1

Jidaigeki: Period Dramas in Japan

FINAL PAPER

Choose ONE of the following questions, develop a well-defined and original thesis, and discuss it in detail in

an essay of 5-8 pages, typed and double-spaced. There are two basic requirements that your paper must

follow. 1) You must include a close and careful film analysis of a segment or segments, and 2) you must use

this analysis to advance your argument.

1. Compare and contrast Sadao Yamanaka’s use of jidaigeki in Humanity and Paper Balloons with

Toshio Matsumoto’s take on jidaigeki in Pandemonium. How do they address the political and social

realities of 1930s and early 1970s Japan respectively? You may focus on a few recurring themes (e.g.

money, class, code of honor).

2. Discuss “Americanism” in Hibari’s Ishimatsu and reflect on the film’s social and cultural meanings

by drawing on at least two course readings. Be as specific as possible with your

examples.

3. Discuss cinematic constructions of masculinity in two films of your own choosing. You may focus

on how the films portray the main male character(s)’s bodies and actions and consider how the films’

formal and stylistic features contribute to your perception of their masculinity.

4. Discuss the use and abuse of history in at least two jidaigeki films shown in class, and consider their

political and ethical implications. What kind of strategies do they use to produce a sense of “pastness”?

Be sure to draw on course readings, and make sure to support your argument with cinematic

examples.

Submission Guidelines

1. Please prepare your paper in doc./docx., pdf, or rtf format.

2. If you would like to receive comments on your final paper, please indicate so.

3. Please do not include any identifying information in the document you upload via Turnitin.

Due, March 21 at 11:59 p.m.

1
Jidaigeki: Period Dramas in Japan

FINAL PAPER

Choose ONE of the following questions, develop a well-defined and original thesis, and discuss it in detail in
an essay of 5-8 pages, typed and double-spaced. There are two basic requirements that your paper must
follow. 1) You must include a close and careful film analysis of a segment or segments, and 2) you must use
this analysis to advance your argument.

1. Compare and contrast Sadao Yamanaka’s use of jidaigeki in Humanity and Paper Balloons with
Toshio Matsumoto’s take on jidaigeki in Pandemonium. How do they address the political and social
realities of 1930s and early 1970s Japan respectively? You may focus on a few recurring themes (e.g.
money, class, code of honor).

2. Discuss “Americanism” in Hibari’s Ishimatsu and reflect on the film’s social and cultural meanings
by drawing on at least two course readings. Be as specific as possible with your examples.

3. Discuss cinematic constructions of masculinity in two films of your own choosing. You may focus

on how the films portray the main male character(s)’s bodies and actions and consider how the films’
formal and stylistic features contribute to your perception of their masculinity.

4. Discuss the use and abuse of history in at least two jidaigeki films shown in class, and consider their
political and ethical implications. What kind of strategies do they use to produce a sense of “past-
ness”? Be sure to draw on course readings, and make sure to support your argument with cinematic
examples.

Submission Guidelines

1. Please prepare your paper in doc./docx., pdf, or rtf format.
2. If you would like to receive comments on your final paper, please indicate so.
3. Please do not include any identifying information in the document you upload via Turnitin.

Due Friday, March 20 at 5 p.m.

DEUX OU TROIS CHOSES QUE
IE SAIS D’ATG
By Yomota Inuhiko

How to describe Shinjuku in the late 60’s and early 70s? The
scene was something like the noise and bustleof the famous Bou-
levard du Crime in 19th-century Paris or London’s Picadilly
Circus. Tokyo was formed by the grouping together of a number
of centers such as Ginza, Shibuya,and lkebukuro.Of all those
Pplaces,Shinjuku in this period was the center of underground art
and culture, filled with vulgarity and nihilisticenergy. Shinjuku
|was divided into East and West by the train station.The West

side is now a forest of skyscrapers,an offial space symbolized
by the new City Hall, but in those days a water treatment plant ex.
tended to the horizon and the place was almost deserted. Action
films would often shoo scenes in this out-of-the-way location.

On the other hand, the East side of the station was as crowded as
lsewhere.At last a signal is given and the audience leaves the it gets. Watching films like Oshima Nagisa’s Shirjulkuw dorobo

decoy tent as one body and rushes into the new tent.And so the nikki(Diary of a ShinjukuThief,1969) or Matsumoto Toshio’s
play starts without incident. The police are frustrated: once theBara mo soretsw(FuneralProcession of Roses,1969),you’ll se
|audienc is in the new tent they can’t interrupt the performance.the kinds of impromptu street performancs that filled Shinjuku

in 1968. In the square in front of the station futenzoku(Japanese
Artistic experiment and political contestation went hand inhippies)from all over Japan, homeless and hungry, sleep on the
hand. A demonstration against the US-Japanese Security Treatygrass and sing songs.In the cale Fugetsudo, self-declared artists
| turned into a riot, the mob turning over cars and flooding onto| with long hair and beards rub shoulders with lefist activists,
the railroad tracks so the trains couldn’t run.The riot police firedwhile American soldiers who are against the Vienam war and
tear gas canisters to suppress the disturbances. On riot days you|who’ve gone AWOL from their bases huddle with anti-war
had to hide lemons in your bag to counteract the effect of thegroups, plotting escapes to northern Europe.Out in the main
tear gas on your eyes.Young people felt asensc of liberation, thatstreet, ten or so men and women form a strange procssion.
anything goes in Shinjuku.You felt that if you were chased by theApart from the gas masks on their heads thcy’re completely
cops you could turn into an lley and hide in a coffe shop.That’snaked.At the other cnd of the main street a gay bar district has
not the feeling you got from pre-war amusement dstricts like grown up.A French semiotician, not yet famous in Japan, is a
Asakusa,nor higher class bourgeois districts like the Ginza.furtive regular,
Truly,Shinjuku in late-60’s Tokyo was what Bakhtin had called a

carnival space.In the hitherto sacred precincts of a temple rises a scarlet tent
where grotesque Theater of Cruelty is performed.Riot policc are
brought in to prevent these scandalous performances.The spon.

ATG’sArt Theatre Shinjuku Bunka was at the heart of the chao-sors of the theater group act as if they fully intend to hold the
tic bustle of the East side of Shinjuku.It was surrounded by rowsperformance, engaging the riot police in extended and meaning.
of cinemas with gaudy billboards advertising endlss programsless wrangling. Meanwhile, another red tent is stealthily erected
of anything from yakuza films to Hollywood movies. But the

会批科 atmosphere of the ATG cincma,a400 seat cinema that had been
in use since before the war, was unique.The building was pain-
|ted a uniform dark gray, the main door was a special back-tinted

glass. The interior walls were gray-blue and the doors to the
auditorium were padded with black leather, It’s no surprise that
| when the newly-founded ATG refurbished the cinema in such

muted colors someone dubbed it the mausoleums.In any case,
the decision to make everything monochrome created a sense of
total separation from the surroundings.
|I first saw a film at ATG four years later,in June 1966.I rushed to

| see Orson Welles’Citizen Kame on its first release in Japan.The

| &rosebuds of the film was as intoxicating as the word suggests.

VIENNALE 2003ART THEATRE GOILD

At the time Tokyo was buzzing with the Beatles visit,but Iit I At the ATG cinema they used the time after the last scrcening to
thought Welles was much more important.His was the first di-| put on new playwrights such as Albee,Wesker,Genet,and LeRoi
rector’s name I remembered.I decided on the spot to become aJones.When Mishima Yukio,a major supporter of ATG,pre-

sented his sole directorialeffort Yakoku(Patriotism,1966) at the|mcmber of ATG- simply by becoming a member I could sece
films restricted to adults. I was still only 13 at the time.I saw Shinjuku Bunka, he also put on a modernized version of a No
many films at ATG after that: Fellni’s Giulieta degli spiriti; Go- play after the screening. I was also there when the founder of
dard’s Pierrot lefou;Losey’s TbeSeruant;Bresson’s Prmces de Jean Buto dance,Hijikata Tatsumi,performed five of his works over

27 days in 1972.Following those performances,Hijikata wentdArc; Paradzhanov’s Teni zabyeb predkou(Shadows of Our
into a long seclusion before leaving this world wrapped in theForgotten Ancestors).If it hadn’t been for the overwhelming in.

fluence of the films I saw between graduating Junior High and cloak of legend.
beginning High School,perhaps I would never have become an

The majority of the films that were shown and plays that wereart critic and would be slogging away as a businessman at a Japa-
nese company instead.It wasn’t only me: you could probably sayperformed at ATG were by artists who were already known

abroad and who in their own ways had built careers withinthe same for the musician Sakamoto Ryuichi and the poet Yoshi-
masu Gozo as well. At the time ATG was a unique guide to the |Japan. As interest in the underground counter-culture developed
European art film, so different from the Hollywood entertain. in the 1960’s,ATG opened a small theater in the basement.
ment film. It is impossible to overstate the influence of ATG pro- Mishima, who loved Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Riing,dubbed the

space Sasori-za(Theatre Scorpio).The fist film shown in thisgramming on the Japanese literary and art scene,even up to the
new theater was Gingakei(Galaxy,1967) by radical student film-present day.
maker Adachi Masao.The Sasori-za, which had projectors for all

After a certain point ATG,in addition to distributing foreign au- film gauges from 8mm to 35mm and so could show films on an
equal footing, soon became the center of Shinjuku underground teur films, started to produce new films by radical Japanese di.

rectors.Oshima Nagisa’s Ninja bugeicba (Manual of Ninja Marti.culture.
al Arts), released in 1967,packed in the students and became a
huge hit.The film told the story of the head of a group of ninja The year 1971/72 was a major turning point for Japanese anti-

|system movements and the underground counter-culture.ATGwho organized farmers’ rebellions and fought against powerful
samurai in the 16th century.It was based on an original 16-volume teamed up with the master of pink eiga Wakamatsu Koji and

|Adachi Masao to make Tensbimo kokotsu(Ecstasy of the An-manga series by leftist manga artist Shirato Sanpei.In order to
make the film Oshima developed his own unique method of fre.|gels,afilm about the heroic isolation visited on agroup of terro-
ly selecting from and enlarging the actual manga frames,dubbing rist bombers after they attacked a US army base.During the
voices over those images without using any animation or live shoot a time-bomb hidden in a Christmas-tree exploded less that
footage.Oshima followed Welles in being firmly enshrined in my 100 meters from the ATG cinema,injuring many seriously. A
|personal pantheon. false but believable rumor went around that just after the explo.

E_g百田三三ggFrom 1968 to 1972Oshima released Ksbikei (Dcath by Hang-
–n前0no日卫

ing),Sbinukeu dorobo mik(Diary of a Shinjuku Thief),Sbowew
(Boy,1969),Takyo sesso sengo bioa(The Man Who Left His
Will on Film),Gisbki(The Ceremony),and Natsu no imoto
(Dear Summer Sister).He worked at a frenetic pace, puting into
practicec what he himselfcalled esleeping witho the times.In par.
ticular,I felt that Tokyo semso sengo biow was exactly my story
The budding8mm-filmmakers who appeared in this film were
the same age as me, albeit we went to different high schools.We
all spoke in the same coded way about the connection between
film and politics, participated in the same anti-government de-
monstrations, were chased by the same riot police and wandered

the same tear-gas canister littered streets of Shinjuku.But I,who
was caught up in all the political excitement,couldn’t understand
|why Oshima viewed things from a meta-level and was critical of
their actions.

After Oshima,AIG produced films by Yoshida Yoshishige(who
|became also known as Kju),Matsumoto Toshio, Terayama Shj,
Kuroki Kazuo,and Jisoji Akio one after the other.Until then I
had thought of Japanese cinema as Japanified versions of Ameri.
Can westerns and gang films, or as monster movies in which one
or another enormous beast attacked Japan, but at ATG for the
| first time I realized that Japanese films could also be cartisticow.

| At the same time,I was deeply impressed by the music used in
their films.Iakemitsu Toru,Ichiyanagi Toshi, and Hayashi Hi.

karu were the leaders of Japanese music. Apart from anything clse,
this period of ATG films stands as an archive of modern Japanese .
music. Takyo seso sengo biawa(1970)

|VIENALE 2003ARTTHEATRE GUILD

|Finally, Shin-Toho specilized in ghost films and historical spec.sion some suspicious characters were seen running into the Saso-
taculars. Each company had its own peculiar individuality butri-za. All at once the media started a violent attack on ATG,
all of them were devoted to commercial entertainment films.which was advised to stop the making of the fim.However, at a
There was litte interest in leaving a legacy of film as an art.Ofprss conference director Wakamatsu said:al want people to re.
course it’s also true that the period films of Kurosawa Akira andalize that behind this incident lics a much greater danger, of the
Mizoguchi Kenj,filed with samurai and geisha,were lauded atviolence that is war,》 The film was relecased at the Shinjuku
Western film festivalks. But those films were exceptional: theBunka in March 1972 to great acclaim.
|dlocal films that formed the greater part of Japanese cinema

were made in a studio system in which the star and the scriptHowever,that happy age in which political excitement and cine.
were already decided, and the director was simply an artisanmatic experiment scemed to be permanently linked was already
| who turned the script into images. Directors were low in theending by the early 1970s.The student movement turned into
hierarchy: for example,at Shochiku they could do nothing whensomething cultish,indulging in meaninglesstir-fortat murders or
films were cut for broadcast or pulled for political reasons.wanton bombing campaigns. The big studios that ATG had op.

posed in the 1960’s reached an economic impasse that resulted in
ATG’s film production policy was born in reaction to that situa-bankruptcy or radical changes in direction.Kurosawa Akira at-
tion,out of a desire to bring a high artistic quality to Japanesetempted suicide, while SuzukiScijun and Kato Tai were expelled
cinema. A close historical analysis of ATG films,starting withfrom the studios and silenced for many years.In the end, ATG
Oshima Nagisa’s Kosbikei in 1968, would reveal any number of turned to a policy of making youth films, seeking to develop a
variations but in broad outline the films of this period can benew audience.Adachi Masao disappeared from view, leaving
characterized in the following way:AIG was opposed to com-Japan to engage in the struggle on bechalf of Palestinian refugees.
mercial entertainment cinema,so it gave directors who fled the
big studios a chance to make their own films. From the end of
the 1950’s,talented young directors debuted at the Shochiku stu-Let’s return to the1960’s to consider the state of Japanese Cinema
dio.Oshima Nagisa with Nibow no yor to kiri(Night and Fog in when ATG started producing films.The Japanese cinema achie-
Japan,1960),Yoshida Yoshishige with Roeu denashi(Good-forved its largest audience in 1958,and in 1960 produced 547
Nothing,1960),and Shinoda Masahiro with Kaoaita mizuwwi filIms. As the saying went, film was the king of mass centertain-
(DryLake/Fury of Youth,1960) each in their own way absolute-ment. The six major companies produced two program pictures
ly rejected the established melodramatic mode of Shochiku films.| every week. Nikatsu specialized in Japanesestyle westerns and
They were called the Shochiku Nouvelle Vague but they hatedaction films. Toho made period films and monster movies.At
the oppressive structure of the conservative studio and turned to-Shochiku it was melodramas of the lower middle cdass.Toci fo-
ward independent production.ATG played an extremcly impor-| cused on period films,while Daiei featured their actrsses in
tant role in that procesmelodrama

Sra mo soretsu (Funeral Procssion of the Roses,1969)

IENALE2003 ARIT THEATRE GID

rous yet critical commentary on the then-prominent yakuza
genre in Japanesce cincma.

