Hiroshi Teshigahara was born the son of Sofu Teshigahara who was the
founder of the Sogetsu School of Ikebana (flower arrangement). In 1950,
he graduated from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music
in oil painting. In 1958, he became the director of Sogetsu Art Centre
and took a leading role in avant-garde activities in many fields of art.
Beginning in 1980, acting as movie director, he was the Iemoto
(Headmaster) of the Sogetsu School of Ikebana.
Teshigahara is the first person of Asian descent to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director, which he earned in 1964 for Woman in the Dunes (1964).
Teshigahara was, along with Kenji Mizoguchi and Robert Bresson, one of Andrei Tarkovsky's favorite filmmakers. Like Tarkovsky, Teshigahara only made seven feature films during his career and both directors debuted in 1962. Both were interested in the relationship between philosophies of the East and the West.
Apart from being a filmmaker, Teshigahara also practiced other arts, such as calligraphy, pottery, painting, opera and ikebana (the art of flower arrangement).