KAZUO MIYAGAWA

[Pointing] with dir Kenji Mizoguchi

"Akasen chitai" [1956]

Career: Entered the film industry 1926 as lab asst at Nikkatsu Studios, Kyoto. Moved to cam department as asst. Specialized in ph historical dramas. Moved to the Daiei Studio in 1942. Taught film technique at the Osaka University of the Arts. Appeared in the doc 'Aru eiga-kantoku no shogai/Kenji Mizoguchi: The Life of a Film Director' [1975, Kaneto Shindô] & the tv-doc 'The World of Kazuo Miyagawa' [?].

Awards: Blue Ribbon Award [1953] for 'Senba-zuru'; Blue Ribbon Award [1959] for 'Enjo' & 'Benten kozo'; Mainichi Film Concours Award [1960] & Blue Ribbon Award [1961] for 'Ototo'; Mainichi Film Concours Award [1977] & Award of the Japanese Academy [1978] for 'Hanre goze Orin'; Mainichi Film Concours Award [1984] & Award of the Japanese Academy [1985] for 'Setouchi shonen yakyu-dan'; Hawaii IFF 'Excellence in Cinematography Award' by Eastman Kodak [1993]; Mainichi Film Concours 'Special Award' [1999].

'Miyagawa, nicknamed "the comic cameraman" for his years of work on slapstick comedies... began to invent techniques in tracking and crane shots in early films through the special demands of Hiroshi Inagaki. Inagaki had several short sections of track on his sets which Miyagawa used for leisurely shots. When he began to work with Kurosawa on 'Rashômon', Miyagawa had to lay out longer sections of track along which he had to roll his camera at great speed, in contrast to Mizoguchi's films, which always employed long crane shots. In Mizoguchi's films, traditional Japanese painting strongly influenced Miyagawa's work. The emakimono or long horizontal scrolls were used to illustrate important works of literature. The emakimono were 'read' sequence-by-sequence, as the viewer unrolled the scroll in his hands while rolling up the portion that had been viewed. This narrative technique in painting inspired Mizoguchi's one-scene-one-shot style of shooting a film.

Of all the directors with whom Miyagawa has worked, Ichikawa gave the least direction to the cinematographer. He seemed more concerned with his actors and provided little information as to how he wanted scenes photographed. It was for Ichikawa's 'Enjo' in 1958 that Miyagawa first used Daieiscope, one of the new widescreen formats. In experimenting with it he frequently fragmented the screen, filling half the space with a sliding door or even darkness. Ichikawa was impressed with the technique because it seemed to make the camera one of the actors.

The ideas for using the new process came from Miyagawa's early training in sumi-e, a Japanese artistic technique of ink-painting. The sumi-e painter creates a subtle atmosphere with only black, white and gray. One of the tenets of the sumi-e style which Miyagawa enjoys quoting holds that there is an infinite variety of color in the range of 'gray'. The sumi-e painter does not fill the entire surface of the paper, nor does he arrange his composition symmetrically. Instead, he uses the borders of his surface to create separate planes within the space.

This technique has earned Miyagawa the title 'master of framing' by his associates. The framing is rarely symmetrical, but is perfectly balanced. The creation of a pattern is often based upon objects or people, and with an unusually deep focus he brings the very near and the very far into visual alignment.' [From article 'Kazuo Miyagawa honored by A.S.C.' by Lyla Dusing, 'American Cinematographer', #5, 1981.]

'Kazuo Miyagawa was, quite simply, Japan's preeminent cinematographer. Commencing in the 1930s, he worked with some of his country's foremost directors and his credits include some of the all time greatest Japanese films.

Beginning his study of cinematography in 1926, after several years as an art student, Miyagawa was particularly impressed by the high-contrast lighting used in the German expressionist films of the era. Starting at the Nikkatsu Kyoto Studio laboratory, Miyagawa utilized his knowledge of film chemistry to experiment with the composition of film stock and the degree of exposure before shooting. Thus, he was able to determine the optimum exposure despite the varied physical conditions of location shooting; in fact, he did not even work with a light meter until 'Rashômon', in 1950.

