Visions of Japanese Modernity: Articulations of Cinema, Nation, and Spectatorship, 1895-1925

400 Pages·2010·4.23 MB·English

by  Aaron Gerow

The publisher gratefully acknowledges the generous support
of the Ahmanson Foundation Humanities Endowment Fund
of the University of California Press Foundation.
Published with the assistance of the Frederick W. Hilles
Publication Fund of Yale University.
Visions of Japanese Modernity
Articulations of Cinema, Nation,
and Spectatorship, 1895–1925
AARON GEROW
University of California Press
BERKELEY LOS ANGELES LONDON
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London, England © 2010 by The Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gerow, Aaron Andrew.
Visions of Japanese modernity : articulations of cinema, nation, and
spectatorship, 1895–1925 / Aaron Gerow.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-520-25672-9 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-520-25456-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Motion pictures—Japan—History—19th century. 2. Motion pictures—
Japan—History—20th century. I. Title.
PN1993.5.J3G45 2010
791.430952’09041—dc22 2009030995
Manufactured in the United States of America
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is printed on Cascades Enviro 100, a 100% post consumer
waste, recycled, de-inked fiber. FSC recycled certified and processed
chlorine free. It is acid free, Ecologo certified, and manufactured by BioGas
energy.
energy.
To my parents
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Motion Pictures as a Problem
2. Gonda Yasunosuke and the Promise of Film Study
3. Studying the Pure Film
4. The Subject of the Text: Benshi, Authors, and Industry
5. Managing the Internal
Conclusion: Mixture, Hegemony, and Resistance
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
Illustrations
1. Kaeriyama Norimasa’s Sei no kagayaki (The Glow of Life)
2. The debonair criminal mastermind and master of disguise, Zigomar
3. Asakusa’s moving picture district in 1910
4. Katsud shashinkai, a high-class magazine that spoke in defense
of the motion pictures
5. A postcard still of Kabuki actors Ichikawa Danj r IX and Onoe
Kikugor V performing Momijigari
6. The smithy in Gor Masamune k shiden (The Story of the Filial
Child Gor Masamune)
7. An ad for the Chiyodakan theater featuring a combination of Kabuki
cinema, foreign pictures, and modern ad design
8. The young reformers Kaeriyama Norimasa and Shigeno Yukiyoshi
at Kinema Record
9. Tanaka Eiz ’s Ikeru shikabane (The Living Corpse)
10. Movie fans at a film event put on by the reformist cinema journal
Katsud no sekai
11. An article in English printed in Kinema Record, April 1915
12. Theater manager Sat Tar and lead benshi Mori k at the Taiy
kan theater in Nagoya
13. Eda Fushiki in 1915, when he was a benshi at the Denkikan
14. The benshi Nishimura Rakuten in 1917
15. Tokugawa Musei later in life (circa 1930s), when he was a
prominent film actor, essayist, and radio raconteur
16. The Nikkatsu ky geki film star Onoe Matsunosuke
17. Edna Mayo on the cover of the April 1916 Kinema Record
18. Pola Negri on the cover of the August 1, 1924, Kinema junp
19. The shack that was the Nikkatsu Kansai studio in 1915
20. Advertisement for the Ushigomekan, which presented itself as a
high-class theater for a new age
21. Advertisement for the Konparukan, in Tokyo’s Ginza area
22. The Teikokukan picture palace