Ryuta Kashiwagi

Winter Days is a 2003 animated film, directed by Kihachirō Kawamoto. It is based on one of the renku (collaborative linked poems) in the 1684 collection of the same name by the 17th-century Japanese poet Bashō. The creation of the film followed the traditional collaborative nature of the source material – the visuals for each of the 36 stanzas were independently created by 35 different animators. As well as many Japanese animators, Kawamoto assembled leading names of animation from across the world. Each animator was asked to contribute at least 30 seconds to illustrate their stanza, and most of the sequences are under a minute (Yuriy Norshteyn's, though, is nearly two minutes long).

昭和7年。生活苦のため、姉の薫が芸者として売られることになったと知り、仙台の連隊から初年兵の溝口が脱走した上、捜索隊の上官を殺害するという事件が発生。どうか情状酌量をという宮城隊長の嘆願もむなしく、溝口は銃殺刑に処せられ、宮城も朝鮮の守備隊への転任を命じられる。その地で宮城は、芸者となっていた薫とくしくも巡り合う。その後、宮城は薫を妻にするが、皇道派の青年将校となった彼は次第に苦悩の色を深める。