Hayao Miyazaki

Hayao Miyazaki was born on January 5, 1941, in Tokyo, Japan. His father, Katsuji Miyazaki, worked for Miyazaki Airplane, a company that made rudders for Japanese military aircraft during World War II. Miyazaki later recalled childhood air raids and evacuation experiences that informed recurring images of flight and war in his films. After graduating from Gakushuin University in 1963, with degrees in political science and economics, he joined Toei Animation as an in-between artist. At Toei, he met fellow animator Isao Takahata, whose work remained closely linked to his career. He began developing interests in manga and children’s literature early. His 1979 feature debut, The Castle of Cagliostro, reimagined Monkey Punch’s Lupin III as a thief confronting a counterfeit scheme in a European-style principality. Miyazaki then directed Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, released in 1984 after he had serialized the manga in Animage magazine. Set after an ecological catastrophe, the film follows Princess Nausicaä as she tries to prevent war between the Tolmekian empire and the valley’s neighbors while understanding the toxic Sea of Corruption. Its success led to the 1985 founding of Studio Ghibli by Miyazaki, Takahata, and producer Toshio Suzuki. Its first offices were in Kichijoji. At Ghibli, Miyazaki wrote and directed Laputa: Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Porco Rosso, and Princess Mononoke. Totoro centers on sisters Satsuki and Mei, who encounter forest spirits after moving near their hospitalized mother; the character Totoro became Ghibli’s emblem. Princess Mononoke, released in 1997, depicts Ashitaka caught between Lady Eboshi’s Iron Town and the forest’s gods, including San and the wolf Moro. Spirited Away, released in 2001, follows Chihiro Ogino after her parents are transformed into pigs in a supernatural bathhouse. It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 2003 ceremony. Later films included Howl’s Moving Castle, Ponyo, The Wind Rises, and The Boy and the Heron. The Wind Rises fictionalizes the life of Jiro Horikoshi, designer of the Mitsubishi A6M Zero, through an engineer named Jiro who pursues aircraft design despite tuberculosis, earthquakes, and war. Miyazaki announced retirement after that 2013 film but returned to make The Boy and the Heron, released in Japan in 2023. Its Japanese title, Kimitachi wa Dō Ikiru ka, refers to Genzaburō Yoshino’s novel. In 2024, the film received the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, giving Miyazaki his second competitive Oscar in that category.