Something Like an Autobiography (24 page)

CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE LEFT:
As a baby, with his nurse; mounted on his rocking-horse; at age 5 (seated) with his brother Heigo, and their niece, Mikiko; and wearing his favorite hat, at age 3 with Heigo.

On graduation from Keika Middle School in 1927.

AK at the time he first went to work at the P.C.L. studios in 1935.

AK with Yama-san—Yamamoto Kajirō, his mentor as film director.

AK as assistant director to Naruse Mikio (right) on
Avalanche
(1937).

Commemorative photo of cast and crew taken at the end of shooting
Chushingura
in 1939. Director Yamamoto Kajirō is third from right in the back row; AK is in the center of the second row wearing a cloth cap, dark scarf, and light jacket. Note salt “snow” on the ground.

Cast and crew at completion of Takizawa Eisuke’s
Chinetsu
(
Subterranean Heat
, 1938). AK is seated third from left in the front row.

AK (right) directing Okochi Denjiro and Fujita Susumu in
The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail
(1945).

AK (in middle distance, wearing light hat) directs students in front of Kyoto University’s front gate during the shooting of No
Regrets for Our Youth
(1946).

AK during the same filming.

With the stars of
One Wonderful Sunday
(1947), Nakakita Chieko and Numasaki Isao.

Directing
One Wonderful Sunday
.

AK (behind camera) watches closely as Mifune Toshiro throttles Shimura Takashi during the filming of
Drunken Angel
(1948).

AK about 1951 (Photo: Francis Haar)