Kazuo Miyagawa

The Museum of Modern Art called him "most influential cinematographer of postwar Japanese cinema."

• Name — Kazuo Miyagawa • Born — 25 February 1908 • Birthplace — Kyoto, Empire of Japan • Died — 7 August 1999 • Place of death — Tokyo, Japan • Occupation — Cinematographer • Known for — Bleach bypass technique • Children — 3

Born in Kyoto, Miyagawa was taken with sumi-e Chinese ink painting from the age of eleven and began to sell his work as an illustrator while a teenager. He became interested in the cinema during the 1920s, particularly admiring the German Expressionist silents. He joined the Nikkatsu film company in 1926 after graduating from Kyoto Commercial School. He began as a laboratory technician before becoming an assistant cameraman. Miyagawa cited the cinematography of Eiji Tsuburaya, Hiromitsu Karasawa and Kenzo Sakai as an influence on his career. Miyagawa is best known for his tracking shots, particularly those in Rashomon (1950), the first of his collaborations with filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. Other films with Kurosawa include Yojimbo (1961) and initial preparations for Kagemusha (1980). He also worked on multiple films directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, including Ugetsu (1953). Still, only on a single Yasujirō Ozu production, Floating Weeds (1959). He oversaw 164 cameramen for Kon Ichikawa's Tokyo Olympiad (1965), a documentary which necessitated the development of new exposure meters and viewfinders. Earlier, he had worked with Ichikawa on the drama films, Enjō ("The Temple of the Golden Pavilion", 1958), Odd Obsession (aka, The Key, 1959) and The Broken Commandment (1962). Miyagawa worked with Masahiro Shinoda in the 1980s, and at the end of his life was supervising the director's Owls' Castle ("Fukuro no Shiro"/"Castle of Owls", 1999). Miyagawa is considered the inventor of the cinematographic technique known as bleach bypass, for Ichikawa's film Her Brother (1960).

• Singing Lovebirds • Rashomon • Ugetsu Monogatari • A Geisha • The Woman in the Rumor • Sansho the Bailiff • The Crucified Lovers • Street of Shame • The Love of a Princess • Enjo • The Gay Masquerade • Odd Obsession • Floating Weeds (1959) • Scar Yosaburo • Her Brother (1960) • Yojimbo • Zatoichi and the Chest of Gold • Tokyo Olympiad • Zatoichi's Vengeance • Zatoichi the Outlaw • A Certain Killer (1967) • Zatoichi and the Fugitives (1968) • Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo (1970) • Zatoichi Goes to the Fire Festival (1970) • Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril (1972) • MacArthur's Children

Kazuo Miyagawa is recorded as film director, cinematographer and camera operator.