Between 1935 and 1943, Miyagawa was in charge of second-unit photography and special effects at the Nikkatsu Studio. His first great success as chief cinematographer came in 1943, with his work on Hiroshi Inagaki's 'Muhomatsu no issho/Rickshaw Man', in which his ambitious camerawork captures the vivid images of the life of a rough but straightforward rickshaw man in a small city.

While he has attributed his success to the traditionally high standards of the studio's cinematographers and camera mechanics - "Working in the film lab taught me the basics, the fundamental part of making pictures," he once explained - he also noted, "It was my training in [Japanese] ink painting that really taught me how to see."

Indeed, it was Miyagawa's early study of this art form that gave him the understanding of subtle shadings which was evident in his black-and-white films. His fluid camera movements, particularly the long takes in Mizoguchi's films, demonstrate his knowledge of the Japanese traditional emakimono scroll painting style. In order to satisfy Mizoguchi's demand to draw out the tense moments of highly dramatic performances, Miyagawa conceived the technique of suspenseful long takes, which capture highly dramatic performances without interruptions.

Miyagawa also contributed his dynamic camera style to Kurosawa's work. Utilizing the light reflecting directly on a mirror, he captured in bright summer daylight the surging emotions of the characters of 'Rashômon'. The image of sunlight flickering behind the trees became legendary. In 'Yojimbo' Miyagawa used telephoto lenses to successfully convey the powerful images of swordplay in the swirling dust. Particularly important was Miyagawa's technique of inventing the 'silver tone' in the chemical process to create a greenish-gray tone, appropriate for the turn-of-the-century atmosphere of 'Ototo/Her Brother'.

Miyagawa's sensitive and ingenious approach to the specific tones of each of his color films is evident in his work for Ozu, Ito, Shinoda, and others. He studied each type of film stock for specific color effects according to the subject.

The cinematographer remained professionally active into his eighties. "A director and cameraman are like husband and wife," Miyagawa once declared. "Even though they may fight, all their films are their offspring." He added, proudly, "I am a cinematographer. I've never had any ambition to become a director. A film is not one individual's method of personal expression but a matter of teamwork, a cooperative venture." [From article by Kyoko Hirano, updated by Rob Edelman.]

''Rashômon', winner of the 1951 'Golden Lion' at Venice and subsequently the first Japanese film to be shown widely in the west, not only brought its director, Akira Kurosawa, international fame, but also gained a reputation for its cinematographer, Kazuo Miyagawa, who has died aged 91.

What is striking about the film is the vivid black-and-white photography, and the sweeping camera movements. In order to evoke the bright summer daylight in the forest, Miyagawa used a mirror to reflect the light directly and also ran several cameras simultaneously to exploit various perspectives.

For Kurosawa's 'Yojimbo', he effectively used [perhaps over-used] a telephoto lens and wide CinemaScope images to capture the small town with a wide street in this "Samurai Western".

However, his best work was for Kenji Mizoguchi, who, unlike Kurosawa, avoided frequent camera set-ups and intrusive close-ups. Miyagawa shot a number of Mizoguchi's masterpieces including 'Ugetsu monogatari' in which the lyrical, haunting and intense images never ignore the human element. Miyagawa's artistry is best demonstrated by the trip across the lake as the boat emerges from the mist, hinting at the supernatural.

In 'Sanshô dayû', the long takes, lingering long shots and the weaving camera create an elegiac mood and a deep involvement in the unfolding episodic tale of a suffering family in feudal Japan.

Like Mizoguchi, Miyagawa saw himself in the tradition of Japanese painters. It was Sergei Eisenstein who first pointed out the cinematic importance of framing in Japanese painting, and Miyagawa claimed that his sophisticated tracking and crane techniques were influenced by his study of classical Japanese ink painting.

A native of Kyoto, Miyagawa began studying film in the 1920s and was particularly impressed by German films of that period, with their high-contrast lighting. He joined Japan's major film production company, Nikkatsu Corp, in 1926 after graduating from Kyoto Commercial School.

His first film as director of photography was the 1938 chauvinistic propaganda film, 'Shusse taiko-ki/A Great World Power Rising'. But his genius only became recognized in the 1950s with his work on the Mizoguchi and Kurosawa films.

