Mitsutoshi Tanaka
Career. After graduating from the Osaka University of Arts Department of Visual Concept Planning in 1981, he worked with Dentsu Eigasha (now Dentsu Tec) and TV Man Union. He established Osaka-based film production firm Creators' Union in 1984 and has served as the company's President and CEO since that time. He has been a Professor of Film and Media Studies with the Osaka University of Arts since 2014 and a Visiting Fellow with the Wakayama University Center for Tourism Research since 2017. As a commercial director he has been working in various areas such as promotional  videos, TV commercials and music videos and has received many awards, including the All Japan Radio & Television Commercial Confederation Award, the Japan Commercial Broadcasters Association Award and the Japan Industrial Film Competition Prize. His works include tourism promotion videos for Awara and Mihama municipalities, TV commercials for Honda Motor and Panasonic and music videos for Yi-Fang Wu and The Pipettes. He has directed several TV dramas, most notably the 1993 Japanese-Chinese co-production "The Land of the Three Kingdoms" for TV Osaka. His first theatrical feature "Kewaishi" was released in 2001 and won the Award for Best Screenplay  at the 14th Tokyo International Film Festival. He became widely known for award-winning works such as "Godai - The Wunderkind" (2020), "125 Years Memory" (2015), "Blossoms Bloom" (2014), "Ask This of Rikyu" (2013) and "Castle under Fiery Skies" (2009). He has received numerous awards, including the 94th Kinema Junpo Readers' Choice Award for Best Japanese Director for his film "Godai - The Wunderkind", the 39th Japan Academy Film Prize as Excellent Director for "125 Years Memory", the Best Director Award at the 1st Asia International Film Festival in Taipei for "Blossoms Bloom" and the Best Director Award at the 2014 Osaka  Cinema Festival for "Ask This of Rikyu". Tanaka was appointed as Tourism Ambassador of his hometown Urakawa, Hokkaido in 2010, Honorary Director of the Kushimoto Turkish Museum in 2016 and Tourism Ambassador of Awara, Fukui in 2017. In 2016 he received the Governor's Award of Wakayama Prefecture and the Mayor's Award of Kushimoto Municipality. Feature films and film awards. 2001: Kewaishi (化粧師) Period drama based on a manga by Shotaro Ishinomori 2003: The Boat to Heaven (精霊流し, "Shoro Nagashi") Adaptation of Masashi Sada's autobiographical novel of the same name 2009: Castle under Fiery Skies (火天の城, "Katen no  Shiro") Period drama based on Kenichi Yamamoto's novel of the same name 2013: Ask This of Rikyu (利休にたずねよ, "Rikyu ni Tazuneyo") Period drama based on Kenichi Yamamoto's award-winning novel of the same name 2014: Blossoms Bloom (サクラサク, "Sakura Saku") Family drama based on Masashi Sada's short story of the same name 2015: 125 Years Memory (海難１８９０, "Kainan 1890") A call for world peace based on two historical events 2020: Godai - The Wunderkind (天外者, "Tengaramon") Biographical story of Tomoatsu Godai, the influential entrepreneur of the Meiji era (starring Haruma Miura as Godai)