Kōbō Abe
Teshigahara – who was the son of a famed ikebana master (Sofu Teshigahara), began his career with a number of avant-garde shorts, including "Hokusai" (1953), "Ikebana" (1956), "Inochi" (1958), "Tokyo 1958" and "José Torres (part 1)" (1959); he had studied art at the Tokyo Art Institute. He launched his feature career a few years later, frequently collaborating with avant-garde novelist Kōbō Abe, making a name for himself with the self-financed independent "Pitfall" (1962), which he described as a "documentary fantasy", and subsequently winning the jury prize at the 1964 Cannes Film Festival for "Woman in the Dunes".