 26 April 1925 – 23 May 1994), known by his pen name Koshi Kurumizawa (胡桃沢…
Masatarō Shimizu (清水 正二郎, Shimizu Masatarō; 26 April 1925 – 23 May 1994), known by his pen name Koshi Kurumizawa (胡桃沢 耕史, Kurumizawa Kōshi), was a Japanese writer of detective fiction during the Shōwa era.
Ichirō Tominaga (富永一朗, Tominaga Ichirō; April 25, 1925 - May 5, 2021) was a Japanese manga artist. He was a recipient…
Ichirō Tominaga (富永一朗, Tominaga Ichirō; April 25, 1925 - May 5, 2021) was a Japanese manga artist. He was a recipient of the Japan Cartoonists Association Award, the Medal with Purple Ribbon, and he was Honorary Director of the Kibi Kawakami Fureai Manga Museum in Okayama Prefecture.
Tokitsuyama Jin'ichi (March 10, 1925 – November 21, 1968) was a professional sumo wrestler from Iwaki, Fukushima, Japan…
Tokitsuyama Jin'ichi (March 10, 1925 – November 21, 1968) was a professional sumo wrestler from Iwaki, Fukushima, Japan who wrestled for Tatsunami stable. He won the top division sumo championship in the summer tournament of 1953 and was runner-up in five other tournaments. His highest rank was sekiwake. After his retirement in 1961 he worked as a coach at Tatsunami stable until his death in 1968.
Takami Eto (江藤 隆美, Etō Takami; 10 April 1925 – 22 November 2007) was a Japanese politician and former member of Japan's…
Takami Eto (江藤 隆美, Etō Takami; 10 April 1925 – 22 November 2007) was a Japanese politician and former member of Japan's House of Representatives.
Zenzō Matsuyama (松山 善三, Matsuyama Zenzō; 3 April 1925 – 27 August 2016) was a Japanese screenwriter and film director.…
Zenzō Matsuyama (松山 善三, Matsuyama Zenzō; 3 April 1925 – 27 August 2016) was a Japanese screenwriter and film director. He was born in Kobe and grew up in Yokohama. After leaving school, he began training to become a doctor but dropped out of medical school to take up a career in films. In 1948 he became an assistant director at Shochiku studios. With the support of Keisuke Kinoshita, he also began writing film scripts. His first filmed script was Kojo no tsuki, based on the song "Kōjō no Tsuki", filmed in 1954. In 1955 he married actress Hideko Takamine. He made his debut as a director with a film called Na mo naku mazushiku utsukushiku in 1961. He continued to work as a scriptwriter for films like Proof of the Man as well as a director. He also wrote the lyrics for a song "Ippon no enpitsu" for Hibari Misora.
Kazuo Shinohara (篠原 一男, Shinohara Kazuo; April 2, 1925 – July 15, 2006) was a Japanese architect, forming what is now…
Kazuo Shinohara (篠原 一男, Shinohara Kazuo; April 2, 1925 – July 15, 2006) was a Japanese architect, forming what is now widely known as the "Shinohara School", which has been linked to the works of Toyo Ito, Kazunari Sakamoto and Itsuko Hasegawa, Kazuyo Sejima, Ryue Nishizawa. As architectural critic Thomas Daniell put it, "A key figure who explicitly rejected Western influences yet appears on almost every branch of the family tree of contemporary Japanese architecture... is Kazuo Shinohara... His effects on the discipline as a theorist, designer and teacher have been immense." He studied at Tokyo Institute of Technology, (TIT) finishing in 1953, and going on to become professor in 1970. He established his own practice in 1954, going on to design more than 30 residential buildings, as well as many key public buildings across Japan. His work is generally classified as having strong qualities of lucidity and ephemerality, and for these reasons is often seen as ideologically influential on Toyo Ito's work. He was awarded the Architectural Institute of Japan's (AIJ) grand prize in 2005. In 2010 the Biennale di Venezia awarded a special commemorative Golden Lion in memory of Kazuo Shinohara.