Jiswoji Akio is one example of a director who came from tele-
vision. In Jissoi’s debut directorial ffort Mao (This Transient
Life,1970) a brother and sister in a traditional Japanese house in
the suburbs of Kyoto put on No masks and indulg in incest as a
Bach partita plays on the soundtrack and the camera tracks with
|unbelievable fluidity. The allegory in this film is based on the
Buddhism that is part of everyday folk custom but on the other
hand the youth and the priest are influenced by Pascal and Dos.

toyevsky and their conversations seem real.Jissoj vividly expres.
ses what was suppressed in the television system through the
| free-thinking sense of liberation in these scenes.Although Muo
was not strictly speaking an ATG production, after it became a华e一常 major hit Jissoji was able to make three ATG productions from

Nibon mo akury (EvilSpiris ofJapan),directed by Kuroki Kazuo 1971 to 1974:Mandarn(Mandala,1971),Uha (Poem,1972),and
Asakeiywmewisbi（The Life of a CourtLady,1974).He is remem-

If ATG had not existed, pethaps we would have remembered bered as the first director to fasten onto Buddhism as an intelec:
tual subject in Japanese cinema. He later directed the UramanYoshida only as a director of delicate melodramas,not as an
series on television and became known as a monster movie direc.auteur who experimented with ways of representing historical
tor but even those films were scripted by Sasaki Mamoru, who|over-determination in Erosu＋Gyakeusatsw (Eros Plus Massacre,

1970) and Kaigewrei(Coup d’Etat,1973).Also, Oshima might had worked with Oshima Nagisa on films such as Kosbikei and
have had to spend the rest of the 60’s in unproductive silence. Toeyo senso sengo biuwa.
Berween 1968 and1972Oshima made five important films, allof

The most important names to emerge from the field of amateurwhich were co-produced by ATG and his own company Soz6
fimmaking were Adachi Masao and Hara Masato. When ATGsha. In Shinoda’s varied filmography too, the films made with

ATG-Shimja tenno Amijima (Double Suicide,1969) and Him- opened its underground theater Sasori-za in 1967, the first film it
| showed was Adachi’s Gingakei. Before that his film Sain(1963)ko(1974)-brim with avant-garde techniques and a critical per-
was shown at the Shinjuku Bunka. This 16mm short film createdspective on received ideas about Japanese history and tradition.

That would surprise people who know Shinoda only through the an intense politicalllegory out of the female protagonist’s con-
nostalgia and retro-stylings of his post-1980’s films, in which he genitally sealed vagina and made Adachi a legend in the early

1960’s world of student filmmaking. The screening marked aseemed to have turned into a mediocre speople’s director.
turning point after which ATG,quite apart from already recog-
nized aulewrs such as Oshima and Shinoda, committed itself toIt is significant to the history of Japanese cinema that all of the
the agresive distribution and exhibition ofunderground cinema. films mentioned here originated in passionate interchanges bet.
Adachi collaborated with his contemporariesOshima and Waka-.wen the drctors and ATG produccr Kuzi Kinshiro.It was
matsu,but in the mid-seventies he left to support the Palestiniannormal procedure for the director to bring a proposal to ATG,

where it would be asscssed rigorously in a single production liberation strugle as a fighter in the Japanese Red Army.
meeting. After that single meeting,if the project was approved,

Hara Masato was only 17 in 1968 when he won the Grand PrixATG would make no further intervention.The completed film
in the first Japanese amateur film contest.He went on to writewas the director’ alone. At last,through this unrestricted system,

fims worth being called auteur cinema were produced in Japan. Oshima’s Tokyo senso sengo biud with Sasaki Mamoru.The star-
ting point for that film was that the &Battle of Tokyos frequently
instigated by the New Left in 1969 was a complete fiction.The

ATG did not concern themselves with the pedigree of the direc. plot concerns an amateur film that becomes a kind of last testa-
ment when it is entrusted to one youth by another who then dies.| tors they employed.Whether they came from documentary,8mm

|or I6mm amateur film, or from television,not to mention avant- However, as the film proceeds it becomes clear that the protago.
garde theater and comic books,ATG invited people with a talent nist is himself an enigmatic fiction.If this film is the most pecu-

liar amongOshima’s body of work, it’s due to the participation offor experiment and gave them a chance to direct their fist feature
this high school student who had been influenced by Jonasfilm. There was a strong sense of breaking with the established
Mekas and Godardform of studio films and testing the boundaries of the mediun

creating gcnres that had not yet been categorized.
From these various sources ATG scouted talent that had ex.

ceded in some way the structures of the mainstream system. The For examplc,Matsumoto Toshio (Bana mo soretw), Kuroki
most turbulent of them all was Terayama ShujiIn some ways,|Kazuo (Nibon o akeuryo/Evil Spirits of Japan,1970),and Higas:
Terayama might be called aJapanese Pasolini or Fssbinder. Hehi Yoichi (Sdo/A Boy Called Third Base,1978)had back-

grounds in documentary film. Bana no soretsu, which could be was, simultaneously,a poet writig in a traditional form, a horse
called Japan’s first gay film, skilfully juxtaposes interviews in | racing commentator, and a director of the most scandalous plays

of the 1960’s.He was a dangerous agitator who advocated incestShinjukugay bars with dramatic sequencs adapted from Sopho-
clean tragedy,and films everytbing with an Artaudian cruelty,In and running away from home to young people.He also wrote a
Nibon no aeuryo, yakuza get caught up in a serious story accus- | whol unreliable autobiography. Terayama’s many independent
ing the communist party of betrayal. The film becomes a humo-films take as their subject the most symbolic actions,filmed with

VIENNALE2003 ART THEATRE GUIL

od of time. Films from Kocbikei to Sbarna(Pandemonium,1971)

followed this format, modeled on Mishima’s film, in which the

only two characters commitritual suicide after making love.

Although you could se clouds on the horizon, the Japanese film

industry was sill t its peak,boasting of a healthy number of pro-

ductions,when ATG started distributing and exhibiting films in
1962.By 1971, soon after ATG tumed to film production, the

production arms of the big film companies with their massive
studios were al in serious trouble.Nikatsu abandoned its staple

| action film genres and turned to sex comedies.Daiei went bank-

rupt and Toho only managed to survive by splitng offits pro-

|duction division.

The collapsc of the five-company system gave a big boost to in-

dependent production.The most prestigious Daiei directors
such as Masumura Yasuzo and Ichikawa Kon madc fims at ATG
in the first half of the1970’s.Of the nine films screened at the
Shinjuku Bunka theater in 1962, seven were famous foreign films

and only two-one being Teshigahara Hiroshis Olorbin(The

Pifall,1962)-were independent Japanese productions.How.

ever, if we look at the screening list for 1972,only three of the

eleven films were foreign and the remaining eight were ATG or

independent productions.In this way the founding principle of
ATG-to crecate a series of artstic films-ws superbly realized.

However,in the larger scheme of things even though ATG was
improving the technique ofJapanese cinema it couldn’t shore up

the subsiding foundations of the Japanese film world as a whole.

天g的ce?国 By the end of 1972 ATG carried an accumulated debt of 20
million yen. Unlike the big studios ATG had no asets so if the

Dew’enwisbisw(Pastoral:To Die in the Country,1974)
|current film was not a hit it was not able to provide the capital

for the next one.Also, with the rise in prices the policy of pro-
the most humorous sensibility.One film unspools in darkne as

| ducing each film for the unbelievably low budget of ten million
a hand scarches for a light switch on a wall.At the moment the

yen became incresingly dffcult.Inside ATG, too, conservative
switch is thrown, the screen turns white and the film itself comes

voices were growing stronger,a did the sense that it was safer toto an end. Another flm consists of an extended take of a human
entrust films to veteran directors rather than to unproven new-

figure in the background running toward the camera. At the mo-
|comers.ment the figure attains life size,we realize that the figure was pro-

jected on a screen within the screen we are watching, when that
We can sce many points of rupture in Japanese culture and socie-

| paper scren suddenly tears and from behind it a real person
ty that occurred around 1972. That year saw the Japanese Red

bursts forth who is dressed just like the runner.
Army beating members to death and shooting it out with the

police at the Asama mountain lodge. The NewLeft movement in
ATG,which often produced Terayama’s plays,also produced

|Japan lost sight of its objective and turned to murderous inter-

two of Terayama’s ilms,Sbo o uteyo, macbi e deyo(Throw Away
|necine battes or to terrorist bombings.The utopian ideal of link-

the Books,Let’s Go into the Strcets,1971)and Den’enmishisw
ing art with politics in a vanguard movement was abandoned and

(Pastoral: To Die in the Country,1974).The former film is a
the mores of the young people who gathered in Shinjuku chan-montage of fragments that thoroughly provokes the audience in
ged completely. They lost the excitement of being part of a

|the theater and shows the spontaneous imaginative power of Te-
crowd,faling into cynicism and nihilism, and were swallowed up

rayama, who was called the charismatic leader of youth at the
by the prevailing culture of mass consumption. High rise build- end of the 1960’s.The latter flm is based on his fascination with
ings rose over West Shinjuku. Soon it was no big deal to travel

falsehood and his ambivalence about his mother.
abroad.People’s lives became so comfortable that it surprised

even themselves. Nursing a single cup of coffe while debatingIt is important to remember that one reason ATG embarked on
philosophy or hard to understand flms became old-fashioned.

film production was that novelist Mishima Yukio’s 16mm inde-
Almost overnight the arts tended to take on the character of

pendent film Yaeokeu was a big hit when it was scrcened at the
commoditis to be consumed. As if to symboliz that state of

Shinjuku Bunka. ATG was ofen a hotbed of politially radical afairs,Oshima Nagisa dssolved his Sozosha production company.artists but we shouldn’t forget that Yzeokew was the model for the
scale of films that AT’G decided to produce. Although the bud-

ATG’s conomic difficulties became more and more clear.Oneget for a typical commercial film was 40 to 50 million yen,ATG
by one it was forced to dispose of its ten cinemas around the could only afford to put up 10 million. Sets tended to be ab-
country. At the cnd of 1974,Terayama Shuji’s Der’enmi sbisu

stract, closed-off rooms,and films were forced to focus on the
marked the last experimental work produced under ATG’s longconflict between a small number of characters over a shott peri-

VEXNALE2003 ART THEATRE GUILD

shunned all the established directors,actively searching for com-
pletely unknown young filmmakers to entrust with a film project.
He rapidly discovered talented filmmakers from the worlds of
|porn films, student8s films, and Nikatsu program picrures. This
is how Omori Kazuki,lzutsu Kazuyuki,Takahashi Banmei,
Negishi Kichitaro, and Ishil Sogo came to work with ATG.On
the other hand,Sasaki also helped Nakagawa Nobuo,known as
an overlooked master of B-movies, to make his final film.Only
three characters appear in Kaidan-lkileirw Kobej (Mysterious
Story:The Living Koheiji,1982),yet it is still a bloodcurdling
horror masterpiece.

As a producer,Sasakis style was the completc opposite of Kuzui’s.
Kuzu liked to produce profound and difficult films that con-
tained all the contradictions and distortions of post-war Japan.
The privileged themes of that cinema were taboo crimes and vio-
lence, anarchism and eroticism. Sasaki endeavored to produce
simple and vigorous films that escaped the gravitational field of
|Japanese history and aimed for the free and easy sensibility of a
| youth audicnce attuned to the outside world. That difference
corresponds perfetly to the shif in the mood of Japanese society
between the 1960s and the 1980s. During the same period the
Japanese film industry became more and more impoverished,in
contrast to the increasingly thorough penetration of Japanese
socicty by high level capitalism.

1972 marks a point at which something important was lost,
something that could not easily be replaced but that people soon
forgot they had lost in the fist place.The next dividing point for
Japanese cinema came in 1989 with the death of Emperor Hiro-
hito and the debut of Kitano Takeshiand Tsukamoto Shinya.Bur

Seisbuw no satswyjinsba（Young Murderer, 19/6) let us leave that discussion for another time.
standing policy of supporting experimental art.However,it was Translation by Michael Raine
no longer possible to roadshow the film at ATG’s Shinjuku
Bunka for a long period.In order for the cinema to make a profit YOMOTA INUHIKO
the film was limited to a short run and replaced with the ultra- Born in 1953in Nishinomiya.Finished a Ph,D coursc at Tokyo
popular French film Emmanuelle.The anecdote gives a symbolicUniversity.Teaches film history at Mciji Gakuin University as a

indication of the breakdown of the ATG cinema’s previous reser- profssor, and is a prolific writer of books about literature,urba-
|ve. It also prowoked ATG’s regular producer since 1968,Kuzui nism,fod,manga and cinema (e. g.papanese Actresesw,2000,Kinshiro, to leave in despair.He was preparing an adaptation by<100Years of Japanese Cinemas,2000,sGodard,Images and Yoshida Yoshishige of Oe Kenzaburo's masterpiece aMan'en History,2001).He also has translated works by Edward Said, gannen no futoboru>(The Silent Cry),but the project never Peter Brooks,Paul Bowles and Pier Paolo Pasolini.
came to frution.The president of ATG was less intcrested in
Oe’s difficult style than in adapting the mystery writers who were
so popular at the time. The successful adaptation of Hozin

satswjin iken(Murder in Honjin Manor House,1975) served as
the nail in the coffin of ATG’s avant-garde production policy.

Taga Shosuke, who replaced Kuzui as the main producer at
ATG, had been a scriptwriter a Shochiku.He got steady results
by employing veterans such as Saito Koichi and Kuroki Kazuo
but he also scouted the totally inexperienced Hasegawa Kazu.
hiko to direct Seibun o satsuyinsba(Young Murderer,1976),
based on Nakagami Kenijis short story.With the exception of
Nikatsu, the studio system that had regularly produced new
directors had come to an end by the 1970’s. After being pre-
sented by ATG as a promising new director,much was expected
of Hasegawa.Naturaly, he disappeared from view after making
only one more film.

