Kinoshita, Renzo

Date of Death 15.01.1997

Born 1936 in Osaka, Japan, Kinoshita Renzo graduated from the Electrics department of Daitetsu High School before finding work making commercials in Osaka. He moved to Mainichi Broadcasting, after which he founded his own company, Peppe Productions, in 1963. Under the Peppe aegis, he worked on early TV anime such as Big X and Qtaro the Ghost. He joined Mushi Production in 1966, where he worked on Cleopatra: Queen of Sex, before forming his own Studio Lotus in 1970. His later work, often made in collaboration with his wife Sayoko (1945- ), is characterized by short animated films exhibited at film festivals-before the post-Akira boom of the 1990s, Kinoshita was arguably the "official" face of Japanese animation abroad. His Made in Japan (1972) won the Grand Prix of the inaugural New York Animation Festival, while later shorts such as Men Who Did Something First and Pikadon won similar accolades elsewhere. In recent times, his work has reflected a pacifist, internationalist, antinuclear stance, as shown in Tobiwao is Taken Ill and his unfinished Okinawa.

Kinoshita began working as an independent animator in 1967. His own major work, Made in Japan won the Grand Prix at the New York International Animation Festival in 1972. He became involved with ASIFA (The International Animated Film Association) and was a tower of strength as vice president. His wisdom and dedication had a great influence on animation in Japan and throughout Asia and he established the ASIFA Japan national group in 1981. In 1985, the first Hiroshima Animation Festival was held as a result of long years of tireless work by him and his wife Sayoko. His other well-known works include Japonese (1977)--a send up of all things Japanese, Picadon (1978)--a moving portrayal of the horror of the A-bomb attack on Hiroshima, and The Last Air Raid Kumagaya (1993).

Kinoshita was a major figure in the international animation community. For many, he and his wife Sayoko were the personification of the spirit of independent filmmaking in Japan, and were closely associated with ASIFA-Japan and the Hiroshima Animation Festival.

Miyasan, whose appearance, with trim beard and bald head, as he likes to point out, makes him look very much like Renzo, is currently character art manager at Disney Consumer Products in Burbank. He came there after working as a directing animator and designer at Baer Animation. His career in Japan spanned nearly 35 years and includes working at Osamu Tezuka's Mushi Productions on Astro Boy. He also worked at Sanrio (in Tokyo and Los Angeles) and Toei Animation, before establishing his own company, Raku-Kobu, an animation and merchandising company in Tokyo, in 1989.


(Source: AniDB)