TOKYO Japan's most famed director Akira Kurosawa, dubbed the emperor of Japanese cinema for films such as the Seven Samurai and Rashomon," died on Sunday at the age of 88, his production company said. He is believed to have died of natural causes. Kurosawa's movies put Japanese cinema on the international map and inspired U.S. film makers such as Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. The only director to have won two Oscars for best foreign film, Kurosawa in 1990 received a lifetime achievement award from the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, but modestly said he had not yet earned it.

Actor Hisashi Igawa, who played character roles in several of Kurosawa's later films including Ran, said the ageing director came to life when he was making movies. Kurosawa had the heart of a boy and the mind of a genius, Igawa told Reuters. Kurosawa began his work in movies in 1936, hoping to use his skills as a painter for films being made by PCL studios, a pre-war predecessor of japan's leading studio Toho Co. His first film credit was as an assistant director in the 1936 film Senman Choja. (Reuter)