Sasaki Shiro tried to change the reputation of the ATG produc.
tion wing more boldly when he became president in 1979.He

3 VIENNALE 2003 ART THEATRE GUILD

Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto

KUROSAWA

Film Studies and Japanese Cinema

Duke University Press 200o

15. Seven Samurai

The impetus for the production of Seven Samurai(Shichinin no samu-

rai,1954) came from Kurosawa’s interest in making a new type of jidai-

geki film.Kurosawa’s intention was to destroy cliches and dead formu-

las to renew jidaigeki as a film genre that could show the past more
accurately and at the same time appeal to the contemporary sensibility
|of the audience. His effort to break the stalemate of jidaigeki as a genre

led to a search for accurate historical facts about how samurai actually
lived in the Edo period. Originally,the film was supposed to portray
one day of a samurai’s life: he gets up in the morning. goes to work at a
|castle,makes some mistake on the job,and goes home to commit sep-

puku, or ritual suicide. With scriptwriter Hashimoto Shinobu and pro-
ducer Motogi Sojiro, Kurosawa dug into archival materials and talked

to historians. But this initial plan stalled quickly because it was almost
impossible to find out any specific details of the samurai’s daily life

(e.g, what kind of food did samurai typically have for breakfast? What

was their daily routine like at the castl?).The plan was soon changed

to make a film based on famous episodes from the lives of military arts
masters.Hashimoto proceeded to write a script based on this new idea

and finished it in two months. But this second plan was again aban-
doned because Kurosawa realized that a narrative film needs more than

just a series of climaxes. The third and final idea came from Kurosawa’s

interest in the details of mushashugyo, the samurai’s journey to perfect

his martial arts skills. As Kurosawa,Hashimoto, and Motogi began re-

search on this subject, they learned that samuraisometimes worked as

|watchmen for peasants in exchange for meals.Kurosawa decided to ex-

pand this historical fact into a flm in which peasants hire a group of

| samurai to defend their village from bandits. Hashimoto wrote the first

draft of the script,and Kurosawa and Oguni Hideo later joined in its

revision.!

One of the most popular Kurosawa films, Seven Samurai has been
| extensively commented on by American and Japanese critics alike. The

predominant approach to the film seems to be an allegorical reading.
Frederick Kaplan suggests that “Kurosawa uses cinematic technology to
explore the dialectic between time and history; he deals cinematically
with the past in order to deal ideologically with the present and future,
and, more specifically, with class struggle and the role of intellectuals
in that struggle.” Bert Cardullo argues that Seven Samurai”portrays
the power of circumstance over its characters’ lives….The work of
circumstance is interested in what surrounds the human being, and
how he reacts to it, under stress. Tragedy is interested in what is im-
mutable…in each human being,and the world, and how this leads
to man’s…destruction…The one art looks out, the other in. It is
the difference between East and West,self and other.”+Kida Jun’ichiro
finds in Seven Samurai a basso continuo of Kurosawa fims, the ab-
sence of civil society and the powerlessness of intellectuals in Japan.4
For Stephen Prince,”Seven Samurai is a film about the modern works,
an attempt, by moving farther back into history, to uncover the dia-
lectic between class and the individual, an effort to confront the social
|construction of self and to see whether this annihilates the basis for
individual heroism.”‘Sato Tadao found that Seven Samurai justified the
Japanese rearmament; in 1954 the National Safety Force and the Mari-
time Safety Board were reorganized into the Self-Defense Force(Jieitai)
in apparent violation of the Article 9 of the 1947 constitution, which
“renounces war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use
of force as a means of settling international disputes.” Another critic
suggests that the image of the dead samurai might be a reference to
those Japanese who were killed in World War ll?
In this chapter,instead of proposing another thematic reading of the

film,I will focus on its different aspects,most importantly its generic
status as a idaigeki film. I wil first examine the history of jidaigeki as
a dominant genre and then contextualize Seven Samurai in relation to
that history. What isjidaigeki? How did this popular genre come about?
What are some of the basic features of jidaigeki? What kind of role did
it play in the development of Japanese cinema? How has it changed
or remained the same since its emergence? And how does Kurosawa
situate himself in the history of the jidaigeki film?

206 Kurosawa

Japanese Cinema and the Genre System

Genres as institutions are created by the film industry largely to con-
trol the mode of film reception and consumption.Along with the star
system and other economic practices of the film industry(e.g, the ver-

tical integration of studios,distribution divisions,and theaters), genres

|serve to minimize financial risks for the industry.The studios strive to

achieve the predictability and stability of their business enterprise by
|repeatedly using in their films similar themes, story patterns, charac-

| ter types, dramatic settings,physical locations,formal devices, visual

iconography,and sets and decor.By carefully combining these generic

subcomponents to produce infinitesimal differences, the studios try to

develop a field of intertexts that restrict the meanings and effects of

films and create specific audience expectations. Genres therefore func-

|tion as a contract between producers and consumers, which facilitates

a smooth exchange of money and commodities. However,the total
|predictability stymies the self-perpetuation of genres. The audience

expects certain kinds of products guaranteed by generic conventions

|but simultaneously demands constant variations within the parameters

of those conventions.To satisfy the audience’s simultaneous demand

for the expected and the new, genres must periodically renew them-

selves by infusing new elements and creating unexpected variations.
The occasional violation of generic conventions is therefore permitted

or even welcomed because what is demanded by the audience is not the

repetition of the same but the repetition of differences. Another impor-

tant aspect of genres is that they are not completely autonomous but

interdependent on each other.As Fredric Jameson argues, it is impos-

sible to understand fully the significance of any particular genre unles

it is related to other contemporaneously existing genres constituting

| a genre system. The ideological underpinnings of a genre can be de-

coded only when it is examined as part of the synchronic system of

genres existing at a specific historical moment.
For critics interested in the question of genre,Japanese cinema is

a fertile object of study.In Japanese cinema there are as many difer-

ent genres and subgenres as in Hollywood cinema.There are studies

of specific Japanese film genres, but surprisingly,the genre system as

such has not been examined by film specialists or scholars of modern

Seven Samurai 207

Japanese culture. This neglect of the Japanese cinema’s genre system is
another sign of how Japanese cinema studies has been shaped by the
speciic agendas of disciplinary politics and border patroling discussed
in part 1.
|What makes genres in Japanese cinema unique is that they can be

classified into two mega-genres,jidaigeki(period film) and gendaigeki

(modern film), the equivalents of which do not exist in Hollywood

cinema. The absolute importance of this distinction is reflected in the
directorial system,the star system,and even the physical structure of

film studios.
Although they are fundamental to the way Japanese cinema is struc-

tured, jidaigeki and gendaigeki did not exist in the early Japanese
cinema.The first dominant generic distinction was established between
kyugeki (or kyuha) and shinpa(or shinpageki), which were later trans-

formed into jidaigeki and gendaigeki respectively.In principle, kyu-
geki-the word literary means “old drama,”and the alternative ex.
pression kyuha means “”old school”-was derived from Kabuki. The
early Japanese cinema started with the filming of Kabuki performances
(e.g, Viewing Scarlet Maple Leaves [Momijigari],Two People at Dojoji
Temple[Ninin Dojoiji],both made in 1899).Instead of trying to hide the

stage,these early Kabuki films emphasized the fact that the audience
is watching a theatrical performance.To this extent,the Kabuki film
was a substitute for a real Kabuki performance and thus wasregarded
as poor people’s theater.”Kyugeki film took off as a popular entertain-
ment when Makino Shozo started infusing his films with non-Kabuki
elements (e.g, stories from a popular oral storytelling form called ko-
| dan,trick photography,etc.).Makino also created the first Japanese

film star,Onoe Matsunosuke, who became a children’s idol for his ap-
pearance in numerous ninjutsu(art of the ninja) films.A former itiner-

ant Kabuki actor,Matsunosuke was the most popular star of the early
Japanese cinema(katsudo shashin).The height of his popularity was

the period between 1912 and 1918,during which he appeared in close to
one thousand films.Where kyugeki was based on a traditional theater,
shinpa(new school) was directly derived from a new type of drama that

appeared in the early twentieth century. Originallya political drama as-

sociated with the Freedom and People’s Rights Movement of the 188os,

shinpa dealt with contemporary social iues and Western ideas; how-

208 Kurosawa

ever, stylistically,it did not completelycut offisties to native theatrical
traditions and made liberal use of many Kabuki conventions includ-
ing the oyama, or female impersonator. Often called shinpa daihigeki(a

grand tragedy),shinpa tended to be a sentimental drama with a tragic

ending.
The ichotomy of kyugeki and shinpa poses a number of crucial ques-

| tions about the early Japanese cinema, but to pursue those questions

fully is beyond the scope of the present study. What I would like to
do instead is to speculate about some of the implications of the shift
in Japanese cinema from the kyugeki/shinpa paradigm to the dualism

of jidaigeki/gendaigeki as a fundamental classificatory principle.The

most obvious aspect of this shift is the emergence of a new historical

|awareness, a sense of historical distance and perspective.The classif-

catory categories of dramatic form(kyugeki versus shinpa,i.e,old ver-

| sus new) are replaced by the dichotomous categories of historical peri-

odization(jidaigeki versus gendaigeki,i.e,past versus present),which

are a manifestation of the utmost importance of separating the present
from the past.Moreover,the dichotomy of jidaigeki and gendaigekialso

|foregrounds the fact that the ideas of past and present are not neutral

categories.Instead, the new generic distinction shows how historical
consciousness is inseparable from the recognition of a larger histori-

cal process, that is, the end of feudalism and the rise of capitalism.The

differentiation of Japanese films into jidaigeki and gendaigeki becomes

possible by positing the point of the past/present disjunction in his-

tory, the point of historical break characterized by the encroachment

on Japan by the Western imperial powers posing the threat of coloni-

zation. Although modernity,imperialism,and colonialism are some-
| times treated as separate issues, the basic distinction between jidaigeki

and gendaigeki in Japanese cinema most clearly shows that questions

of modernity can never be answered when they are separated from the

other two terms.To the extent that it enables the Japanese to imagine

a new Japan radically different from what is perceived as the old world

(i.e. pre-Meiji Japan and the rest of Asia),the binarism of jdaigeki

and gendaigeki can play a complicit role in the formation of Japan as

a nation-state and even the homegrown imperialism of modern Japan.

By instituting the major distinction between jidaigeki and gendaigeki,

Japanese cinema contributed to the ideological imperative of imagin-

|Seven Samurai209

ing the absolute point of historical disjunction, which was essential for

the Japanese national formation.
| The replacement of kyugeki/shinpa by jidaigeki/gendaigeki marked a

fundamental shif in the conceptualization of the cinema.When it was
first introduced into Japan in the late nineteenth century,the cinema

was perceived as another specimen of modern technology from the
West. But the early history of Japanese cinema shows that the way

this modern technology was appropriated cannot necessarily be called
modern.Initilly, traveling exhibitors showed films throughout Japan.
Even after the first permanent movie theaters were built in 19o3, these
itinerants did not disappear immediately.The mode of exhibition was
also heavily influenced by the tradition of oral storytelling and perfor-
mance. Even though they are related to each other oppositionally,kyu-
|geki and shinpa are in the end semiautonomous practices, representing

different approaches to the question of how to create a new kind of
dramatic and narrative entertainment by using film technology. The
distinction of kyugeki and shinpa does not constitute a coherent struc-
tural totality; that is, kyugeki and shinpa cannot be reduced to species
of the genus called cinema.In spite of its fundamentally modern nature
as a technological device, the cinema in Japan still had to go through
a procss of modernization(i.e., the creation of a new mode of repre-

sentation speciic to monopoly capitalism) along with such traditional

cultural practices as literature,theater,and fine arts. It is only as a result
of this modernization that jidaigeki and gendaigeki emerged as genres

of the cinema as a fully established art form for the masses (taishu).

Various attempts to modernize Japanese cinema appeared late in the
second decade of the century.Inoue Masao’s The Captain’s Daughter

(（Taii no musume,1917)used a moving camera and close-ups (outsu-

shi) and tried to do away with kowairo, oral performers who imitated

the voices of the film’s characters.Nikatsu Mukojima studios’ reform

movement produced The Living Corpse (1keru shikabane,1918),whose

innovations included the use of a realistic set instead of a cheap painted
backdrop and the inclusion of the name of the director and other main

staff members in the credits. The first articulate attempt to modern-
ize Japanese cinema can be found in the effort of Kaeriyama Nori-

masa and the Pure Film Movement（Jun Eigageki Undo).Originally

|a technical specialist,Kaeriyama tried to replace shinpa with shingeki

210Kiurosawa

by following Hollywood conventions with the intention of exporting
Japanese films. Kaeriyama formed the Film Art Association (Eiga Gei-

|jutsu Kyokai) and produced The Glow of Life (Sei no kagayaki,1919)
| and Maid of the Deep Mountains(Miyama no otome,1919). His inno-

vations included the use of a script and actresses rather than oyama,
or female impersonators.In 192o the new film company Taikatsu was
established to pursue the production of innovative films. Under the
|direction of Thomas Kurihara and Tanizaki Jun’ichiro,Taikatsu pro-

|duced such films as Amateur Cub(Amachua kurabu,1920),The Sands

|of Katsushika(Katsushika sunago,192o),The Night of the Doll Festival

(Hinamatsuri no yoru,1921),and The Lasciviousness of the Viper(Jasei

|no in,1921).j” In the same year,Shochiku founded a new film company

whose goal was to modernize Japanese cinema by importing the system
of moviemaking directly from Hollywood. Along with the film produc-
tion company, Shochiku also established an actor’s school and invited
Osanai Kaoru, the leader of shingeki, to be the school’s director.But
Shochiku’s ambitious plan, which originally included the development
| of a new modern city around its film studios, suffered a severe setback

because of the exhibitors’and audiences’ resistance to rapid changes.

For a similar reason,Tanaka Eizo’s attempt to modernize shinpa film
at Nikkatsu was also brought to a halt.
One of the most decisive events for the emergence of a new Japanese

cinema was the great Kanto earthquake in 1923.Although certainly not

a direct cause,the earthquake was a major factor in the accelerated pro-

cess of modernization in the 192os. After 1923,jidaigeki permanently

replaced kyugeki; around the same time,shinpa lost its ground to the

emerging genre of gendaigeki. Film studios in Tokyo,which mostly

produced shinpa films, were virtually all destroyed by the earthquake,

and the center of film production was momentarily moved to Kyoto,

|where film studios had been mainly specialized in the production of

kyugekifims.As filmmakers moved from Tokyo to Kyoto,a number of

innovations were brought to kyugeki. At the same time, as Tokyo began
|to reemerge as a new urban center of Americanism,mass culture, and

consumerism, shinpa was finally replaced by gendaigeki.
The dichotomy of jidaigeki and gendaigeki does not imply any value

judgment on the aesthetic merit of either genre.Yet it is clearly jidai-

geki that holds as a pivot this dichotomous system together. Although

Seven Samurai 211

films that depict contemporary social incidents and mores do not nec-
essarily draw the audience’s attention to their status as representations,
|jidaigeki by its nature cannot but foreground its own generic conven-

tions. Moreover, the sense of the contemporaneity depicted in gendai-
geki is reinforced by the existence of jidaigeki, which shows a distant
|past.Thus,to understand the ideological implications of the emergence

of the new genre system, we must examine the institution of jidaigeki

more closely.

What Is Jidaigeki?

