Something Like an Autobiography

Something Like an Autobiography (蝦蟇の油 自伝のようなもの) is the memoir of Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa. It was published by Iwanami Shoten in 1981, and translated into English by Audie E. Bock the following year.

Synopsis
The book has 54 chapters that trace Kurosawa's early childhood through his teenage years, where he recollects memories of his schooldays, times spent with his elder brother, and the great Great Kantō earthquake and the destruction left in its aftermath.

At the age of 25, shortly after his older brother Heigo committed suicide, Kurosawa responded to an advertisement for recruiting new assistant directors at the film studio Photo Chemical Laboratories, known as P.C.L. (which later became the major studio, Toho) and was subsequently accepted for the position with four others.

During his five years as an assistant director, Kurosawa worked under numerous directors, but by far the most important figure in his development was Kajiro Yamamoto. Of his 24 films as A.D., he worked on 17 under Yamamoto. Yamamoto nurtured Kurosawa's talent, promoting him directly from third assistant director to chief assistant director after a year. Kurosawa's responsibilities increased, and he worked at tasks ranging from stage construction and film development to location scouting, script polishing, rehearsals, lighting, dubbing, editing and second-unit directing. In the last of Kurosawa's films as an assistant director, Horse (1941), Kurosawa took over most of the production, as Yamamoto was occupied with the shooting of another film.

In the later part of the book, Kurosawa recounts the production of his early films as director, including Sanshiro Sugata, The Most Beautiful, Drunken Angel, Stray Dog, and Rashomon.