Another of Miyagawa's supreme achievements was on Kon Ichikawa's 'Tokyo orimpikku/Tokyo Olympiad', where he oversaw 164 cameramen, who used 234 different lenses. Special viewfinders and exposure meters had to be developed to bring competitors into tight close-ups under all conditions.

In later years, Miyagawa brought his talents to bear on genre movies such as the Zatôichi series, which told of a blind man who works as a masseur but is also a master swordsman.' [From obituary by Ronald Bergan in 'The Guardian', 20 August 1999.]

'If ever a cameraman was the true intellect behind the films he shot, it was Kazuo Miyagawa, an artist almost totally ignored. He worked for all the great Japanese directors in a new, sensitive, yet revolutionary style. Yet, in Tadao Sato's two-volume history of the Japanese cinema, he receives only fleeting references, name only, with no attempt to define the high quality of his art. Shigehiko Hasumi's almost unreadable work on Yasujiro Ozu devotes several pages to the academic analysis of the striking pictorial effects in 'Ukigusa/Floating Weeds' [1959] yet never once mentions the creative talent of Miyagawa that made them possible.

Kazuo Miyagawa was born in Kyoto, an ancient capital city whose pre-war refinement had an enduring influence on his cinematography. As a youth, he was a gifted artist in sumi-oe Chinese ink painting, whose very subtle tones and shadings of gray illuminated his later work in films. In the black-and-white of the world-famous 'Rashômon/In the Woods' [1950], in which he was the first cameraman to shoot deliberately into the sun, his rich varieties of light and shade actually suggest color, as classic ink paintings do. The characteristic slow fluid movements of his camera remind us of the force and delicacy of brush-strokes.

In 1926 he graduated from Kyoto Commercial School and was hired by the Kyoto Nikkatsu Studios as apprentice technician, then assistant cameraman. He tried his hand at all types of entertainment, and after moving to Kyoto Daiei Movie Company his work on Hiroshi Inagaki's 1943 film about a rickshaw man, 'Muhomatsu no issho/Rickshaw Man/The Life of Matsu the Untamed', won him critical acclaim. It was wartime, and the movie was censored by the authorities. After the defeat, it was again censored by MacArthur's General Headquarters officials in Tokyo.

Meanwhile, Miyagawa had started working in 1951 for a very great filmmaker, Kenji Mizoguchi, whose 'Ugetsu monogatari/Tales of the Pale and Silvery Moon After the Rain/Tales of Ugetsu' [1953] became an enduring classic.

In 1964, Miyagawa found fresh filming freedom in using a hand-held camera to make a fine documentary about the Tokyo Olympics, 'Tokyo orimpikku/Tokyo Olympiad/Seido no kando'. In this film, Miyagawa's improvisatory camera movements often resemble brush strokes, and allowed him to establish a unique intimacy with both athletes and crowds of spectators.

In the 1980s he started working with a good younger director, Masahiro Shinoda, and long after retirement, at the age of 91 and the end of his life, he was supervising Shinoda's new movie 'Fukuro no shiro/Owls' Castle', based on the celebrated historical novel by Ryotaro Shiba.

But he will always be remembered best for his electrifying camera work on 'Rashômon'. Kurosawa in his autobiography 'Something Like an Autobiography' [1983] rather grudgingly pays tribute to his cameraman's skills, which brought world-wide attention to the Japanese film industry.

While Kurosawa was in every way a big man, 'the Emperor' of Japanese film, Miyagawa was a small man physically, always neatly dressed in a business suit and bow tie, and it may be that it was his short stature that caused him to be so often overlooked. Even Shinoda made jokes about his having to stand on a box to reach the camera.

In 1981, Miyagawa was honored with a retrospective screening by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. But he has still had no retrospective in Japan.' [From obituary by James Kirkup in 'The Independent', 30 September 1999.]

