Hayao Miyazaki

Animator, Author, Cartoonist, Director, Screenwriter, Studio Head, Writer

05/01/1941

present

Tokyo, Japan

List based on Miyazaki’s employment history in chronological order:
1963-1971: Tōei Animation (東映アニメーション株式会社)
1971-1973: A-Pro aka Shin-ei Animation (シンエイ動画株式会社)
1973-1979: Zuiyō Eizō aka Nippon Animation (ズイヨー映像 later regrouped as 日本アニメーション株式会社)
1979-1982: Telecom Animation Film (株式会社テレコム・アニメーションフィルム)
1985-present: Studio Ghibli (株式会社スタジオジブリ)

Biography

Miyazaki Hayao (宮崎駿) is an internationally renowned and influential Japanese animator, director, screenwriter, and comic artist. He is the co-founder of Studio Ghibli and the winner of two Best Animated Feature Academy Awards.

Family and early life

Miyazaki’s father, Katsuji Miyazaki (1915–1993), ran Miyazaki Airplane, a military equipment company manufacturing products for the Japanese army during WWII. Miyazaki always felt guilty for his family history in contributing to Imperial Japan’s killing in invaded countries (Miyazaki, 228), resulting in his life-long anti-war advocation evident in many of his works such as Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (風の谷のナウシカ, 1984), Castle in the Sky (天空の城ラピュタ, 1986), Porco Rosso (紅の豚, 1992), and The Wind Rises (風立ちぬ, 2013).

Career outline

After graduating from Gakushūin University (学習院大学), Tokyo, in 1963, Miyazaki entered Tōei Animation as an animator and worked on projects such as Wolf Boy Ken (狼少年ケン, 1963-1965) and The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun (太陽の王子 ホルスの大冒険, 1968) (McCarthy, 217). He left Tōei in 1971 and worked for various studios including A-Pro, Zuiyō Eizō, and Telecom Animation Film on Panda! Go Panda! (パンダ・コパンダ, 1972), his first feature-length animated film Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro (ルパン三世 カリオストロの城, 1979), and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (風の谷のナウシカ, 1984), based on Miyazaki’s comic of the same name (1982–1994).

In 1985, Miyazaki and his friend Isao Takahata (高畑勲, 1935-2018) founded Studio Ghibli. In the following years, Miyazaki made most of his most renowned works, including Castle in the Sky (天空の城ラピュタ, 1986), My Neighbour Totoro (1988) (となりのトトロ, 1988), Kiki’s Delivery Service (魔女の宅急便, 1989), Porco Rosso (紅の豚, 1992), Princess Mononoke (もののけ姫, 1997), and finally, Spirited Away (千と千尋の神隠し,2001), which won Best Animated Feature of Oscar in 2003 (“The 75th Academy Awards (2003)”).

Miyazaki continued directing Howl’s Moving Castle (ハウルの動く城, 2004), Ponyo (崖の上のポニョ, 2008), and The Wind Rises (風立ちぬ, 2013), with the first and third nominated for Best Animated Feature of the Academy Awards. However, it wasn’t until his most recent animation, The Boy and the Heron (君たちはどう生きるか, 2023), that he won his second Oscar (“The 96th Academy Awards (2024)”).

References:

McCarthy, Helen. Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation. Stone Bridge Press, Inc., 1999.
Miyazaki, Hayao. Starting Point: 1979-1996. Translated by Cary Beth and Frederik L. Schodt, United States, VIZ Media LLC, 1996.
“The 75th Academy Awards (2003)”. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 28 Nov. 2017. https://oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2003
“The 96th Academy Awards (2024)”. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 10 Mar. 2024. https://oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2024

External Links:

Brtannica: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Miyazaki-Hayao
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0594503/