Tatsuo Endo (遠藤 達雄, Endō Tatsuo; 1925 – 1989) was a Japanese engineer. In 1968, while a visiting professor at the…
Tatsuo Endo (遠藤 達雄, Endō Tatsuo; 1925 – 1989) was a Japanese engineer. In 1968, while a visiting professor at the University of Illinois, he developed the rainflow-counting algorithm for fatigue analysis of structures, along with M. Matsuishi.
Kunio Busujima (毒島 邦雄, Busujima Kunio; 1 April 1925 – 22 October 2016) was a Japanese billionaire businessman, and the…
Kunio Busujima (毒島 邦雄, Busujima Kunio; 1 April 1925 – 22 October 2016) was a Japanese billionaire businessman, and the founder and chairman of Sankyo, one of the three major pachinko machine makers in Japan. According to Forbes in January 2015, he had an estimated net worth of US$4.2 billion. He died in October 2016 at the age of 91.
Tsunetoshi Tanaka (田中 恒利, Tanaka Tsunetoshi; April 1, 1925 - January 12, 2014) was a Japanese politician. He was a…
Tsunetoshi Tanaka (田中 恒利, Tanaka Tsunetoshi; April 1, 1925 - January 12, 2014) was a Japanese politician. He was a member of the House of Representatives (1969–1972, 1980–1996).
Michiko Nagai (永井路子, Nagai Michiko); (March 31, 1925 – January 27, 2023) was a Japanese historical fiction writer. Her…
Michiko Nagai (永井路子, Nagai Michiko); (March 31, 1925 – January 27, 2023) was a Japanese historical fiction writer. Her real name is Hiroko Kuroita (黒板擴子, Kuroita Hiroko).
Shigeichi Nagano (長野 重一, Nagano Shigeichi; March 30, 1925 – January 30, 2019) was a Japanese photographer. He won the…
Shigeichi Nagano (長野 重一, Nagano Shigeichi; March 30, 1925 – January 30, 2019) was a Japanese photographer. He won the Ina Nobuo Award in 1986 and had a major retrospective at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography in 2000.
Masaru Hayami (速水 優, Hayami Masaru; 24 March 1925 – 17 May 2009) was a Japanese businessman, central banker, the 28th…
Masaru Hayami (速水 優, Hayami Masaru; 24 March 1925 – 17 May 2009) was a Japanese businessman, central banker, the 28th Governor of the Bank of Japan (BOJ) and a Director of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).
Takeshi Umehara (梅原 猛, Umehara Takeshi; March 20, 1925 – January 12, 2019) was born in Miyagi Prefecture in Tōhoku and…
Takeshi Umehara (梅原 猛, Umehara Takeshi; March 20, 1925 – January 12, 2019) was born in Miyagi Prefecture in Tōhoku and graduated from the philosophical faculty of Kyoto University in 1948. He taught philosophy at Ritsumeikan University and was subsequently appointed president of the Kyoto City University of Arts. He is noted for his prolific essays on Japanese culture, in which he has endeavoured to refound the discipline of Japanese studies along more Japanocentric lines, notably in his book Nihongaku kotohajime (日本学事始) written in 1972 in collaboration with Shunpei Ueyama. Aside from his voluminous academic essays on numerous aspects of Japanese culture he has also composed theatrical works on figures as varied as Yamato Takeru and Gilgamesh. He was appointed in 1987 to head the International Research Center for Japanese Studies, otherwise known by the abbreviation of Nichibunken, established by Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone to function as a centralized academic body collecting and classifying all available information about Japanese culture, both within Japan and abroad. He retired as head administrator of Nichibunken in 1995.
Leo Esaki (江崎 玲於奈, Esaki Reona; born March 12, 1925) is a Japanese physicist who shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physics…
Leo Esaki (江崎 玲於奈, Esaki Reona; born March 12, 1925) is a Japanese physicist who shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physics with Ivar Giaever and Brian Josephson for his work on tunneling in semiconductors, which led to his invention of the tunnel diode that exploits this phenomenon. His research was done when he was with Sony. He has also contributed in being a pioneer of semiconductor superlattices. Since the death of Yoichiro Nambu in 2015, Esaki is the oldest living Japanese Nobel laureate.
