The article offers a portrait of a leading Japanese director Nobuhiko Obayashi, whose work is inseparably connected to the history of his country and national cinema. Yet he has been unduly neglected in the West. Special attention is given to his pioneering work in the definition of the look of commercials, the development of independent cinema, the fall of the studio system, the aesthetics of filmmaking. He started out making 8 and 16 mm movies on his own, yet he managed to make his way into the mainstream bypassing the almost compulsory training at major studios as assistant director. His creative work reflects the major developments in the artistic, social and political history of his country. The topic of one’s home town has always held a special appeal for the director and throughout his career he came back to it again and again. Central space is given to the director’s approach to the topic of war which is of paramount importance in his films. The director’s experiments and innovations in film language have noticeably influenced Japanese moviemaking. The visual aspect of Obayashi’s films is of special interest. He freely mixes feature and documentary shots, animation and computer graphics to create the desired emotional effect and to get his message over to the audience. Obayashi never stops experimenting, even when he is working mainly in the mainstream he makes occasional forays into the avant-garde. His services to national filmmaking have been acknowledged at home and crowned with several awards.