Editing Kon Ichikawa (section)

===Film career===
He moved to the feature film department as an assistant director when the company closed its animation department,<ref name=filmbook/> working under directors including [[Yutaka Abe]] and [[Nobuo Aoyagi]].

In the early 1940s J.O Studio merged with P.C.L. and Toho Film Distribution to form the [[Toho|Toho Film Company]]. Ichikawa moved to Tokyo. His first film was the puppet play  ''A Girl at Dojo Temple'' (''Musume Dojoji'' 1946),<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038759/|title = Musume Dôjôji|website = [[IMDb]]}}</ref> which was confiscated by the interim U.S. [[Occupied Japan|Occupation authorities]] under the pretext that it was too "feudal", but some sources suggest the script had not been approved by the occupying authorities. Thought lost for many years, it is now archived at the [[Cinémathèque Française]].

It was at Toho that he met [[Natto Wada]]. Wada was a translator for Toho. They agreed to marry sometime after Ichikawa completed his first film as director. Natto Wada's original name was Yumiko Mogi (born 13 September 1920 in [[Himeji, Hyōgo|Himeji]], [[Hyōgo Prefecture]], Japan); the couple both had failed marriages behind them. She graduated with a degree in English literature from [[Tokyo Woman's Christian University]]. She married Kon Ichikawa on 10 April 1948, and died on 18 February 1983 of [[breast cancer]].{{sfnp|Quandt|2001|p=35}}

Ichikawa was among the first group of Toho staff that broke from the [[labor union]] during the [[Toho strikes]], which became part of [[Shintoho]]. Due to a shortage of directorial talent at the new company, he made his debut as director with ''[[A Thousand and One Nights with Toho]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Anderson |first1=Joseph L. |last2=Richie |first2=Donald |title=The Japanese Film: Art and Industry |date=1960 |publisher=Grove Press |location=New York |pages=168, 183}}</ref>

It was after Ichikawa's marriage to Wada that the two began collaborating, first on ''Design of a Human Being'' (''Ningen moyo'') and ''Endless Passion'' (''Hateshinaki jonetsu'') in 1949. The period 1950–1965 is often referred to as Ichikawa's Natto Wada period. It's the period that contains the majority of Ichikawa's most highly respected works, such as ''[[Tokyo Olympiad]]'' (''Tōkyō Orinpikku''), for which he was awarded the [[Olympic Diploma of Merit]],<ref name="Encyclopedia">{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia of the Modern Olympic Movement|page=172|last1=Findling|first1=John E.|last2=Pelle|first2=Kimberly D.|publisher=Greenwood Press|location=Westport|date=2004}}</ref> as well as the BAFTA United Nations Award and the Robert Flaherty Award (now known as the [[BAFTA Award for Best Documentary]]).<ref name="BAFTAs" /> It is also during this period that Wada wrote 34 screenplays, most of which were adaptations.

He gained Western recognition during the 1950s and 1960s with two anti-war films, ''[[The Burmese Harp (1956 film)|The Burmese Harp]]'' and ''[[Fires on the Plain (1959 film)|Fires on the Plain]]'', and the technically formidable period-piece ''[[An Actor's Revenge]]'' (''Yukinojo henge'') about a [[kabuki]] actor.

Among his many literary adaptations were [[Jun'ichirō Tanizaki]]'s ''The Key'' (''Kagi''), [[Natsume Sōseki]]'s ''The Heart'' (Kokoro) and ''I Am a Cat'' (''Wagahai wa neko de aru''), in which a teacher's cat critiques the foibles of the humans surrounding him, and [[Yukio Mishima]]'s ''Conflagration'' (''Enjo''), in which a priest burns down his temple to save it from spiritual pollution. ''The Key'', released in the United States as ''[[Odd Obsession]]'', was entered in the 1960 Cannes Film Festival, and won the Jury Prize with [[Michelangelo Antonioni|Antonioni]]'s ''[[L'Avventura]]''.<ref name="Cannes" />

After ''[[Tokyo Olympiad]]'' Wada retired from screenwriting, and it marked a significant change in Ichikawa's films from that point onward. Concerning her retirement, he said "She doesn't like the new film grammar, the method of presentation of the material; she says there's no heart in it anymore, that people no longer take human love seriously."{{sfnp|Quandt|2001|p=40}}

His final film, 2006's ''[[The Inugamis (2006 film)|Inugamis]]'', a remake of Ichikawa's own 1976 film ''[[The Inugami Family (1976 film)|The Inugami Family]]'', was entered into the [[29th Moscow International Film Festival]].<ref name="Moscow2007">{{cite web|url=http://www.moscowfilmfestival.ru/miff34/eng/archives/?year=2007 |title=29th Moscow International Film Festival (2007) |access-date=2013-05-31 |work=MIFF |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130421051129/http://www.moscowfilmfestival.ru/miff34/eng/archives/?year=2007 |archive-date=21 April 2013 }}</ref>

Also in 2006, Ichikawa was the subject of a feature-length documentary, ''[[The Kon Ichikawa Story]]'', directed by [[Shunji Iwai]].

Ichikawa died of [[pneumonia]] on 13 February 2008 in a Tokyo hospital. He was 92 years old.<ref name = "Obit">{{cite news |author=Compiled from [[Kyodo News|Kyodo]] [[Associated Press]] |title=Director Ichikawa, 92, dies |newspaper=[[The Japan Times]] |date=2008-02-14 |url=http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20080214a2.html |access-date=2024-07-15 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080215054721/https://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20080214a2.html |archivedate=2008-02-15 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

''[[The Magic Hour (2008 film)|The Magic Hour]]'' marked Ichikawa's last appearance and was dedicated to his memory. (This message can be seen in the end of this film.) In this film, a movie director played by Ichikawa is shooting ''Kuroi Hyaku-ichi-nin no Onna'' ('A hundred and one dark women'), a parody of ''[[Ten Dark Women]]''.