Toad07 I want to be like Father
Kurosawa-san describes the large effect his Father had on his own attitude towards Sport, Movies and it seems, Life.
Hello!
Hope this letter finds you in good spirits!
Welcome to another edition of the Toad1! (Croak Croak) This series of letters is an illustration of Akira Kurosawa’s autobiography as read / understood by me. I hope you enjoy reading them!
Today’s letter is the 7th in the 🐸Toad series. If you are wondering where the others are, you can find them all in this section (link) on the substack.
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And if you are among the number-attuned people, you might wonder why there is no Toad06. Well, truthfully there is, or was. “Toad 06 Seeing Red”. And it had to do with Kurosawa-san recounting two memories and incidents. Both worth diving into. While he does it with some nuance and some insouciance that (in my experience) comes with having lived a long life - try as I might, I could neither write or draw it in a manner that fit how I thought it should have been done. I gave myself 2 alternate thursdays to try writing and drawing them, but it sadly didnt work out well enough.
Hopefully, I should be able to do better on these in future Toad editions. So, there, hope that settles the numbers bijiness business.
Today’s edition
In today’s edition, we are catching up with Kurosawa-san’s inaugural chapter, which he ends by recollecting the influence of his family - pacifically specifically his father.
TheMovie
Kurosawa-san tells us of his childhood visits to the movie halls and memories of scenes from then:
Another scene I recall shows a boy and girl who have become friends on a ship. The ship is on the verge of sinking, and the boy is about to step into an already overfull lifeboat when he sees the girl still on the ship. He gives her his place in the lifeboat and stays behind on the ship, waving goodbye.
(emphasis added)
I was reading this and thinking, man, that sounds so much like the Titanic’s plot2.
Then, I read more:
This was apparently a film adaptation of the Italian novel Il Cuore (The Heart).
(emphasis added)
I tried to look up what this movie or novel was - and while I found that Wiki said it was famous novel (from 1880s), it also said that it was for kids - and the first movie information said it was put-out in the 1940s/early 50s - When Kurosawa himself was Directing Rashomon, Scandal and many more movies!
Now, Kurosawa-san’s childhood was in the 1910s and 1920s, so it was likely a movie which we don’t have much info of now - on the Internet, anyway. (And the original Titanic i.e., the ship, had its maiden - and last - voyage in 1912.)
The Policeman.
On his choice of movies, as a child, Kurosawa-san continues:
But I much preferred comedy. One day when we went to the theater, they weren’t showing a comedy, and I cried and fretted about it. I remember my older sisters telling me I was being so stupid and disobedient that a policeman was coming to take me away. I was terrified.
(emphasis added)
This, I think would have made for a fabulous drawing or sketch - I might try later, have a couple of thinks to look up on how to portray Japanese police from before the 2nd World War. But it also seems to be a universal “kid/younger one” control mechanism - point to some vague threat if they don’t behave!
I am also somewhat reminded of my observation3 from a previous post:
Often enough while reading, I wonder if Kurosawa-san would have made a fine comedy-movie director too - on par with Charlie Chaplin, given the way he narrates his (Kurosawa’s) own life.
Was the World deprived of a series of lovely Comedy movies defining an Era because Kurosawa-san did not get the appropriate push for that, I wonder? What a shame, if it were so! 🥲
Being Father’s son.
What comes through is Kurosawa-san’s respect and admiration for his father. And it seems to be - so far as I understand, a son wanting to be like his father - respected, loved and responsible.
Kurosawa-san describes what he perceives his enjoyment of movies to be:
I relished laughing, getting scared, feeling sad and being moved to tears.
Looking back and reflecting on it, I think my father’s attitude toward films reinforced my own inclinations and encouraged me to become what I am today. He was a strict man of military background, but at a time when the idea of watching movies was hardly well received in educators’ circles, he took his whole family to the movies regularly. Later in more reactionary times he steadfastly maintained his conviction that going to the movies has an educational value; he never changed.
(emphasis added)
The Yokozuna
When I was small, it seems that I was very weak and sickly. My father used to complain about this state of affairs in spite of the fact that “we had the yokozuna [champion sumo wrestler] Umegatani4 hold you in his arms when you were a baby so that you would grow strong.”.
(emphasis added)
It seems that in most cultures of history, there is a tendency to have young babies/children be held by some of the “Strongmen” of that culture so that the Strength and vitality of these strong men also is somehow absorbed into these babies existence and lives.
If you are wondering why I have drawn the Yokozuna this way, I present a brief video I saw (before posting, but after drawing) that should showcase why.
I don’t quite know enough about American sports (or Sumo Wrestling!) to know what is the capability of the men in question, but the man who asked for a wrestler in his own “Weight class” - he’s himself 110 kilos5 and 6ft 3” tall!
Kurosawa-san ends the Chapter with:
Nevertheless, I am my father’s son. I, too, like both watching and participating in sports, and I approach sports in terms of single-minded devotion to a discipline. This is clearly my father’s influence.
(emphasis added)
If there was a good way to give tribute to fathers, it would be this.
One of the many, many, many good things of reading and re-reading his autobiography is learning how much credit Kurosawa-san gives to each member of his family, and the people who raised him, mentored him. A topic worthwhile to return to at a later date.
Very admirable, humbling.
The Drawing and the Learning
Ordinarily this would be the heading under which I would write more about the drawing, my difficulties with it and also what I learnt. But, I am saving that up for this Week’s “The Weekley”. See you then!
Update: The Weekley 03 Post is up, as of writing, you can see it here (link)
Thank you for reading
If you enjoyed the post, do share it with a friend, a family member or a coworker:
Don’t forget to read this aloud to your Dog🐕 or Cat😸 (or pet Frog🐸!) - they don’t have opposing thumbs to scroll phones.
Have a good one!
Mr Noob,😸🫡
Captain of MrNoobLearnsToDraw
If you are wondering why you are seeing TWO Toad07s today… Apologies, that was uh, PEBKAC error. Scheduling the wrong post, during sleepy time. 🥲🤦♂️
PEBKAC: (link)
Makes me wonder how much of film-making and story-telling is really just re-telling of stories! .