is a Japanese
publisher
Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...
,
film producer
A film producer is a person who oversees film production. Either employed by a production company or working independently, producers plan and coordinate various aspects of film production, such as selecting the script, coordinating writing, di ...
,
director
Director may refer to:
Literature
* ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine
* ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker
* ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty
Music
* Director (band), an Irish rock band
* ''D ...
and
screenwriter
A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based.
...
. He was the son of
Genyoshi Kadokawa and inherited the position of president of the publishing house
Kadokawa Shoten
, formerly , is a Japanese publisher and division of Kadokawa Future Publishing based in Tokyo, Japan. It became an internal division of Kadokawa Corporation on October 1, 2013. Kadokawa publishes manga, light novels, manga anthology magazines su ...
in 1975. Under his guidance, the company soon branched into film production, and by 1994 Kadokawa had produced close to 60 films, many of them box-office hits. After being forced to resign from Kadokawa Shoten in 1994 due to a smuggling conviction, he established another company,
Kadokawa Haruki Corporation, that has also been involved in the publishing and film production industries.
Early life
Haruki's father was
Genyoshi Kadokawa, the founder of Japanese publishing house
Kadokawa Shoten
, formerly , is a Japanese publisher and division of Kadokawa Future Publishing based in Tokyo, Japan. It became an internal division of Kadokawa Corporation on October 1, 2013. Kadokawa publishes manga, light novels, manga anthology magazines su ...
. After graduating from high school, Haruki was accepted into the literature department of
Waseda University
, abbreviated as , is a private university, private research university in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as the ''Tōkyō Senmon Gakkō'' by Ōkuma Shigenobu, the school was formally renamed Waseda University in 1902.
The university has numerou ...
. However, with his father's influence, he was enrolled in
Kokugakuin University
Kokugakuin University (國學院大學; ''Kokugakuin Daigaku'', abbreviated as 國學大 ''Kokugakudai'' or 國大 ''Kokudai'') is a private university, whose main office is in Tokyo's Shibuya district. The academic programs and research include ...
instead. Haruki graduated in 1964 with a degree in literature and joined his father's company the next year.
Career with Kadokawa Shoten
Upon Genyoshi's death in 1975, Haruki took over as the company's president. He quickly turned the publisher's direction, changing the company that had previously been known for its serious literary and educational works into creators of popular fiction.
Kadokawa soon also branched out into the
film business. His goal was to try to reap synergy benefits by creating film adaptations of the publishing house's most popular books and marketing them simultaneously. The company's first film was the 1976 release ''
The Inugamis'', directed by
Kon Ichikawa
was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. His work displays a vast range in genre and style, from the anti-war films '' The Burmese Harp'' (1956) and '' Fires on the Plain'' (1959), to the documentary ''Tokyo Olympiad'' (1965), which won t ...
and adopted from a Kadokawa Shoten published novel written by
Seishi Yokomizo
was a Japanese mystery novelist, known for creating the fictional detective Kosuke Kindaichi.
Early life
Yokomizo was born in the city of Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture. He read detective stories as a boy and in 1921, while employed by the Daiichi Ban ...
. Due to an aggressive marketing campaign, the film ended as the second-largest earner of the year in Japan.
Between 1976 and 1993, Kadokawa produced close to 60 films. His company's pictures were usually large-scale epics with sizable budgets and matching advertising campaigns, aimed for mass audiences and box-office success. While critics weren't always kind on Kadokawa's works,
the films were consistently popular among the viewing public. By 1992, 7 out of top 20 all-time highest box-office grossing Japanese films were Kadokawa's productions.
During his time at Kadokawa Shoten, Haruki was often hailed as the savior of Japan's struggling film industry.
Kadokawa's efforts to branch into foreign markets were consistently less successful. His biggest failure came in 1992 when the 25 million
US$
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
film ''
Ruby Cairo
''Ruby Cairo'', also known as ''Deception'', is a 1992 drama thriller film directed by Graeme Clifford. It stars Andie MacDowell, Liam Neeson and Viggo Mortensen.
One scene features Aleister Crowley's ''The Book of the Law''.
Plot
When Bessie Fa ...
'' starring
Andie MacDowell
Rosalie Anderson MacDowell (born April 21, 1958) is an American actress and former fashion model. MacDowell's known for her starring film roles in romantic comedies and dramas. MacDowell has modeled for Calvin Klein and has been a spokeswoman ...
failed to find a distributor in the United States.
Kadokawa also worked as a screenwriter and a director. He made his directorial debut in 1982 with the film ''The Lost Hero''. His most notable work was the 1990 film ''
Heaven and Earth'', whose budget of over 5 billion
yen
The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third-most traded currency in the foreign exchange market, after the United States dollar (US$) and the euro. It is also widely used as a third reserve currency after the US dollar and the e ...
was the largest ever for a Japanese film at the time.
