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, 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, Shintoho, 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, Yasujirō Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi,

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, 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 Somniloquy, commonly referred to as sleep-talking, is a parasomnia in which one speaks aloud while asleep. It can range from simple mumbling sounds to loud shouts or long, frequently inarticulate, speeches. It can occur many times during a sleep c ...

'' (Hanamuko no negoto) (1935) *''

A Burden of Life A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes'' ...

'' (Jinsei no onimotsu) (1935) *''

Lady of the Night with a Hazy Moon The word ''lady'' is a term for a girl or woman, with various connotations. Once used to describe only women of a high social class or status, the equivalent of lord, now it may refer to any adult woman, as gentleman can be used for men. Inform ...

'' (Oboroyo no onna) (1936) *''

The New Road (Part one) ''The New Road'' is a historical novel by the Scottish writer Neil Munro, which was adapted as a television serial by the BBC. Munro is now mainly remembered as the creator of the comic character Para Handy, but this is regarded as the best of ...

'' (Shindō zenhen) (1936) *''

The New Road (Part two) ''The New Road'' is a historical novel by the Scottish writer Neil Munro, which was adapted as a television serial by the BBC. Munro is now mainly remembered as the creator of the comic character Para Handy, but this is regarded as the best of ...

'' (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