Masanori Hata
Masanori Hata (
Hata was born in Fukuoka Prefecture on 17 April 1935.[2] He graduated from the Faculty of Biology at Tokyo University in 1958, and went on to complete a master's degree in 1959.[2] Trained as a zoologist, he worked as a documentary filmmaker producing nature films.[2] He moved to the eastern coast of Hokkaidō to establish the Mutsugorō Animal Kingdom nature preserve, where he and his family lived with over 300 wild and domestic animals.[2][1] He is the author of over 100 books,[1] including collections of his Mutsugorō essays on nature such as Warera dōbutsu mina kyōdai (All of Us Animals Are Brothers and Sisters, 1967) and Mutsogorō no hakubutsushi (Mutsugoro's Natural History, 1975).[2]
Over four years, Hata and associate director Kon Ichikawa shot 400,000 feet of film at the Mutsugorō Animal Kingdom. The resulting film, about the adventures of an orange tabby cat and a fawn pug, was released by Toho in 1986 as Koneko Monogatari (
Hata died on 5 April 2023, at the age of 87.[3]
References
- ^ a b c d Buehrer, Beverley Bare (1990). Japanese Films: A Filmography and Commentary, 1921-1989. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. pp. xiv–xv. ISBN 0-89950-458-2.
- ^ a b c d e f "Hata Masanori". Japan: An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. Tokyo: Kodansha. 1993. p. 508. ISBN 4-06-931098-3.
- ^ "「ムツゴロウ」
畑 正憲 さん死去 87歳 「ムツゴロウとゆかいな仲間 たち」で人気 北海道 で動物 王国 ". Livedoor News.