Fukuzo Iwasaki (岩崎 福三, Iwasaki Fukuzō; March 11, 1925 – February 29, 2012) was a Japanese real estate magnate with an…
Fukuzo Iwasaki (岩崎 福三, Iwasaki Fukuzō; March 11, 1925 – February 29, 2012) was a Japanese real estate magnate with an estimated fortune of $5.7 billion, putting him among the five richest people in Japan. He was chairman of the Iwasaki Sangyo Group, a major transportation, tourism and hotel company in southern Japan, founded by his father, Yōhachirō Iwasaki. Forbes' 2007 list of billionaires estimates his net worth at $2.1 billion. Iwasaki was a resident of Kagoshima and held a bachelor's degree from Rikkyo University.
Ichiro Nakagawa (中川 一郎, Nakagawa Ichirō; 9 March 1925 – 9 January 1983) was a Japanese politician from Hokkaidō. He was…
Ichiro Nakagawa (中川 一郎, Nakagawa Ichirō; 9 March 1925 – 9 January 1983) was a Japanese politician from Hokkaidō. He was a significant leader of the right wing of the Liberal Democratic Party.
Ken-Ichi Inada (稲田 献一, Inada Ken'ichi; March 8, 1925 – May 17, 2002) was a Japanese economist. Beginning in the 1950s…
Ken-Ichi Inada (稲田 献一, Inada Ken'ichi; March 8, 1925 – May 17, 2002) was a Japanese economist. Beginning in the 1950s, Inada wrote a number of important papers on welfare economics, economic growth and international trade. His contributions include an early extension of Kenneth Arrow's impossibility theorem on the existence of a social welfare function (1955). Inada's extension of the Stolper–Samuelson theorem to the many-good, many-factor case is also considered as a classic piece in trade theory (1971). Inada has taught at universities including Osaka University and Tokyo Metropolitan University, served as a member of the honorary board of editors for the Japanese Economic Review since its first publishing in 1995, as well as being elected president of the Japanese Economic Association in 1980. He is known for the Inada conditions on a production function that can guarantee the stability of an economic growth path in a neoclassical growth model.
Seiuemon Inaba (1925-2020) was a Japanese roboticist who was the founder and honorary chairman of FANUC. Inaba was born…
Seiuemon Inaba (1925-2020) was a Japanese roboticist who was the founder and honorary chairman of FANUC. Inaba was born in 1925 in Ibaraki Prefecture, north of Tokyo. Inaba played a key role in the development of the robot industry. In 1992, he was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for pioneering achievements in numerically controlled machine tools and factory automation and contributions to engineering research and education. Inaba died on October 2, 2020, at the age of 95.
Shoichiro Toyoda (Japanese: 豊田 章一郞, Hepburn: Toyoda Shōichirō; 27 February 1925 – 14 February 2023) was a Japanese…
Shoichiro Toyoda (Japanese: 豊田 章一郞, Hepburn: Toyoda Shōichirō; 27 February 1925 – 14 February 2023) was a Japanese business executive who served as chairman of Toyota Motor Corporation from 1992 to 1999, as well as chairman of the influential Japan Business Federation (日本経済団体連合会, Nippon Keidanren) from 1994 to 1998. Under Toyoda's leadership, Toyota started manufacturing vehicles overseas and undertook the development of the Lexus brand. He was the grandson of the Toyoda Automatic Loom Works founder Sakichi Toyoda and the son of the Toyota Motor founder Kiichiro Toyoda.
Tochinishiki Kiyotaka (Japanese: 栃錦 清隆; February 20, 1925 – January 10, 1990) was a Japanese professional sumo wrestler…
Tochinishiki Kiyotaka (Japanese: 栃錦 清隆; February 20, 1925 – January 10, 1990) was a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Tokyo. He was the sport's 44th yokozuna. He won ten top division yūshō or tournament championships and was a rival of fellow yokozuna Wakanohana I. He became the head coach of Kasugano stable in 1959 and was head of the Japan Sumo Association from 1974 until 1988.