"Rashômon"

"Ugetsu monogatari"

"Gion bayashi"

"Sanshô dayû"

"Chikamatsu monogatari"

"Yojimbo"

1935 Komoriuta Bushuoroshi/The Ballad of Bushu's Brolly [Mitsuzô Miyata] b&w

1936 Ittoryu shinan/First Class Teaching/The Ito Style [Seiichi Ishibashi] b&w

1936 Gokuraku hanayome-juku/Paradise for 19 Brides/School for Heavenly Brides [Juzaburo Ogata] b&w

1937 Hiryu no ken/Matchless Sword/Sword of the Flying Dragon [Hiroshi Inagaki] b&w

1938 Kurama tengu: Kakubei-jishi no maki/Tengu Kurama: The Book of Kakubei's Lion Club [Masahiro Makino & Teiji

1938 Shusse taiko-ki/Chance for Promotion/A Great World Power Rising [Hiroshi Inagaki] b&w

1939 Sonno sonjuku/Village School for Followers of the Emperor [Hiroshi Inagaki] b&w

1939 Eno utagassen/Oshidori utagassen/Bird Song/Singing Lovebirds [or: Gaou utaggasen/The Geese and the

1940 Miyamoto Musashi: Dai-ichi-bu: Kusawake no hitobito - Dai-ni-bu: Eitatsu no mon/Musashi Miyamoto [Hiroshi

1941 Kurama Tengu: Satsuma no misshi/Tengu Kurama: The Emissary from Satsuma [Kanji Suganuma] b&w

1942 Mampou hatten-shi: umi no gozoku/History of the South Seas: The Ocean Tribes [Ryohei Arai] b&w

1943 Muhomatsu no issho/Rickshaw Man/The Life of Reckless Matsu/The Life of Matsu the Untamed [Hiroshi

1944 Dohyo matsuri/Dohyosai/Sumo Festival/Wrestling-Ring Festival [Santaro Marune] b&w

1944 Saigo no joitu/The Patriot's Last Tea Party/The Last Abdication [Hiroshi Inagaki] b&w

1946 Tebukoro o nugasu otoko/A Man Takes Off His Gloves [or: Tebukoro o nugasu onna/A Woman Takes Off Her

1946 Yari-odori gojusan tsugi/Spear Dance of the 53 Patches [Kazuo Mori] b&w

1948 Koshoku gonin onna/The Lady's Five Lascivious Duties [Akira Nobuchi] b&w

1948 Kuro-un kaido/Highway of Black Clouds [Toshio Matsuda & Kazuo Mori] b&w

1949 Shinsai kaigai/Earthquake in a Foreign Land [or: Ni-izumi kaigi/New Wives Conference] [Yasuki Chiba] b&w

1949 Onna goroshi abura jigoku/Greasy Hell of Murderous Women [Akira Nobuchi] b&w

1950 Hebi-hime dochu/Travels of the Snake Princess [Keigo Kimura & Santaro Marune] b&w; in 2 parts

1950 Jogashima no ame/Jogashima's Rain [or: Jogasaki no ame/Jogasaki's Rain] [Shigeo Tanaka] b&w

1951 Genji monogatari/A Tale of Genji [Kozaburo Yoshimura] b&w; ?; ph: Kôhei Sugiyama

1952 Nishijin no shimai/Nishijin's Sisters/Sisters of Nishijin [Kozaburo Yoshimura] b&w

1952 Taki no shiraito/Water Magician/White Threads of the Cascades [Akira Nobuchi] b&w

1952 Otto-bi kago/Cage for Husbands [or: Suttobi kago/Express Sedan] [Masahiro Makino] b&w

1953 Ugetsu monogatari/Ugetsu/Tales of the Pale and Silvery Moon After the Rain/Tales of Ugetsu [Kenji

1954 Uwasa no onna/The Woman in the Rumor/The Crucified Woman [Kenji Mizoguchi] b&w

1954 Chikamatsu monogatari/A Story from Chikamatsu/Crucified Lovers [Kenji Mizoguchi] b&w

1955 Tenka o neru/A Handsome Lad Dreams of Conquering the World [Ryohei Arai] ?

1955 Shin heike monogatari/Tales of the Taira Clan/The Taira Clan/Taira Clan Saga [Kenji Mizoguchi] c; cph:

