[Note: in Japan, it is customary to refer to a person with their
last name first. We have retained this practice in the below
excerpt from Kurosawa’s text.] The gate was growing larger and
larger in my mind’s eye. I was location-scouting in the ancient
capital of Kyoto for Rashomon, my eleventh-century period film.
The Daiei management was not very happy with the project. They
said the content was difficult and the title had no appeal. They
were reluctant to let the shooting begin. Day by day, as I
waited, I walked around Kyoto and the still-more-ancient capital
of Nara a few miles away, studying the classical architecture.
The more I saw, the larger the image of the Rashomon gate became
in my mind. At first I thought my gate should be about the size
of the entrance gate to Toji Temple in Kyoto. Then it became as
large as the Tengaimon gate in Nara, and finally as big as the
main two-story gates of the Ninnaji and Todaiji temples in Nara.
This image enlargement occurred not just because I had the
opportunity