American pro astrologer, illustrator, cartoon-character and special-effects animation artist who works at a studio in the Los Angeles area. Ko Hashiguchi is also an astrologer who is trained and skilled in Chinese astrology and is the author of “Pillars of Heaven: Chinese Astrology Explained” (to be published by Llewellyn tentatively in 2003).
Ko has been drawing since the age of three and a half, starting with dinosaurs. As he was known as a very bookish and quiet person at home, his parents did not know he was as boisterous in public until confronted with the evidence by his camp counselor when he was 12. Ko is the second of three kids born to an aeronautical engineer and a sewing and tailoring instructor at the community college level. He is the only son. He completed one and a half years of education at the University of Washington, and two years at a private commercial art school. His older sister, Mia Jean Hashiguchi, was born 4/28/1952 at 01:31 in Seattle, WA; information taken from Birth Certificate in mother’s possession. His younger sister, Aya Marie Hashiguchi, was born 9/28/1956 at 18:33 in Seattle; information from same source as older sister. His mother, Starr Miyeko Urakawa Hashiguchi was born 10/21/1929 at 22:30 in Auburn, Washington; information from her son’s memory. His father, Hachiro Hashiguchi, was born 3/17/1920 at 11:30 in Seattle; information from father’s memory. Ko’s father died between midnight and 3:00 on 4/30/2001 in Renton, Washington.
In June 1967, Ko traveled across the country and on an airplane for the first time with his family, visiting relatives in Washington DC, visiting New York City and Expo ’67 in Montreal. In 1971 he went to the Boy Scout World Jamboree in Japan, held at the foot of Mount Fuji, which was rained out by a typhoon in mid-festival. Later that same summer, Ko made his one and only “student” film; a Super-8 black and white 25 minute featurette spoofing the style of one of his cinematic heroes, Alfred Hitchcock.
In January of 1984, within days of his exact Saturn return, Ko moved to Los Angeles to find employment in the motion picture business. With a good friend to break ground for him, he did — on the film “Ghostbusters.” While he got paid for his work and got into the Animator’s union, you will not find his name in the credits. Also, since his work was special effects and matte-work, his work was NOT intended to be seen! It was a success when the live-action and special effects were merged seamlessly on the screen.
Moving to California as an adult, Ko has worked in the motion picture and animation business since 1984. His first job was on the live-action version of “Ghostbusters.” Three years at Filmation Studios followed, drawing the television shows “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe”, and “She-Ra, Princess of Power”, the first cartoon shows to start out as toys first, cartoons second. Five years of animated television commercials followed, including Disney characters for Chevrolet Lumina and three Tony the Tiger/Kellogg’s commercials.
In 1990, Ko received his first notable credit in an animated feature, Disney’s “Prince and the Pauper” with Mickey Mouse playing both title roles. He has worked on “The Swan Princess,” 1993, for Rich Animation, “Cats Don’t Dance,” 1995 for Turner, “Hercules,” 1997 and “Tarzan,” 1999 for Disney, and “Rugrats in Paris,” 2000 for Nickelodeon. From June 2000 he has played the role of stay-at-home dad to his two young children, aged four and two.
Ko met Juli Murphy while working on the Live-action plus Animated feature “Cool World,” directed by Ralph Bakshi and starring Gabriel Byrne and Brad Pitt, in April of 1992. Ko had already been charting everyone he met at every place of work (Four Pillars Chinese charts) since 1989, not only to teach him more about the system, but also to find the elusive “Ms. Chart.” They were married in Inglewood, California on 9/20/1993 at 10:15am PDT.
Ko and Juli have two children: daughter Connor Kimiko Hashiguchi, 9/15/1997, 20:25:38 PDT, Thousand Oaks, CA (Birth timed by father in attendance with a quartz watch set to GTE Telephone time) and son Kieran Tatsuo Hashiguchi, 6/19/2000, 18:23:51 PDT, Thousand Oaks, CA (Birth timed by father in attendance with a quartz watch set to Atomic Time (Boulder, CO). Timed when child left womb by Caesarean section. First cry came at 18:23:58.)
While at work on the “He-Man” cartoon series, Ko had his first exposure to Chinese astrology in March of 1986. A Korean assistant character clean-up person named Hyun Sook Cho drew arcane symbols on a piece of animation bond at a coffee break. Already familiar with Taoist philosophy, Ko was astonished to discover that he could understand what she was telling him without having to learn new terminology. He found this interesting even though he had no belief in astrology at all — at the time.
In Winter 1994/1995 Ko taught an elective class on the Four Pillars Chinese Astrology at SAMRA University of Chinese Medicine in Los Angeles. In July 2002 he lectured on the subject of Chinese astrology at the United Astrology Conference in Orlando, Florida.