Let us start our examination of jidaigeki by distinguishing it from what
is called the”samurai film.” The samurai film as a generic category has
commonly been used by American critics, but not much by Japanese.!
Of course, that the”samurai fim” has not been a popular term in the
Japanese critical scene does not by itself diminish its critical value. It is
possible to propose the samurai film as a new theoretical category to

raise different questions and shed light on aspects of Japanese cinema

that might have been concealed by jidaigeki as a historical category of
genre.As long as it has a clear definition, raises new questions, and ex-
plains old problems more convincingly than already existing generic
terms,a new theoretical category can be invented and used in analy-
sis. However, as Rick Altman argues, since a theoretical category can
never be outside of history, it is necessary to scrutinize it as much as

the historical category of jidaigeki.
Where does the generic category of samurai fim come from? The

notion of samurai in this category is directly derived from the fact
that many jidaigeki films feature samurai or sword-carrying warriors as

main characters. Another important factor in the determination of the
samurai film’s generic characteristics is the inclusion of sword-fighting

scenes (chanbara).Yet these two majior characteristics of the samurai

film lead to critical contradictions rather than elucidation. If the samu-

rai film is defined solely by the social status and classidentity of its pro-
| tagonists,then regardless of its ultimate utility, it could at least main-

tain a generic coherence. However, when the spectacular sword fight
is regarded a more important core of the samurai film as a genre, its

212 Kurosawa

generic coherence collapses. Many sword fight masters in jidaigeki are

not samurai, either lawfully employed or masterless, but commoners,
mostly outlaws and gamblers (yakuza or kyokaku). David Desser is

aware of this contradiction when he claims that “those films which cen-
teron non-Samurai heroes yet whose focus is on men (or women)who

|wield swords in feudal Japan, are also Samurai films.””He acknowl-

edges the fundamental contradiction by calling it the samurai film’s
generic complexity, but he never explains why jidaigeki films with non-
|samurai heroes should still be called samurai films.If the use of swords

| is the only crucial factor in determining the identity and coherence of

the samurai film as a genre, then why not call it, for instance,a sword
|film? This fundamental contradiction in the definition of the samurai

fim as a genre cannot but lead us back to our previous examination
of the samurai as a sign imbued with colonial ideologies. It is rather
ironic to hear that the “great paradox of the Samurai Film is that it
has nothing whatsoever to do with history and everything to do with
| myth.”s For what is ahistorical is not jidaigeki films brought together

as samurai films but the notion of the samurai film itself.The samurai
film as a generic category tels us less about Japanese cinema and more
about a colonialist representation of Japan, which is shared by many

Westerners and Japanese.
To understand the speciicity of jidaigeki, we must examine two de-

velopments in popular culture in the early 19zos:the rise of popular
literature(taishu bungaku) and the emergence of Shinkokugeki（New

National Theater) as dominant cultural forces. Shinkokugeki was a new

school of popular theater founded in 1917 by Sawada Shojiro (aka Sawa-

|sho).Although its dramatic repertoire was rich in variety, Shinkoku-

geki was best known for its realistic sword fights(tate) or swordplay

(kengeki). And it is this tate that jidaigeki avidly appropriated and fur-

|ther refined. The most popular repertoire of Shinkokugeki included

such plays as Tsukigata Hanpeita and Kunisada Chuji by Yukitomo Rifu,

and Daibosatsu Pass(Daibosatsu Toge),an adaptation of the muti-

volume popular novel by Nakazato Kaizan.The serialization of this
long, unfinished novel started in 191s and with some interruptions con-
tinued until 941, three years before Nakazato’s death.Even though the

scope of the novel goes beyond the narrow confinement of popular

entertainment,Daibosatsu Pas is best known for one of its protago-

\even Samurai 213

| nists,Tsukue Ryunosuke.The epitome of evil and nihilism, Ryunosuke
is an extremely skilled swordsman who coldly kills people for no ap-
parent reason. He eventually goes blind, but this does not at all dimin-
ish his swordmanship. The popularity of Daibosatsu Pass was boosted
further when Shinkokugeki performed its adaptation in 192o.Sawada’s
performance of the role of Ryunosuke made indelible impressions on
spectators,and from that time on,the popular image of Tsukue Ryu-
nosuke became inseparable from Sawada’s stage performance.” Dai-
|bosatsu Pass was imitated and appropriated in numerous sword plays,
popular novels,and jidaigeki films, and Tsukue Ryunosuke became a
prototype of many well-known chanbara heroes from the one-armed,
one-eyed ronin Tange Sazen to the blind swordsman Zato Ichi.”
Popular literature,or more specifically taishu bungaku, began to take

shape as a new cultural force in the early 192os under the strong leader-
ship of writer Shirai Kyoji.In 1924 the inaugural issue of the popu-
lar magazine King came out,* and in the following year, the first little
magazine exclusively focused on popular literature,Taishu bunge,was
started.The popularity of taishu bungaku soared in 1926 when Heibon-
sha launched an enpon(one-yen book)series called “The Complete
Works of Popular Literature”(Taishu bungakuzenshu).Even though it
marginally included detective fiction (most notably the works of Edo-

gawa Ranpo) and other types of popular genres,taishu bungaku was
|overwhelmingly chanbara fiction or jidai shosetsu(period novel), thus

sharing almost the identical narrative world with the jidaigeki fim.

Some taishu bungaku writers,most notably Naoki Sanjugo, were ac-
tively involved in the moviemaking business.In the mid-192os,taishu
bungaku and jidaigeki film mutually stimulated each other’s develop-

ment.Jidaigeki relied on the mass appeal of taishu bungaku as its raw

material,and taishu bungaku expanded its sphere of infuence as jidai-

geki transformed its heroes into cultural icons.

One of the first filmmakers to recognize the value of Shinkokugeki’s

realistic sword fighting and taishu bungaku was Makino Shozo. Right

before Tokyo was reduced to rubble by the powerful earthquake,Ma-

kino left Nikkatsu to establish his own company,Makino Educational

Film(Makino Kyoiku Eiga).” Although he was responsible for the

enormous success of kyugeki and its biggest star,Matsunosuke,Makino

was keenly aware of the limitations of what he had created.Kyugekiand

214 Kurosawa

its counterpart shinpa were usually a mere photographic representation
of theatrical performances,and for those who were immersed in Holly-
wood and European films, those Japanese films(katsudo shashin) were

less than what they considered a true cinema(eiga).In kyugeki films,

action scenes were often supplemented by various photographic tricks,
| but heavily influenced by Kabuki; the actual sword fighting(tachima-

wari] was slow in tempo and less a realistic depiction than a stylized

dance. At his studios,Makino Shozo assembled a new generation of
such filmmakers and actors as Bando Tsumasaburo, Susukita Roku-
hei,Yamagami Itaro,and Makino’s son Masahiro,” whose works soon
eclipsed the fims of the old group represented by Matsunosuke.” And a
golden age of jidaigeki came in the late 192os when Ito Daisuke made a

|series of films featuring Okochi Denjiro,a former Shinkokugeki actor,2

From its beginning, the cinema has been an art of spectacle as much
as one of drama and narrative.Even after narrative film became the
dominant genre of commercial cinema, the spectacle has remained its
|indispensable component.The dominance of Hollywood in the world

market has been in part because of its success in incorporating spec-

| tacle scenes into tightly knit narratives. The well-told stories of Holly-

wood movies lure the audience into a fantasy world, and the extrava-
|gant spectacle scenes not only manipulate the ups and downs of their

|emotions but also provide them with vicarious experiences of con-

spicuous consumption.To compete against Hollywood movies,cine-
|mas of other countries have also tried to combine spectacles with nar-

|rative without making them too independent from the narrative flow.

The significance of idaigekit in the history of Japanese cinema needs to

be reexamined in this context
Although the wordjuidai means “times,”age,” or “period,”jidaigeki

is not exactly equivalent to either “period film”or “historicalfim.”The

| period that jidaigeki exploits for dramatic purposes is not just any his-

torical time but mostly the Tokugawa or Edo era,from the early 16oos

to 1867.There are a number of jidaigeki films set in the pre-Tokugawa

era,but they are still exceptions rather than the norm.To understand
why idaigeki exploits the Edo period as a fertile field of materials, the
complexity of Japanese modernity needs to be noted.It is misleading,

for instance,to argue that Japanese modernityabruptly started with the

Meiji government’s modernization policy articulated in such slogans

Seven Samurai 215

as fukoku kyohei(rich nation,strong army) and wakon yosai(Japanese
spirit,Western technology).In Japanese,there are three different words
that approximately mean”modern”:kinsei, kindai, and gendai.The
fist term is strictly reserved for the Edo period,and the last one can
mean both”modern”and “contemporary”Although the phrase “feu-
dal Japan”is often unproblematically equated with”premodern Japan,”
as the term kinsei indicates, the feudalism of Edo Japan was not incom-
patible with a specific form of a modern socioeconomic system.The
formation of modern Japan had already started in the Edo period, and
to understand the specificities of Japanese modernity after the Meiji
Restoration and the encounter with the Western imperial powers, it is
imperative to put it in this larger historical perspective.
Edo Japan as the most common setting for jidaigeki allowed film-

makers to transform sword-fighting scenes into mass entertainment
spectacles, which contemporary settings would not easily facilitate.”
No matter how modernized post-Meiji lapan was,the process of mod-
ernization was far from complete,and the fast-paced daily lives of the
masses did not irreversibly cut off their ties with the older mode of
living, either.When filmmakers turned their attention to contemporary
Japan, what they saw was not a fully modernized society but strains
and contradictions caused by the ongoing process of modernization.
As their daily lives were increasingly transformed by the modernizing
forces of monopoly capitalism,the audiences demanded more speed
and spectacle; yet because of the incomplete state of modernization,
that demand could not always be satisfied by showing contemporary
Japanese life.Thus a paradox:the more Japan was modernized,the
more there was demand for films set in feudal Japan.
Edo Japan as depicted in jidaigeki is not a historically accurate repre-

sentation but the idealized image of Edo.During the Meiji the writer
Ozaki Koyo and his literary group Kenyusha tried to keep the Edo
chonin(townspeople)culture alive in their elegantly stylized writings.
Thanks also to the advertising campaign by Mitsukoshi,the first mod-
ern department store in Japan, the Edo became an enormously popu-
lar commodity after the end of the Russo-Japanese War (1904-19o5).
Amid the nostalgic Edo boom of the late Meiji,the popular imagi-
nation idealized the early years of the Edo period and constructed a

216 Kurosawa

ictitious historical narrative in which what happened in later years of
the period appeared in the idealized setting of the seventoenth cen-
tury.”Jlidaigeki owed its existence in part to this popular imagination,
and the use of a historically ambiguous word such as jidaigave rise to
the widely shared sense of imaginary history. To this extent, the emer-
gence of Japanese cinema with its new genre system in the mid-192os
contributed to the formation of the national consciousness and the re-
construction of the national history that was violently disrupted and
at the same time engendered by Western imperialism.The dichotomy
of jidaigeki and gendaigeki can be read as a symbolic translation of the
larger historical framework within which the issues of modernity,im-
perialism, and colonialism intersect, while subgenres such as maternal
|melodrama and gangster films narrativize specific types of sociopoliti-

|cal contradictions induced by the modernization process.Through the
institutional distinction of jidaigeki and gendaigeki,the cinema func-
tioned as one of the essential means for the Japanese to come to terms
with questions of modernity.
The emergence of jidaigeki as a new genre had little to do with a

| return to tradition and more to do with a rebellion against the old

forms and conventions of Kabuki and kyugeki. If Shinkokugeki pro-
| vided a model of realistic sword fighting, what compelled inovators

of jidaigeki to push their experiment to the limit was the impact of
Hollywood cinema,particularly action movies, or katsugeki, exempli-
fied by Douglas Fairbanks’s swashbuckling fims and William S. Hart’s
|Westerns.”In addition,the slapstick comedies of Chaplin, Keaton,

and Lloyd provided them with examples of athletic action and move-
ments,The list of Japanese films that adapted or imitated Hollywood
productions by merely changing characters’ names and physical set-
|tings is endless.But these films cannot be regarded as evidence for

either the Americanization of Japanese cinema or the Japanization of
American cinema. Particular kinds of shot composition, camera move-
| ment,editing techniques, narrative motifs, and characterization in

Hollywood cinema were thoroughly assmilated as semiotic codes to
such an extent that where those formal devices and thematic motifs
originated became irrelevant.And only as a successful result of this as-
similation did”Japan” become a meaningful sign in relation to film. In

Seven Samurai 217

| other words,”Japan”did not preexist the translation and assimilation
of new semiotic codes; instead,”Japanese cinema”emerged precisely
as an effect of intertextual fermentation.
The significance of jidaigeki did not simply lie in its status as a new

|commodified spectacle.Like Shinkokugeki, jidaigeki precariously bal-
anced itself between a pure entertainment and an art form with im-
portant messages and aesthetic value. The founder of Shinkokugeki,
Sawada Shojiro,started his theatrical career when he was still a stu-
dent at Waseda University as a trainee of the shingeki group Bungei
Kyokai(Literary Association),which was headed by Tsubouchi Shoyo.
A highly idealistic shingeki actor, Sawada vehemently refused to com-
promise his aesthetic standards to please what he considered the vul-
gar taste of popular audiences. Sawada was unsatisfied with Bungei
Kyokai’s somewhat unexpected succes, since it was to a large extent
due to the popularity of one actress,Matsui Sumako.” He left Bungei
Kyokai right before it was dissolved because of internal confict, and
he reluctantly joined Shimamura Hogetsu’s Geijutsuza, which was still
centered around Sumako,Hogetsu’s lover. In1914, when Geijutsuza
decided to stage a play based on Tolstoy’s Resurrection, Sawada’s exas-
peration over Geijutsuza’s commercialization reached the limit.Dur-
ing the performance of Resurrection, Sumako(in the role of Katusha)
sang a song, which was so popular that its record sold forty thousand
copies. Sumako’s Katusha became an idol,and her hairstyle and fash-
ion were avidly imitated and sold as character goods.Geijutsuza trav-
eled throughout Japan and the Japanese colonies to show Resurrection,
which was performed 444 times.Led by his idealistic zeal for theater
as high art, Sawada left Geijutsuza and tried to realize his vision else-
where.But he encountered enormous financial difficulty and suffered
a series of setbacks. After having barnstormed and lived a hand-to-
mouth lif for a few years, he came to realize a need for anew type of
popular theater that is neither Kabuki,shinpa, nor translated foreign
plays (148).In 1917, to achieve his new goal, Sawada started Shinkoku-
geki, but without a star actress, the troupe failed to attract the popular
audience.The financial trouble forced Sawada’s troupe to leave Tokyo
and move westward to Kyoto, where their fortune went further down-
hil.As a last resort,at a theater in Osaka, Sawada and his followers
decided to include a sword-ighting scene in the program.Partly be-
218 Kurosawa

cause of their lack of skill and also because of their desperate state of
mind, their performance was extremely speedy,energetic,and violent,
nothing like Kabuki’s dancelike tachimawari.The audience responded
immediately,and Shinkokugeki began to be known as the theater of
realistic sword fighting. The direction of Shinkokugeki was finally set,
and Sawada came up with “a half-step principle”(hanpo zenshin shugi)

| as Shinkokugeki’s motto.On the one hand, if artists take a full step

forward,argued Sawada, the masses would be simply left behind. On
the other hand,if artists stay with the masses by passively satisfying
|their demands, there would be no progress in art.Therefore, if artists

|want to pursue art and simultaneously keep in touch with the desire

and sensibility of the masses, they must take only a halfstep at a time.
True to his convictions, Sawada continued to explore the possibilities
|of sword fighting as spectacle and art, whileregularly performing other

types of plays,including translated Western plays.
|Like Sawada Shojiro,many filmmakers,including those who came

to specialize in jidaigeki, had been involved in shingeki movements be-
fore they entered the film world.Tanaka Eizo, Katsumi Yotaro, lwata
|Yukichi,Moroguchi Tsuzuya, and Kamiyama Sojin (who later moved

to Shoyo’s Bungei Kyokai) all studied at Tokyo Acting School(Tokyo

|Haiyu Yoseisho),which was established to train shinpa actors but ended
|up producing shingeki actors(162-73).This new breed of film actors

and directors had a kind of training and education decisively differ-
|ent from the background of Onoe Matsunosuke and his generation of

filmmakers. Ito Daisuke, the most important jidaigeki director in this
|period, was a student of Osanai Kaoru, a leader of the shingeki move-
|ment. Ito’s initial ambition was literature, but when Osanai assumed

the post of the head of Shochiku Cinema Institute (Shochiku Kinema

Kenkyusho),Ito, with Osanai’s assistance,entered Shochiku’s acting

|school as a trainee. When Shochiku started making films in 1920, Ito

moved to its script department and in 1924 directed his first film for
|Tekoku Kinema.For this new generation of filmmakers, the cinema

|was not just a spectacle or entertainment. It was a new type of mass

medium that could appeal to a large number of people as entertain-
ment and at the same time have aesthetic and political significance.
Spectacular sword fighting in jidaigeki was not at all incompatible with

formal experiment and political radicalism.