1956 Yoru no kawa/Yoru no chô/Night River/Leaves of Night [Kozaburo Yoshimura] c

1957 Suzaku-mon/Suzaku Gate [or: Sujako-mon/Love of a Princess] [Kazuo Mori] c

1958 Tsukihime keizu/Family Tree of Princess Moon/Treasure Huntress [Minoru Watanabe] ?

1959 Jokyo/A Woman's Testament [ep 'Koi o wasureteita onna/The Woman Who Forgot Love' dir by Kozaburo Yoshimura]

1960 Konki/Marriageable Age/The Age of Marriage [Kozaburo Yoshimura] scope/c

1961 Kutsukate Tokijiro/Kutsukate of Tokijiro/The Gambler's Code [Kazuo Ikehiro] b&w

1962 Hakai/The Outcast/The Broken Commandment/The Sin [Kon Ichikawa] scope/b&w

1963 Echizen take-ningyo/The Bamboo Doll of Echizen [Kozaburo Yoshimura] b&w

1963 Dokonjo monogatari - zeni no odori/The Money Dance/Money Talks [Kon Ichikawa] Daieiscope/c; cph: William

1964 Zatôichi senryô-kubi/Zatoichi and the Chest of Gold [Kazuo Ikehiro] scope/c; ep #6 of series

1964 Tokyo orimpikku/Tokyo Olympiad/Seido no kando [Kon Ichikawa] cs/c; doc/165m; cph: Shigeo Hayashida, Tadashi

1964 Suruga yûkyôden: yabure takka/Gambler's Story of Suruga: Engaged in Pleasures [Tokuzo Tanaka] c

1966 Zatôichi no uta ga kikoeru/The Blind Swordsman's Vengeance/Zatoichi's Song Is Heard/Zatoichi's

1966 Malenkiy beglets/Chiisana tobosha/The Little Runaway [Teinosuke Kinugasa & Eduard Bocharov] c; cph: Pyotr

1967 Zatôichi ro-yaburi/Zatoichi's Prison Break/The Blind Swordsman's Rescue/Zatoichi the Outlaw [Satsuo

1968 Zatôichi hatashi-jo/Zatoichi and the Fugitives/The Blind Swordsman and the Fugitives [Kimiyoshi Yasuda]

1969 Koroshiya o barase/Kill the Killer/Trail of Blood [Kazuo Ikehiro] c; in 2 parts

1969 Zatôichi to Yôjimbô/Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo/Zatoichi vs. Yojimbo [Kihachi Okamoto] scope/c; ep #? of series

1970 Zatôichi abare-himatsuri/Zatoichi at the Fire Festival/Zatoichi: The Festival of Fire [Kenji Misumi] scope/c; ep

1972 Mushukunin mikogami no jôkichi/Outlaw Jokichi from Mikoshin [Kazuo Ikehiro] cs/c; in 2-parts

1972 Kozure ôkami: Oya no kokoro ko no kokoro/Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril/Kozure the Wolf [Buichi

1973 Goyôkiba: Kamisori Hanzo jigoku zeme/Authority's Fangs: Hanzo the Razor and the Torments of Hell/

Tortures of Hell/Kung Fu Hara Kiri/Razor 2: The Snare [Yasuzo Masumura] cs/c

1977 Hanre goze Orin/Banished Orin/The Ballad of Orin/Melody in Grey/Banished [Masahiro Shinoda] c

1979 Kagemusha/The Double/Kagemusha the Shadow Warrior [Akira Kurosawa] c; co-ph cons (Miyagawa started as

doph, but was forced to leave because of an eye infection); ph: Takao Saitô & Masaharu Ueda

1980 Akuma-to/Akuryo-to/Devil's Island/Akuryo Island/Island of the Evil Spirits [Masahiro Shinoda] c

1984 Setouchi shonen yakyu-dan/MacArthur's Children/Boys Baseball Team of Setouchi [Masahiro Shinoda] b&w-c

1988 Maihime/The Dancer/Die Tänzerin [Masahiro Shinoda] p/c; cph: Jürgen Jürges

1999 Fukuro no shiro/Owls' Castle [Masahiro Shinoda] c; ph superv; ph: Tatsuo Suzuki