Kazuaki Kiriya

Kazuaki Kiriya (紀里谷 和明)
Born	Kazuhiro Iwashita (岩下 和裕) (1968-04-20) April 20, 1968 Asagiri, Kumamoto, Japan
Occupation(s)	Film director, music video director, photographer
Spouse	Hikaru Utada ​ ​ (m. 2002; div. 2007)​

Kazuaki Kiriya (紀里谷 和明, Kiriya Kazuaki, born April 20, 1968) is a Japanese photographer and director of films and music videos. His birth name is Kazuhiro Iwashita (岩下 和裕, Iwashita Kazuhiro). He is represented by Paradigm Agency.

Early life and career

In 1983, in his second year of junior high school, he moved to the United States. He attended Northfield Mount Hermon School and the Cambridge School in Weston, Massachusetts and then the School of Constructed Environments at Parsons The New School for Design in New York. At first, as a student, he aimed to enter the business world, but through the experience of seeing others' pleasure when he communicated through drawing at times when his English failed him, he came to be more oriented toward the world of art. Beginning in 1994, he became involved in designing album covers, photography, and directing music videos for many recording artists including Hikaru Utada, SMAP, The Back Horn, Mr. Children, Misia, Southern All Stars, Glay, and Ayumi Hamasaki.

Kiriya made his feature film debut in 2004, writing and directing the ambitious live action film adaptation of Casshan. The film was among the first to be shot on a digital backlot. In 2009, he wrote and directed his second film, Goemon (a fantasy epic based on the life of Ishikawa Goemon), in which he also appeared in a cameo as Akechi Mitsuhide. In 2015, Kiriya directed his first English-language film, Last Knights, a reimagining of the legend of the forty-seven ronin.

Personal life

Kiriya is a vegetarian. He was wed to Japanese pop artist Hikaru Utada from September 6, 2002, until they divorced on March 2, 2007.

Filmography

Films

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Producer	DoP	Editor	Actor
2004	Casshern	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
2009	Goemon	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
2015	Last Knights	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No
2023	From the End of the World	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No

Music videos

Year	Artist	Song
2000	The Back Horn	"Fūsen" (風船, "Balloon")
2001		"Sora, Hoshi, Umi no Yoru" (空、星、海の夜, "Night of Sky, Stars and Sea")
		"Hitorigoto" (ひとり言, "Soliloquy")
	Shunsuke Nakamura	"Yuki ga Tokeru Mae ni..." (雪がとける前に･･･, "Before the Snow Melts...")
	Hikaru Utada	"Final Distance"
		"Traveling"
2002		"Hikari"
		"Sakura Drops"
		"Deep River"
2004		"Dareka no Negai ga Kanau Koro"
2005		"You Make Me Want to Be a Man"
		"Be My Last"
		"Passion"
2006		"Keep Tryin'"
	Glay	"Koi" (恋, "Love")

Sources

• Goemon movie official website
• 紀里谷和明 (Kazuaki Kiriya) at IMDb
• 紀里谷和明 (Kazuaki Kiriya) at the Japanese Movie Database (in Japanese)