Seven Samurai 219

In the i92os,Japanese society was undergoing tremendous changes.
The great Kanto earthquake in 1923 destroyed the old Tokyo and pre-
cipitated the emergence of mass culture and Americanism.A new ur-
ban cultural scene in Tokyo and elsewhere was dominated by radio,
film, vaudeille theater, weekly magazines, jazz,and cafes.It was also
the age of so-called Taisho democracy and political repression.In 19z5
universal male suffrage became reality, and all males over twenty-five
|were now eligible to vote. In the same year,however, the Peace Pres-
|ervation Law(Chian ljiho)was passed to suppress widespread leftist
activities and labor movements.In 193o the Great Depression hit lapan.
Many workers lost their jobs in cities, and in the countryside, which
was severely ravaged by depression and bad weather,many farmers
sold their daughters to brothels to avoid starvation.Labor unrest was
widespread allover Japan,and socialism and anarchism were extremely
popular among youth.At the same time,the government was rapidly
leaning toward militarist expansionism,and the extreme right wing as.
ssinated politicians and businessleaders who obstructed their pursuit
of radicalism.In the midst of social uncertainty,the age of American-
ism shifted to that of the “erotic, grotesque,and nonsense”(ero-gro-
nansensu), reflecting the nihilistic desperation of popular sentiment.
Popular culture,including film and taishu bungaku, responded to
these radical social changes and uncertainties. For instance, the term
taishu bungaku itself was a product of this tumultuous period.The
word taishu began to be used in the early 192os by socialists and an-
|archists such as Yamakawa Hitoshi and Takabatake Motoyuki to refer
to the “people” or the “masses.” The choice of the word taishu instead
of tsuzoku(popular,common,etc.) indicates that taishu bungaku was
marked by a sense of classdifference and struggle as much as bya more
predictable opposition of high art and low culture” The connection
between taishu bungaku and leftist politics can also be discerned in
the background of one of the founders of taishu bungaku, Nakazato
Kaizan, the author of Daibosatsu Pass. Kaizan was born and grew up
in the Tama region, which produced not only late Edo loyalists such
as Kondo Isami and Hijikata Toshizo but also young activists of the
People’s Rights movement in the 188os. Kaizan, too,was a politially

active youth,who was forced to resign from his teaching position at
an elementary school because of his missionary work and socialist be-
220Kurosawa

liefs.He soon became a regular contributor to the Christian social-
ist weekly Heimin shinbun(Commoner’s Paper),and opposed to the

Russo-Japanese War.Shortlyafter the High Treason incident(Taigyaku

Jliken) in 191o,Kaizan began to be drawn to Buddhism and continued

| to develop his own utopian vision of society.Kaizan was often regarded

as an extremely opinionated, eccentric writer,but it is worthwhile to
remember that he was one of a few writers during World War Il who
refused to join the Society for Patriotism through Literature (Bungaku
Hokokukai),a governmental organization established to control and

mobilize writers for war effort.(Another writer who refused to become

a member of this militarist association was Uchida Hyakken, who is
featured as a protagonist of Kurosawa’s last fim,Madadayo.)》

What was called taishu bungaku was almost exclusively jidai shosetsu
featuring samurai and gamblers.Popular stories and novels whose dra-
matic settings were contemporary Japan were simply called tsuzoku

bungaku,which lacked any cla-related connotations.” Why did tai-
|shu bungaku as a new literary genre include only stories set in the Edo

period, particularly its last days? Writers like Nagai Kafu exoticized

the remnants of Edo in contemporary Tokyo by way of passive contes-
|tation of the autocratic government and its policy of modernization.

Taishu bungaku, which was implicitly marked by the class conscious-
nessof the politicized masses,used as an imaginary field of experiment

the last days of the Edo period (bakumatsu), when loyalists (kinno-

ha)and bakufu supporters (sabaku-ha)engaged in a bloody battl and
fought for hegemony. The transitional years from the Edo to the Res-

toration became an allegorical image of the contemporary social situa-

tion, where the radical left and right activists were both trying to pro-

mote their versions of revolution.In the cinema,various adaptations of

Shinkokugeki’s Tsukigata Hanpeita made the last days of the Tokugawa

shogunate one of the most popular dramatic settings for idaigeki in the

mid-192os.”The emergence of jidaigeki was almost simultaneous with

the filmmakers’ discovery of the figure of the ronin, or masterless samu-

|rai, which made it possible for them to represent images of youth un-

constrained by social customs and obligations.* The most radicalized

images of youth were found in the leftist tendency films (keiko eiga)

of the late 192os and early 193os.” At the same time,the most inno-

vative jidaigekifilmmakers were themselves radical youth, who chifly

Seven Samurai 224

|worked at Makino Kinema and other small independent production
companies established by film stars.* According to Makino Masahiro,
even before the leftist tendency film became popular, Makino studio
was already a hotbed of anarchists.” The vitality of jidaigeki in the
192os and early 193os was inseparable from young filmmakers’ anar-
chistic rebellion against the establishment and, at an institutional level,
small production companies’struggle against large capital.” Thus it
is not surprising that the golden age of jidaigeki came to an end with
the government suppression of a leftist movement and the dismanting
and absorption of small independent companies by the majors, which
were accelerated by the introduction of a new technology,synchro-
nized sound.The end of the jidaigeki’s golden age coincided with the
replacement of the silent cinema and benshi’s narration by the sound
cinema in the mid-193os.l

Jidaigeki and the Occupation

If the first setback for jidaigeki was created by the suppression of the
leftist movement and the transition from silent to sound film, the sec-
ond major crisis came with Japan’s defeat in World War Il and the
subsequent American occupation. During the Occupation,Japanese
cinema was under the watchful eye of the American censors, who im-
mediately started working on the control of the film industry. On Sep-
tember 22,1945,GHQ’s Civil Information and Education Section(cIE)
issued to some forty Japanese fimmakers a document that laid out a
general policy for film production.The cIE’s plan was to make Japa-
nese cinema contribute to the elimination of Japanese militarism and
ultranationalism; the fostering of basic human rights including free-
dom of speech, assembly,and religion;and the transformation of Japan
into a country that would never again threaten world peace and secu-
rity.The American officials also explained to the asembled Japanese
filmmakers what they perceived as fundamental problems with Japa-
nese film and theater.”Kabuki theater is,”according to the Americans,
“”based on the principles of feudalistic loyalty and revenge. The present
world does not accept this type of theater anymore. The Japanese will
never be able to understand the foundation of international society in-
222 Kurosawa

sofar as things such as treason,murder,and deception are openly jus-
tified in front of the masses,and personal revenge is permitted in place
of law. Of course, serious crimes also occur in Western countries; how-
ever,Western morality is based on concepts of good and evil,not on
loyalty to feudal clans or blood relatives.”Two months later,cIE an-
|nounced a list of thirteen types of films that were no longer allowed to

be produced.The list included any films showing revenge as a central
theme, distorting historical facts,portraying feudal loyalty or contempt

|for life as desirable and honorable,and approving suicide directlyor in-

|directly.9Through these orders,directives,and “guidance,” the Ocu-

pation government tried to destroy j daigeki, which was regarded as
a major source of what the Americans considered Japanese feudalis-
|tic sentiment, and therefore,as such, responsible for ultranationalism

and militarism.In the immediate postwar years, jidaigeki was basically
banned by the Occupation authorities,except when films did not show
| any sword-fighting scenes or when they explicitly criticized Bushido,

revenge,and other feudal ideals.
|As we examined in the previous section, jidaigeki is, despite its

explicit diegetic content,a modern genre,and it does not afrm or
|reflect feudalistic values straightforwardly as the American censors be-

lieved. Not a simple continuation of traditional popular culture,jidai-
geki has lss to do with a revival of tradition than with an emerging
society of the masses and various strains of modernization. Why did
|the Americans react so strongly against juidaigeki? What was really be-

hind the Occupation government’s ban on these films? To answer these
questions,it isilluminating to compare how they treated another “feu-

dalistic”cultural practice, Kabuki.Initially Kabuki,too, suffered from

the Occupation’s policy, which immediately banned such popular clas-
sics as Chushingura and Kanjincho because of their glorification of feu-

dal loyalty.But the restriction on Kabuki was gradually relaxed by the
efforts of an American official who argued that Kabuki’s attraction did

not necessarily lie in the particular content of a story but in aesthetic
beauty based on stylized form and conventions. Through distantiation
and stylization, the themes of loyalty to the great lord or self-sacrifice

for revenge were said to be emptied out,and the audience rather en-

joyed the formal beauty of Kabuki’sfamboyant acting and stage design

without being influenced by feudal values idealized by drama. In con-

Seven Samurai 223

trast,film-as an intrinsically more realistic medium-would suppos-
|edly have a more direct impact on the way audiences think and act.
| There is nothing wrong with pointing out some basic dfferences
between Kabuki and jidaigeki film as artistic media. But the way the
Ocupation censors distinguished Kabuki and jidaigeki simply raises
more questions about the validity of the logic behind their different
treatment of the two.Although jidaigeki fimmakers tried to get rid
of forms and conventions inherited from Kabuki, the connections be-
tween Kabuki and film were not completely eliminated.The majority
of the biggest juidaigki stars were originally from the world of Kabuki
(e.g, Bando Tsumasaburo, Kataoka Chiezo,Ichikawa Utaemon,and
Arashi Kanjuro).The term jidaigeki itself was probably derived from
Kabukisjidaimono (or jidai kyogen).The way jidaigeki used the past as
a dramatic setting to elude censorship paralleled the way Kabuki’sjidai
mono had used pre-Edo history to portray and comment on contem-
porary social events to avoid the authorities’ represion.These obvious
similarities between Kabuki andjidaigeki make it diffcult for us to ac-
cept the Ocupation censors’clear-cut distinction between them at face
value. Another important point to be stressed is that far from being
promoted as a vehicle for propagating feudal ideals,juidaigeki was dis-
dained and even suppressed by the militaristic Japanese government
as a trivial and ultimately useles entertainment.The assertion that by
idealizing feudalistic social relations jidaigeki functioned as an ideo-
logical apparatus of Japanese militarism is basicallya fiction.The Ocu-
pation censors argued that Japanese militarism was a direct product of
feudalism,and that jidaigeki shamelessly indoctrinated Japanese audi-
ences by feudal ideas. But if this had really been the case, why did the
militarist government during the war try to suppress jidaigeki? We can
more aptly regard the idaigeki film as a scapegoat,doubly suppressed
by the Japanese government during the war and by the Ocupation
government after the Japanese defeat.
Thus there is a fundamental contradiction in the Occupation cen-

sors’ characterization of juidaigki, which reveals les about the speci-
ficity of this genre than about their ideological agenda and stratagem.
The sharp differentiation of Kabuki fromjidaigekienabled the Occupa-
tion censors to reinforce the status of the former as a national treasure
and to replace the specificity of history with the notion of aestheticized
224 Kurosawa

Japaneseness as fetish.The dichotomy of Kabuki andjidaigeki also en-

abled the Americans to differentiate Japanese history into two parts,a

good tradition, which is nonviolent and apolitical and shared by the
majority of the ordinary Japanese,and a premodern feudalistic tradi-
| tion, which is deemed largely responsible for Japanese militarism and

sadistic atrocities committed by Japanese military oficers and soldiers.
Behind the Occupation government’s ban on jidaigeki lies a faith in
modernization theory, which asserts a linear, progressive movement of
|history from feudalism to modernity. By imposing this progressivist

view of history on the Japanese, the Americans tried to disguise their
Occupation as the liberation and democratization of Japan.
The Occupation censors did not pay much attention to the specific

narrative content of jidaigeki films. Instead, they were reacting to the

immediate images on the screen, particularly the images of swords.
There is something absurd about the Americans’excessive obsession
with, and fear of, the Japanese sword, which as an iconic image epito-
|mizes for them feudal loyalty,revenge,and the irrational energy and

brutality of the Japanese. I shall not venture any possible psychoana-
|lytic connection of the Americans’ fear of the Japanese sword, cas-

| tration complex,and uncertainty about their own national identity.

I shall only note how frequently the wartime American fims include
the images of swords to represent the Japanese as incomprehensible
|aliens.Frank Capra’s propaganda film Know Your Enemy:lapan(1944),

for instance,shows Japanese swords to categorically assert the bru-
| tality of the Japanese as a race(67).The Purple Heart(Lewis Milestone,

1944), the first Hollywood film to explicitly show the Japanese torture

|of American prisoners of war, is another example of the films that asso-

| ciate Japanese fanaticism with the sword.There is a bizarre scene in the

|film where Japanese soldiers frenetically dance and swing their swords

|around in a courtroom when they hear the news of MacArthur’s re-

treat from the Philippines.The Occupation feared so much the power

of the sword as a symbolically charged iconic sign that the censors cut

| excessive swordplay scenes even in foreign films (69).When Japanese

filmmakers protested against the Ocupation’s apparently irrational re-

action, the American censors defended their decision by saying that the
sword is an instrument of feudal revenge, but the gun is a weapon of

self-defense and individualism.

