Iwao Ōtani

Iwao Ōtani (Japanese: 大谷 巌, Hepburn: Ōtani Iwao, 1919 – August 3, 2017) was a Japanese recording engineer who worked with influential film directors Akira Kurosawa and Kenji Mizoguchi.

Iwao Ōtani
Born	1919
Died	August 3, 2017(2017-08-03) (aged 97–98)[1]
Occupation	Recording engineer
Awards	Mainichi Film Award for Best Sound Recording

Ōtani worked on Kurosawa's 1950 film Rashomon in Kyoto. Due to setbacks and some lost audio, the crew took the urgent step of bringing actor Toshiro Mifune back to the studio after filming to record another line, which Ōtani added to the film along with the music, using a different microphone.^[2]

He won the Mainichi Film Award for Best Sound Recording for the 1953 film Ugetsu.^[3] In 2000, he worked on the sound for Kon Ichikawa's film Dora-heita.^[4]

Ōtani died of cerebral infarction on August 3, 2017.^[1]

References

1. 黒澤明監督の「羅生門」で録音担当、大谷巌さん死去 (in Japanese). Asahi Shimbun. 2017-09-27. Archived from the original on 2017-10-19. Retrieved 2017-10-16.
2. Teruyo Nogami, Waiting on the Weather: Making Movies with Akira Kurosawa, Stone Bridge Press, Inc., 1 September 2006, p. 90, ISBN 1933330090.
3. "8th (1953)". Mainichi Film Awards. Retrieved 13 December 2016.
4. Stuart Galbraith IV, The Toho Studios Story: A History and Complete Filmography, Scarecrow Press, 16 May 2008, p. 415, ISBN 1461673747