Kōichirō Tomita (冨田 弘一郎, Tomita Kōichirō; 16 February 1925 – 22 May 2006) was a Japanese astronomer, discoverer of…
Kōichirō Tomita (冨田 弘一郎, Tomita Kōichirō; 16 February 1925 – 22 May 2006) was a Japanese astronomer, discoverer of minor planets and comets. The fireball passed over west Japan and was recorded by photos and a sketch. Kōichirō Tomita identified that it was the Kosmos 133 spacecraft (30 November 1966). He is credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery of 9 numbered minor planets during 1978–1982, such as 2252 CERGA, 3056 INAG, 3765 Texereau, 4051 Hatanaka. He is the author of at least one astronomy book (in Japanese) about comets (which was translated and published in Russian in 1982). The Nysa asteroid 2391 Tomita is named after him.
Hajime Katō (加藤一, Katō Hajime) (1925–2000) was a Japanese painter and designer. He was born in Kanda, Tokyo. Before…
Hajime Katō (加藤一, Katō Hajime) (1925–2000) was a Japanese painter and designer. He was born in Kanda, Tokyo. Before becoming a painter, he was a professional keirin cyclist. In 1958 he emigrated to France. He died in Paris and was laid to rest in the Montparnasse Cemetery.
Masashige Narusawa (Japanese: 成沢昌茂, Narusawa Masashige; 29 January 1925 – 13 February 2021) was a Japanese screenwriter…
Masashige Narusawa (Japanese: 成沢昌茂, Narusawa Masashige; 29 January 1925 – 13 February 2021) was a Japanese screenwriter and director.
Yasuji Mori (森康二, Mori Yasuji; January 28, 1925 – September 5, 1992) was an animator who worked with Toei Animation…
Yasuji Mori (森康二, Mori Yasuji; January 28, 1925 – September 5, 1992) was an animator who worked with Toei Animation, while it was still known as Toei Doga. He was also a famous illustrator of children's books. Mori was responsible for one of the major animation styles within Toei Animation. In The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon Mori was the first to be credited as animation director in Japan, although Akira Daikubara had the same post on The Tale of the White Serpent but was not credited as that. As a senior animator he formed many of the great animators of the next generation (including Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, Yasuo Ōtsuka, and Yoichi Kotabe). He later left Toei Animation to work with Nippon Animation.
Buichi Saitō (斎藤武市, Saitō Buichi; 27 January 1925 – January 2011) was a Japanese film director from Saitama Prefecture.…
Buichi Saitō (斎藤武市, Saitō Buichi; 27 January 1925 – January 2011) was a Japanese film director from Saitama Prefecture. His representative works included Wataridori series starring Akira Kobayashi, Farewell to Southern Tosa(1959) and Gazing at Love and Death(1964). Saitō often worked with Akira Kobayashi, Joe Shishido and Sayuri Yoshinaga. After graduating Waseda University, he joined Shochiku Film and started working as an assistant director under Yasujirō Ozu and Kōzaburō Yoshimura etc. In 1954, he transferred to Nikkatsu Film and made his director debut in the 1956 film Anesan no Oyomeiri.
Tōichirō Kinoshita (木下東一郎, Kinoshita Tōichirō ; January 23, 1925 – March 23, 2023) was a Japanese-born American…
Tōichirō Kinoshita (木下東一郎, Kinoshita Tōichirō ; January 23, 1925 – March 23, 2023) was a Japanese-born American theoretical physicist. Kinoshita was born in Tokyo on January 23, 1925. He studied physics at the University of Tokyo, earning his bachelor's degree in 1947 and then his PhD in 1952. Afterwards he spent two years as a postdoctoral researcher of the Institute of Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey, and then one year at Columbia University. His research interests included quantum field theory, and the Standard Model. Kinoshita worked at the Newman Laboratory of Nuclear Studies at Cornell University from 1955. He was at first a research associate. In 1958 he became assistant professor, and in 1960 associate professor. He became a full professor in 1963, and in 1992 he was appointed Goldwin Smith professor. In 1995 he retired from Cornell as professor emeritus. In 1962–63 he was a Ford Fellow at CERN. He was a guest professor at the University of Tokyo, at CERN, at the national laboratory for high-energy physics KEK in Japan, and at RIKEN in Japan. Kinoshita was known for his extensive and detailed calculations of quantum electrodynamics (QED), the theory of the interaction of light and matter, on which physicist Abraham Pais called him the "expert among experts". QED is often described as the most accurate physical theory in existence. Among the best-known examples are Kinoshita's calculations of the anomalous magnetic moments of the electron and the muon.