Seven Samurai 225

The effect of the Occupation censorship onjidaigeki was already visi-
ble in the films of the immediate postsurrender days.A Baby Grven by
a Fox(Kitsune no kureta akanbo),a jidaigeki film directed by Marune
Santaro and released on November 8,1945,does not include any sword
fighting scenes.The film’s protagonist is Tora(Bando Tsumasaburo),a
laborer who carries people and baggage across the Oi River. One day
he finds an abandoned baby boy in the woods and decides to bring him
up by himself. The boy, named Zenta, is a natural leader. He tells his
father that he wants to become a samurai someday. When Tora prom-
ises him a reward for his rapid progress in learning writing,Zenta asks
for a sword. At first Tora scolds Zenta for his unreasonable request and
tries to explain that a sword is only for samurai,not for commoners
like themselves. But in the end Tora gives in to Zenta and buys him a
small sword.With his new sword,Zenta plays the role of a noble lord,
carried by his friends as retainers on a causeway. From the opposite
side comes the procession of a real daimyo.Zenta, who is too proud
and stubborn, refuses to make way for the daimyo’s procession, and
the children are captured and incarcerated by the angry samurai.Con-
sidering the historical context of the Occupation and its censorship, it
is hard not to interpret this episode without reference to the Occupa-
tion’s fear and condemnation of the sword as a symbol of everything
negative about Japanese tradition.The introduction of the sword as a
significant narrative motif is too abrupt in this film about the life and
feelings of common people.This unnatural turn of events cannot but
draw the audience’s attention to the sword as an object inviting mis-
fortune. And perhaps the film’s peculiar underscoring of the sword is
an implicit critique of the Occupation censors’irrational suppression
of the images of sword and sword fighting.
The Ocupation censorship nearly killedjuidaigeki. Only seven jidai-

geki films were made in 1946,” and the Occupation censors’ relaxation
of their control over jdaigeki occurred very slowly. Even when the
Occupation offcially ended its censorship of Japanese films in October
1949, Eirin,the lapanese censorship board established in June 1949 to
replace the Occupation censors, continued to limit the numberof jidai-
geki films.In 19so the film industry agreed to a policy of self-restraint
regarding the production of jidaigki,whereby each company was
allowed to make only one jidaigeki film per month. Under such cir-

26 Kurosawa

|cumstances, studios,directors,and actors who specialized in juidaigeki

were forced to make different kinds of juidaigeki or even venture into
the unfamiliar territory of gendaigeki. In jidaigeki,there was a boom

|of torimonocho, a type of detective story whose protagonist is not a

|sword-carrying samurai but a Tokugawa-period detective or meakashi

a commoner with some not too serious criminal background. Because
meakashi used an iron bar called jitte rather than a sword, torimono-

cho films could show spectacle scenes without sword fighting. Some
jidaigeki stars,most notably Kataoka Chiezo,found a new home in gen-

daigeki’s detective genre.In the Tarao Bannai series,Chiezo exchanges
a sword for a pistol and solves mysterious cases with his brain rather
than with his physical strength.
As decisive as it was,the Occupation censorship was not the only rea-

son for the decline of jidaigeki as a genre. Jidaigeki was also gradually
losing its fundamental source of energy and vitality with the radical re-
conceptualization of modern Japanese history. Until the end of the war,
|the pivotal point of historical disjunction had been the end of the Edo

and the beginning of the Meiji. After the defeat, however, it was Au-
gust i5,1945, that became at least as significant as the Meiji Restoration

in marking a historical discontinuity.For the postwar Japanese cinema,

what was more important was how to deal with the immediate past
and contemporary chaos, war and its disastrous consequences. Japa-
nese cinema responded to the necessity of asserting the radical newness
of postwar Japan,even if it turned out to be only imaginary, and to a

lesser degree,the necessity of repressing the fact of Ocupation.

lidaigeki in the 19osos

|One of the most important developments for jidaigeki during the 195os

was the founding of a new film company,Toei.In April1951,Tokyo Eiga

Haikyu, a distribution company established two years earlier, was re-

organized as Toei after absorbing two production companies,Toyoko

and Oizumi studios. Even after the merger,however, Toei was still on
the verge of bankruptcy.In Kyoto, stars such as Kataoka Chiezo and

IchikawaUtaemon were forced to round up money to cover the cost

of location shootings. The financially desperate situation was so well

Seven Samurai 227

known that many inns and restaurants refused to serve Toei actors and
crews.”In 1952, with the end of the Occupation and the resurgence
of jidaigeki as a popular film genre, Toei’s financial situation slowly
started improving.” Although it produced many gendaigeki films at its
studios in Tokyo, Toei was predominantly known for its jidaigeki films
featuring such big stars as Chiezo and Utaemon.When the industry’s
self-restriction on the distribution of idaigeki films was finallylifted in
August 1951,all major studios took advantage of the abolition of the
quota.Yet it was clearly Toei that most benefited from the new situa-
tion.In 1946 Toei hired Makino Mitsuo,a son of Makino Shozo and a
younger brother of Makino Masahiro,as the head of its Kyoto studios
when he repatriated from Manchuria, where he had worked as a pro-
ducer at the Manchurian Motion Picture Association.In the early days
of the Occupation,because of the near impossibility of making jidai-
gekifilms,Daiei released its biggest uidaigekistars,Bando Tsumasaburo,
Arashi Kanjuro, Kataoka Chiezo, and Ichikawa Utaemon.Toei signed
exclusive contracts with Chiezo and Utaemon in 1949.In addition to
these newly acquired superstars, Toei also had jdaigeki stars such as
Tsukigata Ryunosuke and Otomo Ryutaro,jidaigeki directors Makino
Masahiro and his half brother Matsuda Sadatsugu,and scriptwriters
Hisa Yoshitake and Yahiro Fuji.”In other words, unlike other studios,
Toei wasfully prepared to mass-produce jidaigekifims.In 1952,for in-
stance,ninety jidaigeki fims were made by the Japanese film industry.
Among the five majors,Toei produced the largest number of jidaigeki
films (twenty-six, or 28 percent of the total output),and it was also the
only company that made more jidaigeki films than gendaigeki films.”
In 1954 Toei started a weekly double feature,leading the way in the
mas production of films.The shorter film of the double feature was
called Toei gorakuhen(Toei entertainment edition),which, featuring
young rising stars such as Nakamura Kinnosuke and Azuma Chiyono-
suke,successfully opened up a new market for movies aimed at chil-
dren under high school age.” Kinnosuke grew into one of the biggest
movie stars of the 19sos, and his popularity was eclipsed only by Nik-
katsu’s action star Ishihara Yujiro.In 1957 Toei became the first apanese
film company to adopt CinemaScope,and at the box office, it was num-
ber one among the six majors.”The height of Toei jidaigeki’s popu-
larity and Toei’s success lasted from the mid-195os to the early 196os,
228 Kurosawa

right before Japan experienced the miracle of high-growth economy;
in 1961,more than 32 percent of all the fims made by the industry were
Toei fims.”
What are some of the basic characteristics of Toei jidaigeki films?

|Based on set patterns and formulas,the story of a typical Toei jidai-
gekifilm is simple and predictable.Frequently,the same materials were
|literally used again and again (e-g,Chushingura, Shimizu no lirocho,

etc.). The narrative is organized around the simple opposition of good

and evil and predictably leads to a happy ending: the hero always tri-
umphs; the villain is killed or punished.Being so sure of the dfference
|between justice and injustice,the hero never wavers in his judgment

and determination.”* The villain, in contrast, tests the boundary sepa-
|rating justice and injustice, or good and evil.This is why in the world
of Toei chanbara films,anybody who “thinks”falls into the category
of a villain.The anti-intellectual sentiment of Toeijidaigeki manifests
itself most clearly in the casting.The role of the hero is always played
by a former Kabuki actor or somebody who is familiar with Kabuki’s
|milieu;in contrast, the villain’s role is played by an actor who comes

from the world of shingeki.The hero does not have any psychological
|depth or interiority,and the villain is punished precisely for his “think-

|ing” as much as for his evil deed. Predictably, the hero is a superior

swordsman, but this does not necessarily mean that Toei jidaigki in-
cludes spectacular swordplay or scenes of excessive violence. The major

|attraction of Toei jidaigeki is a sword fight scene(thus Toei jidaigeki is

called chanbara),yet the sword fighting is not as athletic or realistic as

| it was in prewar chanbara films.Instead, it is a highly stylized and care-

fully choreographed dance.The absence of realistically violent sword
fighting,coupled with the avoidance of any sexually explicit senes,

means that Toei jidaigeki is remarkably wholesome,the kind of films

|the Ministry of Education would conceivably be willing to recommend

|(in reality, of course,the ministry neverendorsed Toeijidaigeki because

it was regarded as nothing more than a mindless entertainment).The

source materials of Toei jidaigki include not only canonical jdaigeki

| texts but also NHK’s serial radio dramas resembling kodan stories.By

adapting these serials,Toei made ninjutsu,the art of the ninja,a popu-

|lar subject again.(In the early 196os, the ninja film became more than

st an entertainment at the hands of directors such as Yamamoto Sat-

Seven Samurai 29

|suo, who used this genre as a means of social critique in A Band of
Assassins[Shinobi no mono,1962].) Toei jidaigeki is to some extent an
atavistic return to kyugekiand the world of Tachikawa bunko; that is,
it is a more technologically advanced version of the primitive cinema
exemplified by the films of the kyugeki superstar Onoe Matsunosuke.
Toei jidaigki is a star-oriented cinema.The film’s plot is not neces-
sarily determined by the inner logic of the narrative but often by the
balance of stars appearing in the film. According to the generic rules
of Toei jidaigeki, the stars should not play the role of villain, and they
should also not fight against each other in the film. When there are
many stars in one film,a direct fight among them is dificult to avoid,
but the star system demands the observance of the rules even if as
a result the film becomes utterly artificial and unrealistic. The estab-
lishment of a rigid star system and strict hierarchy among actors and
staff at Toei was geared toward the mass production of jidaigeki films.
|The use of the leading stars in a weekly rotation enabled the studio to
produce two films a week with enough variations in the casting and
subtle permutations of stories. Many excellent supporting actors added
depth to Toei’s offerings.The hierarchical organization of the studio
gave actors and other employees the sense of their own proper places
and functions,so that it greatly increased the efficiency of production.
At the studios, the leading stars were treated like small feudal lords,and
this anachronistic treatment ironically gave the actors presence when
they appeared as great lords,master swordsmen, or other heroic figures
in films.
|As dominant as it was, Toei did not completely monopolize the genre

| of juidaigeki in the 19sos. There were alternatives to Toei’s formulaic
entertainment movies. During the Occupation,there were already
some attempts to innovate the genre of jidaigeki by such non-idai-
geki filmmakers as Kinoshita Keisuke(The Yotsugya Ghost Story[Yot-
suya kaidan,1949])and Yoshimura Kozaburo(Ishimatsu of the Forest
[Mori no Ishimatsu,1949]).These new jidaigekifilms were artistically
ambitious but commercially not so successful.In the 195os,Mizogu-
chi made a series of unique jidaigeki films based on well-known lit-
erary sources(The Life of Oharu[Saikaku ichidai onna,1952],Ugetsu
[Ugetsu monogatari,1953],Sansho the Bailif(Sansho dayu,1954],A
Story from Chikamatsu[Chikamatsu monogatari,1954],New Tales of
230 Kurosawa

the Taira Clan[Shin Heike monogatari,19ss).Imai Tadashi,a leftist

director of gendaigeki,made his frst jidaigeki film,Night Drum(Yoru
no tsuzumi,1958),an adaptation of a Chikamatsu play. And even at

Toei there was an exception.Uchida Tomu, a prewar master of gendai-
gekiflms,made some remarkable jidaigekifilms including Bloody Spear
at Mount Fuji(Chiyari Fuji,195s).It is to this list of film directors that

Kurosawa Akira belongs.

Western and Jlidaigeki

Jidaigeki has often been compared to the American Western. Both
genres, set in important periods of Japanese and American national
histories, feature armed heroes-samurai and gamblers,cowboys and
gunmen-whose violence plays the essential role in the narrative de-

velopment and resolution.The Western and jidaigeki heroes are often
social outsiders who restore order or help people fighting against the
villains whilefully being aware that their virtuous action does not allow
|them to reintegrate themselves in a renewed social order. These and

|other similarities between the Western and jidaigeki are more than just

|coincidental.As I noted earlier,jidaigeki is not a pure Japanese genre.

The Hollywood cinema,including the Western, strongly influenced the
formation of jidaigeki conventions. For instance,Kurama Tengu, one

of the most beloved heroes of jidaigek, is played by Arashi Kanjuro (or
Arakan) wearing black headgear to hide his identity. Sato Tadao specu-

lates that Kurama Tengu and other masked heroes of jidaigeki were in

part a product of influences of Hollywood movies such as The Mark of
Zorro (Fred Niblo,192o),featuring Douglas Fairbanks as a swashbuck-

ling hero.The Japanese release of The Mark ofZorro in 1921 was in fact
soon followed by its direct jidaigeki imitations.* By emulating Buster

|Keaton, Arakan created another favorite jidaigeki character,Muttsuri

Umon, who rarely shows his emotion on his face.As Sato Tadao points

out, there are remarkable parallels between William S.Hart’s West-

erns and a subgenre of jidaigeki called matatabi mono, films featuring

wandering kyokaku or yakuza. The key figure in the proliferation of
| matatabi films was the writer of taishu bungaku Hasegawa Shin, whose

popularity is attested by the fact that between 1929 and 1940, seventy-

Seven Samurai 231

sixfims were made based on his novels.”As in William S.Har’s flms,
the hero of Hasegawa’s stories is a”good-bad man”: a bad man who
is converted into a good man through his encounter with the purity
and inocence of a virginal woman.The narrative in which the woman
plays such a role did not exist in traditional Japanese fiction and drama.
Kawatake Mokuami’s plays, particularly shiranami mono, which fea-
tures thieves as protagonists,do share certain similarities with the fims
of William S. Hart,but the encounter between a woman and a good-
bad man in Mokuami’s plays does not lead to the purification of the
man’s soul.
Borrowing narrative motifs from a remarkably different cultural tra-

dition is easy to do.But it is rather diffcult to appropriate them so thor-
oughly that the end result does not show the fact of borrowing. Why
could the Japanese jidaigekifilm so succesfully incorporate Hollywood
motifs and become popular to such an extent that the spectators be-
lieved the films they were watching were based on Japanese cultural tra-
ditions? Sato Tadao proposes to explain this remarkable sucess by the
similarity between Japanese and American social changes in the 1920s
and 19yos.”It is possible,”writes John Belton,”to locate the origins
|of the Western in the disturbance of an agrarian-pastoral order intro-
duced by the IndustrialRevolution, technological innovation, urbani-
zation,and in the transformation of small-town America into a mod-
ern,mass society. The Western can thus be regarded as”a conservative
|reaction to a growing dependence upon technology and to the imper-
sonality of the consumer-oriented mass culture that accomplishes the
modernization of America in the 192os and later.”s This view is shared
by Sato Tadao,who argues that because of a similar process of transi-
tion in Japan from an agrarian society to a modern and urban-oriented
society,jidaigeki as a popular genre has an affinity with the Western.
The transformation of kyugeki into jidaigeki was without a doubt

facilitated by the appropriation of Hollywood conventions. At the same
time,jidaigeki was not perceived as a simple imitation of the Western

and other Hollywood genres.Heroes of Hasegawa Shin’s works are as
remarkably “Japanese” as the loyal forty-seven ronin of Chushinguna.
|Despite his admiration,Arakan was not interested in becoming Japan’s

