ID card
Name: Hayao Miyazaki
Date of birth: 5 January 1941
Country of birth: Japan
Profession: Director
In Japanese, Hayao Miyazaki is written 宮崎駿.
Things to know about Hayao Miyazaki
With his family, he was forced to flee his hometown, Tokyo, because of the bombing by the American army. This experience marked him, and he explored it through many of his works, using many themes linked to this flight (mourning, childhood, aviation, etc.).
Passionate about drawing and comics from his earliest childhood, he joined the Tōei animation studio as an in-betweener (this role consists of drawing all the animation frames between two key stages), where he met Yasuo Otsuka and Isao Takahata, two important figures of animation. Together, they worked on The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun (1968).
Hayao Miyazaki's commitment
Ecology
Miyazaki is an environmentalist. He is very alert to urban changes and wary of them. His culture of animism and Shinto (there's a soul in everything) makes him very attuned to his environment.
Through his creations, he showcases nature, and explains that it must be protected. He develops the idea that nature can be fragile, but also vengeful, and that it's important to take care of it.
Feminism
Hayao Miyazaki is one of the first illustrators to write films with, mainly, heroines.
For him, women have their own destiny in their own hands. The men he draws alongside them are never placed as saviours. He has always seen the women around him as extremely strong, independent people, and he never wanted to level one or the other.
Hayao Miyazaki's career
Filmography (non-exhaustive)
Feature films
- 1986: Castle in the Sky
- 1988: My Neighbour Totoro
- 1989: Kiki's Delivery Service
- 1997: Princess Mononoke
- 2001: Spirited Away
TV series
- 1978: Future Boy Conan
- 1984: Sherlock Hound (6 episodes: The Little Client, The Kidnapping of Mrs Hudson, The Blue Carbuncle, The Treasure of the Sea, The Airmail, The Disappearance of the Gold Coins)
Animator
- 1968: Horus, Prince of the Sun by Isao Takahata
- 1969: Puss in Boots by Kimio Yabuki
- 1969: The Flying Phantom Ship by Hiroshi Ikeda
- 1972: Panda! Go, Panda! by Isao Takahata
- 1973: Panda! Go, Panda!: Rainy Day Circus by Isao Takahata
Some awards won by Hayao Miyazaki
Films
- Academy Award (best animated film):
- 2003 for Spirited Away
- Nomination in 2006 for Howl's Moving Castle
- Nomination in 2014 for The Wind Rises
- Golden Bear for best film at the Berlinale:
- 2002 for Spirited Away
- Nomination at the César Awards in the best foreign film category:
- 2003 for Spirited Away
- Japan Academy Prize:
- 2002: best film for Spirited Away
- 2014: best animated film for The Wind Rises
Personal awards
- 2001: Knight of Arts and Letters, and receives the Medal of the City of Paris (Grand Vermeil) on the occasion of the Nouvelles Images du Japon festival
- 2002: lifetime achievement award at the Japan Academy Prize
- 2012: Person of Cultural Merit
- 2014: Inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame and the Science Fiction Museum's
- 2015: Honorary Oscar
To learn more about the life of the artist Hayao Miyazaki, we recommend watching this short video by Brut:
If Hayao Miyazaki's works interest you, find all his biggest works on Netflix from 1 March 2020 😉
Did you know Hayao Miyazaki? Which of his works have you already seen?