Yoshio Iimuro (飯室 芳男, Iimuro Yoshio; 18 January 1925 – October 2023) was a Japanese triple jumper who competed in the…
Yoshio Iimuro (飯室 芳男, Iimuro Yoshio; 18 January 1925 – October 2023) was a Japanese triple jumper who competed in the 1952 Summer Olympics. Iimuro died in October 2023, at the age of 98.
Tsuruko Yamazaki (山崎 つる子, Yamazaki Tsuruko; 1925 – June 12, 2019) was a Japanese artist, known for her bold artistic…
Tsuruko Yamazaki (山崎 つる子, Yamazaki Tsuruko; 1925 – June 12, 2019) was a Japanese artist, known for her bold artistic experiments with abstract visual styles and non-traditional materials. She was a co-founder and the longest-standing female member of the Gutai Art Association, an avant-garde artists' collective established by Jirō Yoshihara.
Kihachirō Kawamoto (川本 喜八郎, Kawamoto Kihachirō; January 11, 1925 – August 23, 2010) was a Japanese puppet designer…
Kihachirō Kawamoto (川本 喜八郎, Kawamoto Kihachirō; January 11, 1925 – August 23, 2010) was a Japanese puppet designer, independent film director, screenwriter, animator and the second president of the Japan Animation Association, succeeding founder Osamu Tezuka in 1989 and serving until his own death. He is best-remembered in Japan as designer of the puppets for the long-running NHK live action television series of the Puppet theater, the Three Kingdoms in the early 1980s and The Tale of the Heike in the 1990s but better-known internationally for his own animated short films, the majority of which are model animation but which also include the cutout animation Tabi and Shijin no Shōgai and mixed media, 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 of Toho in 1946, he met Tadasu Iizawa and left the film studio in 1950 to collaborate with him on illustrating children's literature with photographs of dolls in dioramas, many of which have been republished in English editions by such American publishers as Grosset & Dunlap and Western Publishing's Golden Books imprint, and trained in the art of stop motion filmmaking under Tadahito Mochinaga and, later, Jiří Trnka. 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, The Restaurant of Many Orders (注文の多い料理店, Chūmon no Ōi Ryōriten; 1991), was left incomplete following his death during its production. Kawamoto completed the film. The film was based on Kenji Miyazawa's short story "The Restaurant of Many Orders."
Yoshihisa Uchida (Japanese: 内田喜久; January 5, 1925 – June 5, 2026) was a Japanese politician.
Otohiko Hara (原乙彦, Hara Otohiko; January 1, 1925 – April 9, 2018), formerly known as Otohiko Yabashi, was a Japanese…
Otohiko Hara (原乙彦, Hara Otohiko; January 1, 1925 – April 9, 2018), formerly known as Otohiko Yabashi, was a Japanese corporate executive. He was a chief executive officer of Unitika Tsusho [:ja:] (later, Unitika Trading [:ja:]). One of the first Japanese businesspersons who led Dai Nippon Spinning Co., Ltd. (later, Unitika), one of Japan's three largest textile makers, to the first overseas expansion of Japanese corporations after World War II.
Kōji Nakano (中野 孝次, Nakano Kōji; 1 January 1925 – 16 July 2004) was a Japanese novelist, translator of German…
Kōji Nakano (中野 孝次, Nakano Kōji; 1 January 1925 – 16 July 2004) was a Japanese novelist, translator of German literature and literary critic in Shōwa period Japan.
Norikazu Fujii (藤井 則和, Fujii Norikazu) was a former Japanese international table tennis player.
Sigeru (Shigeru) Mizohata (Japanese: 溝畑 茂(みぞはた しげる); December 30, 1924 – June 25, 2002) was a Japanese mathematician…
Sigeru (Shigeru) Mizohata (Japanese: 溝畑 茂(みぞはた しげる); December 30, 1924 – June 25, 2002) was a Japanese mathematician, who specialized in the theory of partial differential equations.
Hiroshi Kagawa (29 December 1924 – 5 December 2024) was a Japanese football player and journalist. His brother Taro…
Hiroshi Kagawa (29 December 1924 – 5 December 2024) was a Japanese football player and journalist. His brother Taro Kagawa was also a footballer.