Shinobu Hashimoto, Writer of Towering Kurosawa Films, Is Dead at 100

"Perhaps no film of Mr. Hashimoto’s has had more enduring influence than “Rashomon.” Set in medieval Japan, it recounts the story of the murder of a samurai and the rape of his wife from four utterly different perspectives: that of a bandit (played by Toshiro Mifune), the wife (Machiko Kyo), the spirit of the dead samurai, and a passing woodcutter.

A philosophical exploration of the malleable nature of truth, “Rashomon” was the first Japanese film to gain wide international acclaim and is today considered one of the finest motion pictures ever made. It won the Golden Lion at the 1951 Venice Film Festival and that year received what was then called the honorary foreign-language film award at the Oscars.

The generic term “Rashomon” has persisted in the English lexicon, describing an event characterized by conflicting accounts."

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