Legacy

Kurosawa Production Co., established in 1959, continues to oversee much of Kurosawa’s legacy. The director’s son, Hisao Kurosawa, is the current head of the company. Its American subsidiary, Kurosawa Enterprises, is located in LA. Rights to Kurosawa’s works are held by Kurosawa Production and the film studios under which he worked.

A large collection of archive material, including scanned screenplays, photos and news articles, has been made available through the Akira Kurosawa Digital Archive, a Japanese website maintained by Ryukoku University Digital Archives Research Center in collaboration with Kurosawa Production.

"The greatest living example of all that an author of the cinema should be"

Federico Fellini

"I have learned more from him than from almost any other filmmaker on the face of the earth."

Steven Spielberg

"Let me say it simply: Akira Kurosawa was my master, and … the master of so many other filmmakers over the years."

Martin Scorsese

"The effect of Rashomon on me was electric. I saw it three times on consecutive days and wondered each time if there was another film anywhere that gave such sustained dazzling proof of a director’s command over every aspect of film making"

Satyajit Ray