Buster Keaton; instead,he interpreted Keaton’s performance as a sign

and recoded it to suit his own purposes.In short, despite their afini-

232Kurosawa

ties,the Western andjidaigeki differ from each other in some crucial
aspects.
The most obvious difference is the meanings of the names of the two

genres:”jidaigeki”is,as we have already discussed, a temporal term,
and “Western” is a spatial one.The term “Western” is directly related
to America’s western expansion in the nineteenth century and the idea
|of Manifest Destiny,”a providentially or historically sanctioned right

to continental expansionism.”To the extent that its historical setting
is roughly the period of 865 to 189o, the Western is a historical genre.
Nevertheles,the name of the genre itself emphasizes a geographic loca-
|tion and spatial expansion rather than a historical period.In marked

|contrast,for uidaigeki, history is far more crucial for its generic iden-

| tity than spatiality.As Joseph Anderson writes,”few jidai-geki present

the wide open spaces of the old-style Western.”M The smallness of the
|Japanese land,of course, partly explains why the images of expansive

space are rare in jidaigeki.The relative spatial confinement in jidaigeki
is also due to the diferent nature of the Japanese historical situation
in the nineteenth century,which is neither encapsulated by the idea
of Manifest Destiny nor characterized by the constant westward move-
| ment of the frontier, but best described in terms of the acute sense of

encroachment by the imperial powers including the United States. If
the Western hero is associated with the untamed wildernes,for the
|hero of the idaigekifim, such culturally unmarked landscape is rarely

| available. Traditionally places in Japan have symbolic meanings and

historical associations,as one can see in numerous makura kotobu and
other poetic references. If American imagination spatializes time, its

Japanese counterpart temporalizes space.

Also called “horse opera,” the Western requires the iconographic
image of horses. The horse in the Western is an important means of
|transportation and movement and often emphasizes the vast expanse

|of desolate landscape to be traversed. The images of cowboys on horse-

back and covered wagons alert us to the enormity of wilderness and
the vulnerability of humans.To the extent that it makes it possible for
Westerners to go into “uncharted territories freely,the horse also sym-
bolizes freedom.For jidaigeki, on the other hand, the horse is not a
crucial narrative or iconographic component.There is no new territory
to be conquered,no wilderness to be tamed in the world of jidaigeki.In

Seven Samurai 233

Kurosawa on the set of Seven Samurai. Photo courtesy of Photofest.

fact,in the majority of jidaigeki, people’s lives are so rigidly stratified
based on various kinds of differences that the ideas of movement and
mobility are antithetical to the normal functioning of society. Whereas
characters in Westerns have the option of leaving a community and
joining a new one,characters in jidaigeki are so rigidly constrained by,
or torn between,giri and ninjo that the only available form of freedom
left to them is often to kill themselves.”The final image of the solitary
swordsman walking into the distance indicates that he is an exile from
|the familiar world and an outcast from the social situations which give

him stature as a man….Roads in jidai-geki lead to nowhere.

Kurosawa and Reimvention of Jidaigeki

Kurosawa,whose emergence as a filmmaker more or less coincided
with the demise of the prewar jidaigeki, was never part of the jidai-

gekiestablishment.” Among the eleven jidaigeki films he made, four are
based on original scripts (Seven Samurai,The Hidden Fortress,Yojmbo,

234 Kurosawd

Kagemusha); one is an adaptation of a Kabuki play (The Men Who Tread
on the Tiger’s Tail); three are adaptations of modern Japanese literary
works(Rashomon, Sanjuro, Red Beard);and three are adaptations of

foreign works (Throne of Bood,The Lower Depths,Ran). Except Kage-
musha, Kurosawa’s juidaigeki films do not rely on specifically historical
facts.Nor do they use canonicaljidaigeki materials-for example,Chu-
shingura,Tange Sazen,Kunisada Chuj,Miyamoto Musashi-to satisfy

the audience’s demand for the same or the predictable. When Kurosawa
does incorporate popular jidaigeki elements,he transposes them to a
dramatically different setting to foreground their generic conventions.
Kurosawa’s first fim, Sanshiro Sugata, is based on the popular novel
with the same title by Tomita Tsuneo, which itself is a judo version of
the popular novel Musashi,by Yoshikawa EijiInstead of remaking Dai-
bosatsu Pass, Kurosawa wrote a script,A Sword Fighting Master Dampei
(Tateshi Danpei),a story of Danpei, who worked for Sawada Shojiro’s
|Shinkokugeki and invented a realistic sword-ighting style as opposed
to Kabuki’s stylized dance.By making films that deviate from the ge-
|neric conventions of jidaigeki, Kurosawa maintains a metacritical rela-

tionship to this popular genre.
|Kurosawa is not,however,the frst director to innovate jidaigeki as a

genre. In the i9yos there were two remarkable fimmakers,Yamanaka
Sadao and Itami Mansaku, whose jidaigeki films explored the genre’s
possibilities and showed new directions. What distinguishes the films
of Yamanaka and Itami from the mainstream jidaigeki is a contempo-
rary sensibility.Both do not present the samurai as a heroic figure but
take a satiric view of Bushido. They reject chanbara only for the sake of
chanbara focus on social outcasts and people on the margins of society,

|and prefer humor to irony as a trope of narration.The settings and

characters of their jidaigeki films are often straight out of gendaigeki
|and foreign films, yet there is nothing tacky about their attempt at hy-

bridization.They maintain a sense of critical distance from the jidaigeki

materials but never look down on them.Unfortunately, Itami’s and
|Yamanaka’s careers were interrupted by their untimely deaths before

they could realize the full potential of their abilities and artistic visions.
|Yamanaka died in 1938 from a disease he had caught at the front in

China;Itami died of tuberculosis in 1946.
Despite these similarities,Yamanaka and Itami have remarkably dif-

Seven Samurai 235

ferent temperaments as filmmakers. Itami Mansaku is essentially a man
of letters, one of the best scriptwriters and a conscience of the prewar
cinema.In his teenage years in Matsuyama,Itami immersed himself
in literature and art with his friends Ito Daisuke and Nakamura Kusa-
tao.Itamistudied Western-style painting by himself and like Kurosawa
tried to pursue a career as an artist in his twenties. Even though Ku-
rosawa was ten years younger than Itami,there was an overlapping
period during which they were both trying to pursue the same goal.
In 1928 Kurosawa’s paintings were selected for Nikaten; in 1927 Itami’s
painting caught an eye of the leading modernist painter Kishida Ryu-
sei, who praised Itami’s work and invited him to become his student.
Itami was deeply moved by Kishida’s words but declined the invitation,
saying that he did not have enough confidence in his work and feared
he could not live up to Kishida’s expectations. Instead of moving to
Kishida’s place,in the same year,Itami moved to Kyoto to stay with Ito
Daisuke and,on Ito’s advice,started writing film scripts. After finish-
ing a brief stint as actor and assistant director, Itami directed his first
film in i928.His unique jidaigeki films and scripts are filled with inteli-
gent humor and critical sensibility. Among twenty-six films he directed
|or codirected,only three have survived more or less intact.Akanishi
Kakita(Akanishi Kakita,1936), one of the currently available films,is
based on Itami’s own script, which is the adaptation of a short story
by Shiga Naoya.The general setting of the story is very well known,
the disturbance and power struggle within the Date clan in the mid-
|seventeenth century, which was first popularized by Kabuki’s Meiboku
Sendai hagi(177).Kataoka Chiezo stars in the film,playing two difer-
ent roles: AkanishiKakita,an ugly spy trying to expose the plot against
the Date clan, and Harada Kai,the leader of the discontented group
framing the plot.Chiezo does not simply portray two characters with
diferent social status and personalities but demonstrates two different
modes of acting.When he appears as Akanishi, he acts naturally with-
out wearing any heavy white makeup; as Harada Kai, his actingisin the
style of a conventional jidaigeki, which is heavily influenced by Kabuki,
and his face is covered with white powder. Itami pretends to showcase
Chiezo’s star value by casting him in the two leading roles but in fact
develops a metacriticism of jidaigeki’s obsolete generic conventions by
contrasting the naturalistic look of Akanishi and the utterly artificial,
236 Kurosawa

|antique-looking appearance of Kai.2″ The new sensibility of the film is

apparent in the opening raining scene, which is accompanied by Itami’s
favorite artist Chopin’s piano piece”Raindrop”(which Kurosawa uses

in Dreams,in episode s,on van Gogh).And the humorous moments

|are abundant (Kamiyama Sojin’s blind masseur,fish-related names of

many characters, et.).Shimura Takashi, who appears as Tsunomata
Hirenoshin,a neighbor of Akanishi, and plays the role of Kanbei in
Seven Samurai,admits that Itami’s Akanishi Kakita made him under-
stand for the frst time what the cinema can do as an art form.?
If Itami Mansaku kept a critical distance from jidaigeki,Yamanaka

Sadao immersed himself in it.Yamanaka is a man of cinema with a
highly developed cinematic sensibility. He directed his first film in 1932
at the age of twenty-three and between 1932 and 1937 became one of the
|most innovative filmmakers whose work has left an indelible mark on

the subsequent development of Japanese cinema.Of all his films, only
| three sound films still exist:Tange Sazen and the Pot Worth a Million

Ryo (Tange Sazen hyakuman ryo no tsubo,1935),Kochiyama Soshun
|(Kochiyama Soshun,1936),and Humanity and Paper Ballons (Ninjo

kamifusen,1937).The first one is a parodic retelling of the Tange Sazen

story, and the latter two are loose adaptations of Kawatake Mokuami’s
Kabuki plays.In all ases, what is impressive is Yamanaka’s ability to di-
gest and transform popular materials into radically new works. Tange
|Sazen,the one-armed,one-eyed ronin, first became a pathetic sym-

bol of anarchic energy and rebllion when Ito Daisuke made his Ooka’s
Trials(Ooka seidan) series.Yamanaka completely rewrites this image

of Sazen by changing him into a child-loving, openhearted, and good-
|natured ronin living in a tenement house with his wife.Yamanaka’s

parody is so convincing that since his film his lovable Sazen has be-
come a standard image. Yamanaka’s ability to create his unique style
| out of diverse materials,both Japanese and foreign, jidaigeki and gen-

daigeki, is quite impressive.It seems that for Yamanaka there is only
one cinema,and national and generic distinctions are in the end not
particularly relevant.Yamanaka is a master of cinematic language,and
his flms are smooth and fawless.The rhythmic lyricism of his films is
in part created by various transitional devices, some of which remind
us of the cinema of Ozu. Another feature of Yamanaka’s films is the
creative ellipsis of sword fight and bloody scenes.? There are scenes of

Seven Samurai 237

violence in Humanityand Paper Ballons, but none of them are directly
shown on screen except one.At the end of the film, the ronin Unno
Matajuro is killed by his wife,who then kills herself.We never see the
scene of this double suicide. With a dagger in her hand,the wife ap-
|proaches the husband lying on the floor, presumably drunk and sleep.
ing. As she blows out a lamp, the screen darkens.In the next shot,it is
the following morning,and neighbors are looking inside the couple’s
tenement from the alley. We learn from them that the couple has com-
mitted a double suicide.The camera is positioned inside the tenement
in such a way that the samurai couple’s bodies completely remain in
offscreen space.The fate of the couple is symbolically represented by
the film’s last shots (one of the most celebrated last shots of Japanese
cinema),a paper balloon in a ditch flowing away from the camera.At
the climax of Kochiyama Soshun,there is a rare sword fight scene.But
even here, what is impressive is not the sword fight itself but the pro-
tagonists’willingness to die to save an innocent girl or to stick to their
principles,and the lateral tracking shot of Kochiyama and Hirotaro
running through a narrow sewer between tenement houses.
Kurosawa’s attempt to create a new type of jidaigeki film is a fur-

ther extension of what Itami and Yamanaka accomplished in the 193os,
with a new twist.Unlike his two predecessors,Kurosawa does not re-
ject chanbara. His jidaigeki combine a radically different type of sword
fight and spectacle with a strong allegorical narrative and serious the-
matic motifs.In the early 195os,when the Occupation was not yet over,
Kurosawa was searching for a new kind of jidaigeki.In addition to A
Sword Fighting Master Danpei,Kurosawa wrote another idaigekiscript,
The Duel at the Kagijya’s Corner(Ketto Kagiya no tsuji,1952),and asked
Mori Kazuo to direct it.Mori speculates that Kurosawa, who was exe
perimenting with ideas about how to make an innovative jidaigeki film,
was perhaps not ready to direct it himself and used Mori to see whether
his ideas would work or not.?’ The Duel at the Kagiyas Corner is an
unusual film at least in two senses. First,it is a film about one of the
best-known jidaigeki episodes, the legendary revenge of Araki Matae.
mon, the kind of material Kurosawa was never willing to use for his
own films. Second,even though the film’s story is well known, the spe-
| cifc treatment of that story is radically different from other preced
ing Mataemon films. Kurosawa’s approach is a demythologization of
238Kurosawa

the legend in search of realism.According to the widely known story,
which was first popularized by kodan storytellers, Araki Mataemon
slew thirty-two hatamoto, or shogun’s vassals; in reality, he killed only
two helpers of the enemy.In the myth, Kazuma avenges the murder of
his father; actually it was not his father but his younger brother who
was killed.Kurosawa’s script narrates a historicized story of the duel at
the Kagiya’s Corner instead of repeating the popular,mythicized ver-
sion.Kurosawa’s desire to demythologize the legend is so strong that
he opens the script with a legendary version of the duel scene and
then immediately undercuts the reality effect of the scene by adding
a voice-over narration that explains the difference between myth and
history. The voice-over claims that a true record is far more exciting
than an exaggerated fiction and declares that the fim will represent
the actual duel as faithfully as posible based on authentic historical
| records. As if to make sure that this is not a conventional remake of
the Mataemon story,the next scene shows the contemporary image
of the Kagiya’s Corner, tillaccompanied by the voice-over explaining
what this famous scenery used to look like in the seventeenth century.
Then,inally, the narrative flashes back to the actual dayof the duel.Ac-
| cording to Mori, Kurosawagave him specific instructions regarding the

production of the film. Kurosawa, for instance,showed Moripre-Meiji
photographs of Japanese wearing their hair up in topknots as models.
Kurosawa also advised Mori how to direct a realistic sword fight scene
(188).The reception of Moris Duel at the Kagiya’s Corner was mixed.

