Learning From the Best

When one living legend mentored another.

Jiří Trnka at work in his home studio, possibly late ‘50s (courtesy of the Fantasmagorie issue Jiří Trnka)

Happy Thursday! This is Animation Obsessive’s first member issue of 2024. Today, we’re looking at how one master director crossed borders and language barriers to apprentice under another.

The two artists involved were Kihachiro Kawamoto (1925–2010) and Jiří Trnka (1912–1969). The latter, the maker of The Hand and the Prince Neklan scene, was and remains the king of Czech puppet animation. The former became Japan’s best-respected creator of stop-motion films, known for work like To Shoot Without Shooting.

Their paths met in the 1960s. Trnka was approaching the end of his career, while Kawamoto had barely begun. He sought out Trnka’s knowledge and experience, traveling from Japan to live and study in communist Czechoslovakia. There, at Trnka’s studio in Prague, he found his way.

That’s the story we’re diving into today. Here we go!