Toshio Matsumoto

Biography

Toshio Matsumoto (松本 俊夫, Matsumoto Toshio; March 25, 1932 – April 12, 2017) was a Japanese film director, a pioneer of avant-garde experimental films, multimedia, and video in his homeland and abroad.

Born in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan and a graduate from Tokyo University in 1955, his first short was Ginrin, which he made in 1955, however his most famous work is 1969's wildly experimental Funeral Parade of Roses (also known as Bara no soretsu). A retelling of Oedipus Rex, a trans person (portrayed by Pîta) tries to move up in the world of the Japanese hostess clubs. Funeral Parade of Roses heavily influenced Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (1971).

Matsumoto published many books of photography and art and was a professor and dean of Arts at the Kyoto University of Art and Design. He was also the President of the Japan Society of Image Arts and Sciences.