was a pioneering Japanese

cinematographer The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the photographing or recording of a film, television production, music video or other live action piece. The cinematographer is the ch ...

Career

Born in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, Ohara joined

Shochiku () is a Japanese film and kabuki production and distribution company. It also produces and distributes anime films, in particular those produced by Bandai Namco Filmworks (which has a long-time partnership—the company released most, if not all ...

's Kamata Studio in 1924 and was promoted to cinematographer in 1927. He is most known for his work with

Heinosuke Gosho was a Japanese film director and screenwriter who directed Japan's first sound film, '' The Neighbor's Wife and Mine'', in 1931. His films are mostly associated with the shomin-geki (lit. "common people drama") genre. Among his most noted works ...

, including ''The Dancing Girl of Izu'' (1933), and for the soft tone of his images. He helped establish the modern touch of Shochiku's cinematography at Kamata along with Bunjirō Mizutani and

Mitsuo Miura was a Japanese cinematographer who photographed more than 100 films in a career which spanned 30 years. He worked for film directors such as Shirō Toyoda, Heinosuke Gosho, Mikio Naruse, Shigeyoshi Suzuki (film director), Shigeyoshi Suzuki and K ...

. He later worked at Tokyo Hassei Eiga,

Toho is a Japanese film, theatre production and distribution company. It has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. Outside of Japan, it is best known as the producer an ...

Shintoho was a Japanese movie studio. It was one of the big six film studios (which also included Daiei, Nikkatsu, Shochiku, Toei Company, and Toho) during the Golden Age of Japanese cinema. It was founded by defectors from the original Toho company fol ...

, and

Daiei Film Daiei Film Co. Ltd. ( Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ''Daiei Eiga Kabushiki Kaisha'') was a Japanese film studio. Founded in 1942 as Dai Nippon Film Co., Ltd., it was one of the major studios during the postwar Golden Age of Japanese cinema, producing ...

. He shot films for many of Japan's great directors such as

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 ...

Yasujirō Ozu was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. He began his career during the era of silent films, and his last films were made in colour in the early 1960s. Ozu first made a number of short comedies, before turning to more serious themes in t ...

Kenji Mizoguchi was a Japanese film director and screenwriter, who directed about one hundred films during his career between 1923 and 1956. His most acclaimed works include ''The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums'' (1939), ''The Life of Oharu'' (1952), ''Uget ...

Kōzaburō Yoshimura was a Japanese film director. Biography Born in Shiga Prefecture, he joined the Shōchiku studio in 1929. He debuted as director in 1934, but continued working as an assistant director for such filmmakers as Yasujirō Ozu and Yasujirō Shimazu ...

Yutaka Abe was a Japanese film director and actor. He went to America along with a younger brother to visit an uncle living in Los Angeles. There he enrolled in an acting school, and upon hearing that Thomas H. Ince was looking for Japanese extras to work i ...

Masahiro Makino was a Japanese film director. He directed more than 260 films, primarily in the chanbara and yakuza genres. His real name was , but he took the stage name Masahiro, the kanji for which he changed multiple times (including , , and ). Career Masa ...

, Shohei Imamura,

Shūe Matsubayashi (born July 7, 1920 - August 15, 2009, Shimane Prefecture, Japan) was a Japanese film director. He is best known for films in the comedy and war genres. He was also an ordained Shin Buddhist priest. His final work as director was in the 1992 fi ...

, and

Koji Shima was a Japanese film director, actor, and screenwriter. Career Born as Takehiko Kagoshima in Nagasaki, Shima left for Tokyo after graduating from high school. He was in the first class of the Nihon Eiga Haiyū Gakkō and joined the Nikkatsu stu ...

. In 1954, he won the award for best cinematography at the

Mainichi Film Awards The are a series of annual film awards, sponsored by Mainichi Shinbun (毎日新聞), one of the largest newspaper companies in Japan, since 1946. It is the first film festival in Japan. History The origins of the contest date back to 1935, ...

for his work on ''Ai to shi no tanima'' and ''Niwatori wa futatabi naku''.

Selected filmography

*''

The Dancing Girl of Izu is a novel by Japanese writer and Nobel Prize winner Yasunari Kawabata first published in 1926. Plot The narrator, a twenty-year-old student from Tokyo, travels the Izu Peninsula during the last days of the summer holidays, a journey which h ...

'' (1933) *'' Somniloquy of the Bridegroom'' (Hanamuko no negoto) (1935) *'' A Burden of Life'' (Jinsei no onimotsu) (1935) *'' Lady of the Night with a Hazy Moon'' (Oboroyo no onna) (1936) *'' The New Road (Part one)'' (Shindō zenhen) (1936) *'' The New Road (Part two)'' (Shindō kōhen) (1936) *''

Ahen senso (or ) aka ''The Opium War '' is a 1943 black-and-white Japanese film directed by Masahiro Makino. "Ahen senso" in Japan refers to the First Opium War The First Opium War (), also known as the Opium War or the Anglo-Sino War was a series ...

'' (1943) *''

The Most Beautiful is a 1944 Japanese drama and propaganda film written and directed by Akira Kurosawa. The semidocumentary film follows a group of female volunteer workers at an optics factory during the Second World War, during which the film was produced. Plot ...

'' (1944) *''

The Munekata Sisters is a 1950 drama film directed by Yasujirō Ozu and starring Kinuyo Tanaka and Hideko Takamine was a Japanese actress who began as a child actress and maintained her fame in a career that spanned 50 years. She is particularly known for her col ...

'' (1950) *''

Portrait of Madame Yuki , also titled ''A Picture of Madame Yuki'', is a 1950 Japanese drama film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. Plot Yuki Shinano, a descendant of the once powerful Shinano family, is living in an unhappy marriage with her husband Naoyuki. Although he tr ...

'' (1950) *''

Inn at Osaka Inns are generally establishments or buildings where travelers can seek lodging, and usually, food and drink. Inns are typically located in the country or along a highway; before the advent of motorized transportation they also provided accommo ...

'' (Osaka no yado) (1954) *''

Non-chan Kumo ni Noru , is a 1955 Japanese film directed by Fumito Kurata. It was based on a best-seller by Momoko Ishii was a distinguished Japanese writer and translator of children's books. She was the first member of the Japanese Art Academy from the field of ch ...

'' (1955) *''

Takekurabe , English titles including ''Growing Up'' and ''Child's Play'', is a novella by Japanese writer Ichiyō Higuchi, first published in 1895–96. It depicts a group of youths growing up in Shitaya Ryūsenji-chō, Yoshiwara, Meiji era Tokyo's red ligh ...

'' (1955) *''

Endless Desire is a 1958 Japanese black comedy and crime film by Shōhei Imamura. Plot Ten years after the end of the war, a group of ex-soldiers meets to dig up a supply of morphine which had been hidden in an air-raid shelter: Onuma, pharmacist Nakata, prof ...

'' (1958)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ohara, Joji Japanese cinematographers 1902 births People from Tokyo 1990 deaths