Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998), Japan’s most famous film director who loved and valued reading, is known to have had one all-time favourite book: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), but his favourite book by a Japanese author was Natsume Soseki’s (1867-1916) Sanshiro.
Sanshiro was originally published in a newspaper serialisation in 1908 in the Asahi Shimbun, one of Japan’s most prestigious daily newspapers, which still publishes serialised novels by leading authors.
The novel – a coming of age tale that depicts the life of Sanshiro Ogawa who arrives in Tokyo to attend Tokyo University, from Kyushu, and his adventures in Tokyo with fellow students, professors and women.
Books influenced Kurosawa and his films from the very start of his film making career. A novel titled Sanshiro Sugata (Judo Saga) about Judo written by a prize-winning Japanese author and judo master, launched Kurosawa’s career as a director, with his first film being an adaptation of the book, released in 1943.
