On August 23, 2010, famous stop motion animator and puppet maker Kawamoto Kihachiro passed away due to complications from pneumonia. Though not known outside of Japan as well as he should be I had the opportunity to view some of his work at the 2010 Shinsedai Cinema Festival. His work is both breathtaking and masterful.

Best known for the characters he made for NHK’s live-action puppet series Romance of the Three Kingdoms (1982-1984) and Tale of Heike (1993-95) he also managed to make two feature-length works, Rennyo and His Mother (Rennyo To Sono Haha, 1981) and his final film The Book of the Dead (Shisha no sho, 2005). He completed the later when he was 80 years of age and it truly is a masterpiece. I would liken his work to traditional Japanese theatre such as Kabuki but done with puppets. Though you might consider it to be straight forward bunraku, I believe that the use of film and capturing it outside of the theatre aspects of bunraku brings it to a new level completely.

Kawamoto will truly be missed but his works will live on. I leave you with one of his short films,The Demon, so that you can know just how great he truly was.