Masanori Hata Obituary

Masanori Hata passed away at the age of 87 on April 5, 2023. He is known for Watership Down (1978), The Adventures of Milo and Otis (1986) and South to the Horizon (1986).

Masanori Hata was a Japanese zoologist, essayist, and filmmaker. Masanori Hata was born on April 17, 1935, in Fukuoka, Fukuoka, Japan.

Masanori Hata graduated from the Faculty of Biology at Tokyo University in 1958. Hata went on to complete a master’s degree in 1959.

Masanori Hata is the author of over 100 books, including collections of his Mutsugorō essays on nature such as Warera dōbutsu mina kyōdai (All of Us Animals Are Brothers and Sisters, 1967) and Mutsogorō no hakubutsushi (Mutsugoro’s Natural History, 1975).

Masanori Hata and associate director Kon Ichikawa shot 400,000 feet of film at the Mutsugorō Animal Kingdom.

For US distribution by Columbia Pictures, Masanori Hata and associate director Kon Ichikawa’s film  Koneko Monogatari (子猫物語, A Kitten’s Story) had an English narration and was released in 1989 as The Adventures of Milo and Otis.