Happy Birthday Hayao Miyazaki

7 Intriguing Facts About the Famed Director

Hayao Miyazaki is celebrating his eighty-first birthday this week on January 5. The famed Japanese animator has gained worldwide acclaim as a master storyteller and creator of popular feature films like Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and Ponyo. He is widely regarded as one of the most accomplished filmmakers in the history of animation. Learn more about the legendary director with these seven little known facts.

1. The first thing he learned to draw was planes.

I get inspiration from my everyday life.

As a youngster, Miyazaki aspired to become a manga artist, but he struggled to draw people, preferring instead to draw planes, tanks, and battleships. His fascination with aviation makes a lot of sense, considering that he was born amidst World War II and his father was the director of a company that built parts for the Japanese fighter planes. This lifelong interest in flight shows up in his films, often in the form of fantastic airships like those in Howl's Moving Castle and Castle in the Sky. Obviously, he eventually learned how to draw, well, just about everything and he’s published a number of books detailing his artistic process on specific films including:

• The Art of Castle in the Sky
• The Art of Howl's Moving Castle
• The Art of My Neighbor Totoro
• The Art of Princess Mononoke

2. A Pixar CCO admitted to looting Miyazaki's wastebasket.

The creation of a single world comes from a huge number of fragments and chaos.

Miyazaki was close friends with John Lasseter, Pixar's former chief creative officer. The two met in the early eighties when, as part of a group of top Japanese animators, he spent several months in LA collaborating and sharing techniques with American animators. Years later, Lasseter visited his friend at Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli during the production of My Neighbor Totoro. When he discovered that Miyazaki threw away the storyboards from rejected scenes, Lasseter retrieved several pieces of the scrapped artwork and had them framed for his office.

3. He never starts his movies with a completed story.

My process is thinking, thinking, and thinking—thinking about my stories for a long time.

The ending of a Miyazaki film is always a surprise, even to the director himself. He is known to develop his scripts using storyboards as the movies are being produced. In his memoir, Sharing a House with the Never-Ending Man, former Studio Ghibli colleague Steve Alpert describes how production would come to a halt as Miyazaki worked to come up with his endings.

"Miyazaki would stop writing and spend his time doing things unrelated to the film. He'd chop wood for his studio's Vermont cast-iron stove. Someone would report this to [Studio Ghibli co-founder, Toshio Suzuki], who would go over and try to get him to stop chopping wood and get back to work. . . And then, a breakthrough."

4. He doesn't care much for awards or accolades.

Always believe in yourself. Do this and no matter where you are, you will have nothing to fear.

Miyazaki rarely accepts awards in person, including when he won the Best Animated Feature Oscar for Spirited Away in 2003. He sent Alpert to receive the award on his behalf. At the time, he said it was because the US had declared war on Iraq, but nonetheless, it reflects a pattern on his part. He has expressed discomfort with public praise, saying, "I never read reviews. I'm not interested. But I value a lot the reactions of the spectators."

5. He's a big believer in girl power.

Many of my movies have strong female leads—brave, self-sufficient girls that don't think twice about fighting for what they believe with all their heart.

Miyazaki was very close with his mother, Yoshiko, and he has said that she inspired many of his characters. His female characters like those in Nausicaä, Princess Mononoke, and Kiki's Delivery Service defied cultural stereotypes of femininity and served as role models for young girls. His heroines are scientists, warriors, and adventurers. They may be afraid sometimes, but they are mighty and courageous.

6. He's been known to whip up ramen for his production team.

Life is a winking light in the darkness.

During production, Miyazaki and his team often work late into the night to meet release dates. To boost morale during the making of Spirited Away, team members took turns preparing an 11pm meal for the rest of the crew. This included Miyazaki who would make his "Poor Man's Salt-Flavored Ramen."

7. There's a reason why Miyazaki is known as the "never-ending man."

If you're going to retire, retire early.

If there's anything Miyazaki cannot seem to do, it’s retire. To date, he has announced his retirement twice, but in both cases, he has been compelled to return to work. His first attempt in 2013, after the release of The Wind Rises, ended in 2016 when he returned to work to make a short film called Boro the Caterpillar for the Studio Ghibli Museum.

Following a second brief retirement, Miyazaki started production on the upcoming feature film How Do You Live?, based on his favorite childhood book by Genzaburo Yoshino. We can't wait to see the new film, but in the meantime, we will be enjoying this edition of the book, which contains a foreword by Neil Gaiman.

To learn more about Miyazaki's life and work, check out his two-part (for now) memoir series, Starting Point: 1979–1996 and Turning Point: 1997–2008. Perhaps when he retires a third time, he can write the next installment.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for daily book recommendations, literary tidbits, and more.

Read more by Ashly Moore Sheldon