Born on this day in the Omori district of Tokyo, Japan, acclaimed director Akira Kurosawa (1910–1998) studied painting and worked as an accomplished screenwriter before following his passion into filmmaking.

“It is directing that makes my tree blossom and bear fruit,” the great film master once said.

Kurosawa directed his first film, Sanshiro Sugata, in 1943. Rashomon (1950), his haunting masterpiece about four conflicting accounts of a crime, introduced the magic of Kurosawa to the world.

A skilled craftsman with an eye for beauty and rich detail, he said of his creative work, “The root of any film project for me is this inner need to say something.”

The Japanese director openly admired American westerns and the work of director John Ford. That influence helped inspire his classic adventure Seven Samurai (1954), later remade by John Sturges as The Magnificent Seven with Steve McQueen.

“In a mad world only the mad are sane,” said the man who described a good film as steak spread with butter and topped with rich, broiled eels. Kurosawa created intricate storyboards for all his films, and his scripts were often shaped by his own ideas.

About the legacy of Kurosawa’s films, director Martin Scorsese said, “His influence on filmmakers throughout the entire world is so profound as to be almost incomparable.”

Akira Kurosawa believed that the artist’s task was not to retreat from life, but to face it fully. His films remind us that vision asks for courage and the discipline to keep looking.