Koichi Hozan (保山耕一: 54 year old）is a freelance documentary film maker living in Ikoma city in Nara prefecture who is constantly fighting with his rectal cancer since 2013.
Mr. Hozan's passion of film making started when he was a high school senior.
He had been working actively in the Japanese TV industry, some of the bright career include being a making staff for popular TV programs, sucha as, " THE World Heritage (THE 世界遺産）" and "Passionate Continent (情熱大陸）”etc.
He once awarded the most high prestigious prize in the US International Film and Video Festival, "Best of Festival" , documentary section.
However, in 2013, he was suddenly diagnosed as having a terminal cancer and told that he had only 2 months to live.
He had to stop all his career and went through the hardship of the operation, radiation therapy, strong medication, etc. Since he was proud and loved his career so much, it felt like he lost the point of living unable to hold a camera.
After 2 months of hospitalization in Tokyo, he found himself still alive. Then an idea came up....why not going back to his hometown in Nara.
He never felt like filming the ancient city of Nara, but this time was different.
Left with his not healthy body and a camera on his own, he only wished to film the nostalgic "Tobihino" where his mother took him as a young boy. He started filming again, first with his smart phone.
Ever since, Mr. Hozan has been to many places in Nara prefecture, and filmed as many as 450 short videos of beautiful sky, flowers, wind, light, etc. of Nara. Still now, he keeps filming almost all by himself. His health condition is not perfect, but he feel alive when he is facing the beauties that he want to shoots.
Many of the beautiful short videos filmed by Mr. Hozan can be found on Youtube.
To my surprise, some of the latest videos were only been seen by less than 500 people...
I really like his films a lot... and his expression; " Nara has 365 seasonal beauties".
Summer in Nara 2015
Sunrise at Suzaku Gate
The Sky of Summer Solstice
One of the famous work by Mr. Hozan is the following:
"Toki no shizuku (The drop of Time)：Cherry blossom in Nara 2015"
”White Tobihino"（白い飛火野）：Early morning in Tobihino in the winter