Arrest
In 1993, Kadokawa was accused of instructing photographer Takeshi Ikeda, a close aide, to smuggle
cocaine
Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly recreational drug use, used recreationally for its euphoria, euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from t ...
from the United States on several occasions.
He was charged with smuggling and embezzling money from his company in order to fund the drug purchases. While Kadokawa continued to argue his innocence throughout the ordeal, in September 1994 he was convicted and handed a four-year prison sentence,
of which he ended up serving two and a half years.
Due to the "moral embarrassment" regarding the incident, the film ''Rex: A Dinosaur's Story'', a 1993 summer blockbuster directed by Kadokawa, was pulled from theaters by Kadokawa's production company and its distribution partner,
Shochiku Company. Kadokawa himself was forced to resign from Kadokawa Shoten.
The new president was Haruki's younger brother Tsuguhiko,
who had previously been forced out of the company in favor of Haruki's son Taro.
Later career
In 1995, Kadokawa started the
Kadokawa Haruki Corporation and continued in the publishing business by purchasing the teen magazine ''
Popteen
''Popteen'' is a monthly teenage fashion magazine published by the ''Kadokawa Haruki Corporation'' in Japan. The first issue was published on 1 October 1980 by ''Kadokawa Shoten''. Later issues were published by ''Asuka Shinsha'' who bought the ...
'' from his old company Kadokawa Shoten. In 2005, after more than a decade away from the business, Kadokawa returned to producing films with the World War II epic ''
Yamato
was originally the area around today's Sakurai City in Nara Prefecture of Japan, which became Yamato Province and by extension a name for the whole of Japan.
Yamato is also the dynastic name of the ruling Imperial House of Japan.
Japanese his ...
''.
In 1997, he directed ''
Toki o Kakeru Shōjo''. He has since worked as an executive producer on ''
Genghis Khan: To the Ends of the Earth and Sea'' and a remake of
Akira Kurosawa
was a Japanese filmmaker and painter who directed thirty films in a career spanning over five decades. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Kurosawa displayed a bold, dyna ...
's ''
Sanjuro
is a 1962 black-and-white Japanese ''jidaigeki'' film directed by Akira Kurosawa and starring Toshiro Mifune. It is a sequel to Kurosawa's 1961 ''Yojimbo''.
Originally an adaptation of the Shūgorō Yamamoto novel ''Hibi Heian'', the script ...
'' in 2007.
Other ventures
Throughout his career Kadokawa has earned a reputation for flamboyancy, not all of which stems from his large scale films and their advertising campaigns. In 1974, he built his own
Shinto
Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintois ...
shrine and conducted monthly rituals there.
He wrote critically praised
haiku
is a type of short form poetry originally from Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases that contain a ''kireji'', or "cutting word", 17 '' on'' (phonetic units similar to syllables) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern, and a ''kigo'', or se ...
and
tanka
is a genre of classical Japanese poetry and one of the major genres of Japanese literature.
Etymology
Originally, in the time of the ''Man'yōshū'' (latter half of the eighth century AD), the term ''tanka'' was used to distinguish "short poem ...
poetry that was published in poetry magazines, a hobby he continued while incarcerated. In 1991, Kadokawa finished building a full-size replica of
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus
* lij, Cristoffa C(or)ombo
* es, link=no, Cristóbal Colón
* pt, Cristóvão Colombo
* ca, Cristòfor (or )
* la, Christophorus Columbus. (; born between 25 August and 31 October 1451, died 20 May 1506) was a ...
' flagship ''
Santa Maria'', which sailed from
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
to Japan, with Kadokawa initially at the helm.
Notable filmography
*''
Proof of the Man
is a Japanese film from 1977 directed by Junya Satō, starring George Kennedy and Yūsaku Matsuda. It was produced by Haruki Kadokawa.
Plot
A young black man from New York named Johnny Hayward (Joe Yamanaka) receives a sum of money. He buys ...
'' (1977)
*''
Never Give Up'' (1978)
*''
G.I. Samurai
aka ''Time Slip'', is a 1979 Japanese science fiction/ action film focusing on the adventures of a modern-day Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) team that accidentally travels in time to the . The ...
'' (1979)
*''
Virus
A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea.
Since Dmitri Ivanovsky's 1 ...
'' (1980)
*''
The Beast To Die'' (1980)
*''
Sailor Suit and Machine Gun (1981)''
*''
Detective Story
Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as specu ...
'' (1983)
*''
Heaven and Earth'' (1990)
*''Tenkawa Densetsu Satsujinjiken'' (1991)
*''Mio's Cookbook'' (2020, his final work)
Notes
References
*
*
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kadokawa, Haruki
1942 births
Living people
People convicted of money laundering
Japanese film directors
Japanese film producers
Japanese people convicted of drug offenses
Japanese prisoners and detainees
Japanese publishers (people)
Japanese editors
Samurai film directors
Businesspeople from Tokyo
Prisoners and detainees of Japan
Asian film producers
Kadokawa Shoten