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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What role did Uekusa Keinosuke later play in Kurosawa's professional life?

2. What new aspect of the curriculum was added to Akira's life in fifth grade?

3. Reading his family tree, young Akira realize his ancestors included whom?

4. The mean nickname the children gave Kurosawa at Morimura Gakuen implied that he had tears large as what?

5. At the end of The Fragrance of Meiji, the Sounds of Taisho, Kurosawa says that is sorry children of today do not have what?

Short Essay Questions

1. What memories does Akira Kurosawa have about movies in his childhood?

2. How was Kurosawa nearly killed on the way to school in this section?

3. How did young Akira put is Kendo into practice in self-defense?

4. How was Kuosawa's new art teacher different from Mr. Tachikawa?

5. What happened on September 1, 1923?

6. What is Akira Kurosawa's earliest memory?

7. How did Kurosawa's brother toughen him up as a child?

8. Describe the memory of the dog in Babyhood?

9. Why does Akira Kurosawa not understand the concept of hometowns?

10. How did the earthquake provide an opportunity for violence in Tokyo?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay about the dynamic that existed in Kurosawa's parent's household. What appearance do both his mother try to create, and how does this outward appearance conform to societal expectations? What is the reality behind Kurosawa's father's stoicism? What tenderness and passion exists there, and how does the father pass it onto his son? What does his mother's calm conceal? Is she really as subservient as she appears?

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay about the relationship Akira has with his older brother. When the author is young and considered a crybaby, what pointed differences exist between him and his brother? How does his brother toughen him up at this age, and what other tactics does his brother use to make him tougher over the years that follow? how does the relationship develop in the years leading to Akira's brother's suicide? What similarities between them become clear only after the brother's death?

Essay Topic 3

Throughout the book, Akira Kurosawa maintains a sort of bemused, precise tone. Occasionally, though, the death of a loved one will elicit some deep emotional response. Write an essay detailing three of these occasions:

Part 1) Why does Akira Kurosawa only mention one of his sisters in the book? What is special about this particular sister, and what role did she play in young Akira's life? What particular elements of her death does the author mention, and how does this description affect him even as he writes them?

Part 2) Who is Aunt Togashi, and why is she so dear to young Akira? How old was she when she died, and what does Kurosawaa suspect was the cause of her death? What emotion does this elicit, and how is it different from the one his sister's death elicited?

Part 3) Discuss the profound impact Akira's father's death had on him as an adult. What action did Akira take upon receiving word of his father's passing? What experience did he have the next morning,a nd how was he able to convert it into a work of cinematic art?

(see the answer keys)

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