Kihachiro Kawamoto - Japan -

Born in 1925, from an early age Kihachiro Kawamoto was captivated by the art of doll and puppet making.

Heavily influenced by the traditional aesthetics of Noh, Bunraku doll theatre and Kabuki, his haunting puppet animations such as The Demon (1972), Dojoji Temple (1976) and House of Flame (1979) have won numerous prizes internationally.

In 2003, he was responsible for overseeing the Winter Days project, in which 35 of the world's top animators each worked on a two-minute segment inspired by the renka couplets of celebrated haiku poet Matsuo Basho.

The Book of the Dead (2005) is Kawamoto's second feature length stop motion puppet animation.

The Trip

Anthoropo-cynical farce

Very famous directors such as Alexandre Petrov, Bretislav Pojar, Raoul Servais, Isao Takahata, Yuri Norstein, Jacques Drouin… took part in this work whose direction was coordinated by K. Kawamoto.