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Renew:03/28/07
Searching the Traces: Archival Study of Short-lived Film Formats
Opening
Keynote Lecture
Session 1: Film in Variety
Session 2: Made in Japan
Session 3: Artifacts or Facts of Art
Session 2: Made in Japan
Sunday, April 8, 9:00-14:10
Chaired by Yoshiro Irie(National Film Center, Tokyo).
9:00 - 9:25
Fumiaki Itakura (National Film Center, Tokyo)
Natsuki Matsumoto (Film Collector /Historian)
PAPER FILM: HISTORY AND PRESERVATION
Screening paper film was one of the popular home entertainments in the middle of 1930s in Japan. Paper film has an original projection system: Each frame of a film strip is printed in offset process, and the reflection of an electric light against the paper film is projected on a screen. Although "Refcy" and "Kateito-ki-" were representative brand names of this system, most of the films and projectors have been lost. This presentation aims to locate the paper film within the history of world cinema and to investigate the optimum preservation method. Fumiaki Itakura's presentation will be followed by a screening of paper films operated by Natsuki Matsumoto. The technical data of the paper film is provided by Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd.
9:25 - 9:50
Natsuki Matsumoto (Film Collector/Historian)
Taiji Kozaki (Benshi Performer)
THE OLDEST ANIMATION IN JAPAN: DEMONSTRATING THE CULTURE OF HOME MAGIC LANTERN AND TOY FILM
Besides public screenings at theaters, private screenings of magic lantern and film at home undoubtedly played a significant role in diffusing film culture in Japan. Found in 35mm in Kyoto two years ago, a strip of 50 film frames, presumably Japan's oldest surviving animation, nicely exemplifies the fertility of early home entertainment and aptly illustrates the background of this culture.
With a projection of this film in tasuki (looped) style, the screening of toy films and the projection of home magic lanterns will be presented. This series of demonstrations will reconsider the history of film reception in Japan from a domestic point of view and propose 'an alternative history of film culture' which has been ignored by a 'legitimate' history of cinema and an authorized history of film industry.
9:50 - 10:15
Yoneo Ota (Osaka University of Arts, Osaka)
THE HISTORY OF TOY FILM IN JAPAN AND THE CHALLENGES OF ITS PRESERVATION
There was a time in which people enjoyed movie with a toy projector at home in Japan. The projector was no more than a tin toy, but it could project both fragments of 35 mm released prints sold by pieces and the films specially made for this toy machine.
The peak of this machine's popularity overlapped the golden age of Japanese silent cinema (1920s-1930s), in which chanbara (swordplay) films were at the height of prosperity. These films, though very short (20 seconds-3 minutes), can vividly tell the brisk air of the age. Toy film covers many genres from animation (toy film contributed to foster the industrialization of animation production) to newsreel to propaganda film called gunshin-mono (films about war god).
These fragments are the testimonies of the age and the precious historical materials which can fill up another side of film reception in Japan. This presentation will introduce the project of collecting and restoring toy film, begun by the Osaka University of Arts a few years ago, and the challenges this project has faced.
10:15 - 10:30 Break
10:30 - 10:55
Machiko Kusahara (Waseda University, Tokyo)
BABY TALKIE AND ITS ERA
Baby Talkie is a Japanese zoetrope made for enjoying animation accompanied with music. The iron zoetrope fits on the central part of a SP record on gramophone without disturbing its normal function to play music. Thus it offers a home "talkie" experience with one's favorite music. Strips include both traditional and 'Western' motifs such as Charlie Chaplin.
Some of them create three-dimensional illusion. This lecture-demonstration will show how this forgotten invention tried to connect cinema with music, and how juxtaposition of modern and traditional lifestyles of the era is reflected in its name and images.
10:55 - 11:10
Hidenori Okada (National Film Center, Tokyo)
RECYCLED MOTION PICTURE FILMS IN JAPAN
The history of manufacturing of motion picture film in Japan sees a small but unique business: recycling used films. Purchasing used positive prints both in 35mm and 16mm from film companies, the manufacturers washed film emulsion away and sold the emulsion to silver refiners. They then applied black and white emulsion on the remaining film base to reclaim.
The reclaimed films were used for low budget films from the 1930s, and were adopted mainly for newsreels after World War Two. As the demand of black and white films soured, the production decreased and the manufacturers shifted the recycling to leader films. Tracing the history of Takahashi Photo Film Laboratory, the former leading company in this field, which closed its factory (the last factory to reclaim films in Japan) in 2005, this presentation will excavate the technical aspect and historical significance of such a unique industry.
11:10 -11:35
Ayako Shiba (Scholar of Utsushi-e)
UTSUSHI-E (JAPANESE PHANTASMAGORIA):PRESERVING AND HANDING DOWN THE NATIONAL HERITAGE
A kind of magic lantern originated and developed in Japan, Utsushi-e flourished as a popular entertainment for about a hundred years from early 19th to the beginning of the 20th century.
The most characteristic difference of Utsushi-e from western lanterns lies in the use of plural hand-held projectors (called furo). Its style and themes are deeply rooted in the Japanese tradition of performing and narrative arts.
From the 1950s to the 1980s, Ayako Shiba devoted herself to preservation of this disappearing entertainment with her father Genjiro Kobayashi by making researches on projectors and slides of Utsushi-e, and conducting interviews with almost forgotten Utshushi-e players.
This presentation will summarize the history of Utsushi-e and its preservation, and reexamine the problems and challenges the project of succeeding this national heritage has faced.
11:35 – 12:00
Discussion
Chaired by Yoshiro Irie.
12:00 – 13:30 Lunch Break
13:30 - 14:10
Special Presentation of Utsushi-e
Presented by Minwa-za
(Fumio Yamagata and Yuko Tanaka).
The presentation of Ayako Shiba will be supplemented by the performance of Utsushi-e by Minwa-za, one of the theatrical troupes which have made this traditional art accessible.
Next / Session 3: Artifacts or Facts of Art >>
Searching the Traces: Archival Study of Short-lived Film Formats
Opening
Keynote Lecture
Session 1: Film in Variety
Session 2: Made in Japan
Session 3: Artifacts or Facts of Art
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