Editing Akira Kurosawa (section)

==== Director in training (1935–1941) ====
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 | image1 = Akira Kurosawa, Ishiro Honda, Senkichi Taniguchi, and Kajiro Yamamoto.jpg
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 | caption1 =  From the left: Kurosawa, [[Ishirō Honda]], and [[Senkichi Taniguchi]] with their mentor [[Kajirō Yamamoto]], late 1930s
 | image2 = Akira Kurosawa and Mikio Naruse during the shooting of Nadare, 1937.jpg
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 | caption2 =  Kurosawa (left) and [[Mikio Naruse]] (right) during the production of ''Avalanche'' (1937)
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In 1935, the new film studio Photo Chemical Laboratories, known as P.C.L. (which later became the major studio [[Toho]]), advertised for assistant directors. Although he had demonstrated no previous interest in film as a profession, Kurosawa submitted the required essay, which asked applicants to discuss the fundamental deficiencies of Japanese films and find ways to overcome them. His half-mocking view was that if the deficiencies were fundamental, there was no way to correct them. Kurosawa's essay earned him a call to take the follow-up exams, and director [[Kajirō Yamamoto]], who was among the examiners, took a liking to Kurosawa and insisted that the studio hire him. The 25-year-old Kurosawa joined P.C.L. in February 1936.<ref>{{Harvnb|Kurosawa|1983|pp=89–93}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Galbraith|p=25}}</ref>

During his five years as an assistant director, Kurosawa worked under numerous directors, but by far the most important figure in his development was Yamamoto. Of his 24 films as [[Assistant director|A.D.]], he worked on 17 under Yamamoto, many of them comedies featuring the popular actor [[Ken'ichi Enomoto]], known as "Enoken".<ref>{{Harvnb|Galbraith|pp=652–658 }}</ref> Yamamoto nurtured Kurosawa's talent, promoting him directly from third assistant director to chief assistant director after a year.<ref>{{Harvnb|Galbraith|pp=29–30}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Harvnb|Goodwin|1994|p=40}}</ref> In the last of Kurosawa's films as an assistant director for Yamamoto, ''[[Horse (1941 film)|Horse]]'' (1941), Kurosawa took over most of the production, as his mentor was occupied with the shooting of another film.<ref>{{Harvnb|Galbraith|p=35}}</ref>

Yamamoto advised Kurosawa that a good director needed to master screenwriting.<ref>{{Harvnb|Kurosawa|1983|p=103}}</ref> Kurosawa soon realized that the potential earnings from his scripts were much higher than what he was paid as an assistant director.<ref>{{Harvnb|Goodwin|1994|p=42}}</ref> He later wrote or co-wrote all his films and frequently penned screenplays for other directors such as [[Satsuo Yamamoto]]'s film, ''[[Tsubasa no gaika|A Triumph of Wings]]'' (''Tsubasa no gaika'', 1942). This outside scriptwriting would serve Kurosawa as a lucrative sideline lasting well into the 1960s, long after he became famous.<ref name="Akira Kurosawa" /><ref>{{Harvnb|Galbraith|pp=658–707}}</ref>