Kazuo Oga

From GhibliWiki

Kazuo Oga

Kazuo Oga (男鹿和雄, Oga Kazuo^?) was born 29 February 1952 in Akita prefecture and has been with Studio Ghibli since 1988, when he was hired to do the background art direction for My Neighbor Totoro. His other credits as background art director include Kiki's Delivery Service, Only Yesterday, Pom Poko, and Princess Mononoke.

His background artist credits include Porco Rosso, On Your Mark, Spirited Away, The Cat Returns, and Howl's Moving Castle. He also did the scenic design for Whisper of the Heart.

In 2006 he wrote and directed his first short film for the studio, an adaptation of Kenji Miyazawa's 1924 play Night of Taneyamagahara.

In 2007 his work was the subject of an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT) entitled A Ghibli Artisan - Kazuo Oga Exhibition - The Man Who Painted Totoro's Forest (ジブリの絵職人　男鹿和雄展　トトロの森を描いた人, Jiburi no Eshokunin - Oga Kazuo Ten - Totoro no Mori o Kaita Hito^?). A documentary about this exhibition is available from Japan on R2 DVD and Blu-ray disc.

To date, three art books containing his background paintings and book illustrations have been published: Kazuo Oga Art Collection, Kazuo Oga Art Collection II, and the MOT catalog Kazuo Oga Exhibition.