Many praised an unconventional style of sword fighting at the film’s
climax.But the film did not do well at the box office.Mori himself finds
the fim’s unnecessarily artificial beginning largely responsible for the
film’s failure (191-92).Kurosawa reportedly did not appreciate Mori’s
| direction; considering the perfectionist tendencies of Kurosawa,who

insisted on getting involved in every facet of film production,there is
| nothing surprising about his reaction.Regardless,the result of this “ex-

periment”was used as a stepping stone for the production of Kuro-
sawa’s first realjidaigeki, Seven Samurai
For Kurosawa, who was so eager to make a dfferent kind of jidaigeki

it was fortunate that he did not work at Toei,Daiei, or Shochiku.The
company he worked for was Toho, which was known not for jidaigeki
but for lighthearted comedies and other gendaigeki genres featuring

Seven Samurai 239

urban office workers and petite bourgeoisie. Toho never had, unlike
the three majors just mentioned,either separate studios for the pro-
duction of jidaigeki in Kyoto or corps of actors specialized in jidaigeki.
It is therefore not surprising that the first jidaigeki film produced by
Toho, when it was still called PCL, was a parody of jidaigeki,Enoken’s
Kondo Isami(Enoken no Kondo Isami,1935),featuring the comedian
Enomoto Ken’ichi. After the war, Toho’s reticent attitude towardjidai-
geki did not change much.But after Inagaki Hiroshi joined Toho in the
early 19sos,this gendaigeki studio started producing a small number of
jidaigeki films on a consistent basis. Kurosawa was able to make Seven
Samurai and a few other innovative idaigeki films in this unique envi-
ronment.His singular jidaigeki films could not have been made at any
other major studio where old jidaigeki conventions were still alive and
dominant.7
In the original pamphlet for Seven Samrai, Kurosawa says:”An ac-

tion fim is often an action fim only for the sake of action. But what a
wonderful thing ifoneean-eonstruct agrand action film without sacri-
ficing the portrayalofhumans.This has been my dream since the time
I was an assistant director.For the last ten years I have also been want-
ing to reexamine jidaigeki from a completely new angle. Seven Samurai
has started with these two ambitions of mine.””” To realize the first ob-
jective,he constructs the narrative of Seven Samurai around delicately
balanced depictions of distinctly individual characters and the group
to which they belong. There are three major groups in the film:seven
masterless samurai, peasants,and bandits.Each of these groups has its
own identity and particular way of establishing relationships among
its members. Each member of the samurai’s group has his own dlear
individual identity,whereas only some members of the peasants’group
are portrayed as individuals. The least individuated group is the ban-
dits,who more or less appear as one undifferentiated mass.One of the
focal points of the film is the formation and eventual dissolution of an
alliance between the first two groups, samurai and peasants.
The seven samurai are simultaneously types and individuals whose
distinct personalities exceed the character traits of mere types.Kan-
bei, who does everything with aplomb, is an ideal leader figure.Kat-
sushiro(Kimura Isao) is an idealistic youth who has yet to experience
the world.Gorobei is a skilled swordsman who can detect Katsushiro’s
240 Kurosawa

ambush immediately.Even though Heihachi is not as strong as other
samurai,he has a great sense of humor that can lift the spirits of people
around him.Kanbei’s right-hand man, Shichiroji (Kato Daisuke), is a
survivor, who can become,if necessary,even a vendor. Kyuzo,a la-

conic sword master or killing machine,is also a samurai with com-
passion. And there is the lovable farmer-samurai Kikuchiyo(Mifune

Toshiro),without whom the alliance of the samurai and the peasants

would perhaps be impossible. All these personal qualities are not ver-
bally explained in the film; instead, they are vividly revealed when the
seven samurai react to concrete problems or situations.The person-
ality of each samurai is not an abstract idea determining what he says
and does. On the contrary, it is the concrete details of his actions that
enable other characters and us to see who he is.
As individuated as they are, the samurai and the village leaders

are not completely autonomous individuals.They belong to different
groups and communities but decide to form a temporary alliance to
|fight against the bandits. It is therefore certainly posible to debate to

what extent individuals in the film are forced to subordinate their per-
sonal desire and necessity to specific goals of groups. Stephen Prince,
for instance,argues that individuals are ultimately subsumed under the
group, both thematically and compositionally. He refers to a scene in
the beginning part of the film, in which the peasants gather in a vil-
| lage square to discuss how to deal with the bandits.The peasants are

distraught and do not believe they can resist the bandits’demand for
rice, barley,and women. One of the villagers,Rikichi, refuses to bow
|down to the bandits and urges the others to take up arms against the
bandits: either kill or be killed by them. Nobody agrees to his plan,
and Rikichi,angered and frustrated,leaves the villagers’circle and sits
alone.As Prince perceptively points out, when Rikichi isolates himself
in diegetic space, the composition of the following shot immediately
reintegrates him into the community.In the new composition, Rikichi
is in the foreground,and the rest of the villagers are in the background.
|The spatial distance between the two is almost eliminated by Kuro-

sawa’s trademark use of the telephoto lens, which fattens the image:
In the rest of the film, spatial relations between characters in diegetic
space and in on-screen space often tell us different stories.And until the
last scene after the batte, whenever there is a discord in the samurai-

|Seven Samurai 24

peasants alliance,the composition of the shot frequently tries to inte.
grate dissenting members into the group.But this tension between die-
|gesis and narration can happen and become significant only because
Seven Samurai shows us the images of distinct individuals,which are
unique in the genre of jidaigeki.
Another conspicuous formal trait that foregrounds the individuality

of key characters is an extreme close-up of their faces. For instance,
in the vilage scene just described is inserted a close-up of Rikichi’s
desperate face. When the village elder appears on-screen, we see his
wrinkled face in close-up. When Katsushiro learns that he is allowed
to accompany Kanbei and the others to the village, his joyous face
is shown in close-up. These instances of close-ups are not a part of
the classical shot/reverse shot pattern that creates spatial and narra-
tive unity by carefully manipulating the direction of characters’looks,
graphic composition,sound cues,and so forth.The close-up face is not
distinctly registered either as an object of the other’s look or as a sub-
ject of the look. Its appearance is often abrupt and abstract.The spatial
isolation of the actor’s face on the screen is presented as a mark of the
individuality of the character he or she plays. The close-up makes us
|confront the face as a window to the character’s interiority. While the
close-up of the human face isolates an individual from agroup,a close-
up of an inanimate object reestablishes the relation between the two.
For instance, when Kanbei holds a bowl of rice and agrees to defend
the village from the bandits, the foreground of the shot is occupied by
the extreme close-up image of the bowl, while in the background are
Rikichi,Manzo,Mosuke,and Yohei.Here, the bowl of rice functions
as a pivotal sign that unifies the peasants in the background and the
samurai who are in the off-screen space.
It is important to reiterate that jidaigeki is not a history film, and

Seven Samurai is certainly no exception. Kurosawa’s interest in the past
as it really was is not necessrily the same as an attempt to reproduce
the past as faithfully as possible.We should never forget that the period
of civil wars(Sengoku jidai) on the screen is in the end only a rep-
resentation,no matter how “”accurate” it might seem.This elementary
distinction seems to get lost very often in Kurosawa criticism in the
United States. (The tendency in Japan is the opposite: Kurosawa’s fims
have often been accused of being historically inaccurate.) Thus the re-

242 Kurosawa

lationship of individual and group in Seven Samurai does not neces-
sarily reflect the historical reality of sixteenth-century Japan.If “Kam-
bei tells the [farmers] that everyone must work together as a group
and that those who think only of themselves will destroy themselves
and all others,” it is not because “the material of the past discloses no
spaces in which the individual can move,no spaces not already inhab-
ited by groups and their demands.” Considering that Seven Samurai
is a film about a military battl between bandits and peasants led by a
group of samurai,there is nothing surprising about Kanbei’s speech to
the villagers. The ssentialist notion of an “interactionist self””The
self must be an interactionist self or cease to exist”-cannot explain
the dynamic of human interactions in the film. Because jidaigeki can
be only a fictitious representation of the historical past, it is not im-

possible to make a jidaigeki film set in the Sengoku period featuring
individual heroism.As Kuwabara Takeo reminds us,the peasants in the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were not as cowardly as they are por-
trayed in the film. It was probably not unusual for a village like the one
in the film to have a few peasants who participated in military battles
as common foot soldiers. Kuwabara further speculates that in reality
Kanbei would have become a lord of the village,and Katsushiro would
have kept Shino as his mistress.I am not suggesting that Seven Samu-
rai is pure fantasy; on the contrary, the film’s scriptwriters, Kurosawa,
Hashimoto,and Oguni,dug into historical documents and used some
of what they found to construct the story,characters,and other narra-
tive details. The point I am trying to make is that the fim’s reality effect
cannot be equated to its historical accuracy. Instead of substantializing
the historical past represented in the film, we must try to locate exactly
|where the film’s overwhelming sense of reality comes from.

If Seven Samurai successfully elevates the level of uidaigeki’s realism
a notch, it is not by representing-historicalfacts accurately Instead,
the film creates a heightened sense of realism by meticulously showing
all kinds of details that are normally ignored in conventional jidaigeki
|films.These small details include plot and story, character traits,sets
and props,costumes,and acting style.The art director and his staff
went to Shirakawago to sketch old farmhouses and farming tools,many
of which were used as models. Clothes for principal characters and
even extras were newly made and then naturally made to look old.The

Seven Samurai 243

actors’ hairstyles were not conventionally handled by using a Kabuki-
style wig but realistically done by carefully matching each actor’s physi-
cal idiosyncrasies and the characteristics of the role he or she played.
Kurosawa even wanted Mosuke’s wig to look like an uneven head he
saw in an old picture scroll. To create the fel of an antique house, Ku-
rosawa and his staff endlessly polished wooden boards. The prepara-
tion for the bandits’attack by the samurai and the villagers is shown
meticulously. Men in the village are dvided into different groups and
trained by the samurai.To block the bandits’ access to the village,new
fences are built at the village’s western entrance; the bridge at the other
end is destroyed; and on the south side,a rice field is irrigated. Kanbei
draws a map of the village,and each bandit is represented by a circle
on the map’s margin.Every time a bandit iskilled, Kanbei crosses out
a circle.The map therefore emphasizes not only the strategic signifi-
cance of geography and the village’s spatial configuration but also the
necessity of killing the bandits one by one in hand-to-hand fighting.
About the battle sequences there is nothing conventional, either.What
we see there is not a stylized dance as in Toei jidaigeki. Nor is it just
an athletic display of kinetic movement. It does not matter if one uses
his sword properly. When necessary,even farming tools become deadly
weapons. The last battlesequence is particularly brutal. It is raining
heavily, and the samurai and villagers must fight not only the bandits
but also the mud, which drags them to the ground.The fighting is now
clearly a matter not of style but of survival. But even in the midst of
this fiercely realistic battle for survival, there are moments of poetic
beauty. In this sequence, we see one of the most striking images of the
film:Kanbei, standing straight in the downpour,slowly draws a bow
and then quickly releases it to shoot an arrow at a bandit on a horse.Or
see the last image of Kikuchiyo,which Andrey Tarkovsky mentions as
an example of the cinematic image-specific,unique,and factual, that
is,everything he thinks symbols are not:”The samurai wear an ancient
Japanese garment which leaves most of the leg bare, and their legs are
plastered with mud.And when one samurai falls down dead we se the
rain washing away the mud and his leg becoming white, as white as
|marble. A man is dead; that is an image which is a fact. It is innocent of
symbolism, and that is an image.”s “The beautyand clevernessof story
arise from a certain harmony between the simplicity of the plot and the
244 Kurosawa

wealth of details that slowly delineate it,” writes André Bazin.”Obvi-
ously this kind of narrative reminds one of Ford’s Stagecoach(1939)

and Lost Patrol (1934)but with a more romantic complexity and more

| volume and variety in the fresco.”is
Did Seven Samurai change the state of jidaigeki as a popular genre

in the mid-19sos? The answer to this question is no. Seven Samurai
|is in many ways an exceptional fim. From the start of shooting, it

took eleven months to finish the film,and the total cost was Y21o mil-
|lion, which was seven times as much as the budget for a typical film

around that time. Its scale of production was simply too large to be-
come a model for conventional jidaigeki films.More important, other
studios, particularly Toei, did not se any need to take such a financial
risk to produce a film like Seven Samurai.When Seven Samurai was
released, it was the height of Toei jidaigeki. Enjoying a huge commer-

cial success, Toei did not see any necesity for changing their popu-
lar formula.Even in the early 196os when filmgoers were apparently
getting tired of Toei jidaigeki, Toei continued producing the same old
formula films.The fatal blow to Toei’s crumbling kingdom came sud-
denly in 1961 when Kurosawa’s Yojimbo enjoyed great success at the

box office.At select theaters, Seven Samurai was shown together with
Yojimbo*(The Hollywood remake of Seven Samurai, The Magnificent

Seven[John Sturges,196o|], which was the most commercilly success-

ful foreign film that year, was also released simultaneously.)” The end

| of Toei jidaigeki was sealed in 1962 with the success of Kurosawa’s San-

juro. Finally,in 1963 and 1964,Toei departed from its outworn formula

|and produced aseries ofjidaigekifilms called shudan koso jidaigeki(col-

lective struggle jidaigeki).As this label suggests,like Seven Samurai,

instead of a single hero, these films focus on a group of protagonists
who fight against corrupt officials or the system in a bloody battl.But
it was already too late to salvage the declining state of jidaigeki by this

|time. Toei soon abandoned jidaigekicompletely and switched to yakuza

movies.

Seven Samurai 245

ART THEATRE GUILD
Unabhinge Jpronizhe Kin01962-1984

Ein letisestie derVIENMAl mi es Fimsams

N03museum

THE RISE OF UNDERGROUND CINEMA
| ANDTHE EARLY YEARS OF ATG
By Hirasawa Gc

An Experiment Called ATG for-Nothing.19`),TakahshiOsamu with Kmo dake arite
im(Only She Knows,19`), Tamura Isutomu withAkuimin bThe birth of ATG(Ar Thearre Guild of Japan) in 19a marke

an epoch in the distribution of experimental films and art films sonr (Dsire to Be a Bad Man,19).Peopleulked about them in
from all over the world, which hardly had a chance of being comparison to French directors who had made their debuts at
|shown in commerial theatrs.In April1962 ten Art Theatres young age,like Francois Tuffut.Jean-Luc Godard,Claude
were established natiopwid to sreen the fims ATG disribute Chabrol and Louis Malle, and they were called the Shochiku
Jerzy Kawalerowicz’s Matrka Joanna od aniolowe was the first,fol- Nouvelle Vague.
lowed by numerous other cinematic masterpieces. Seting u Nakahira Ko,however,earlier had depicted the lusty rebellion
ATG was possible thanks to the efforts of the people concernec

|kerjitsw(Crazy Fruit,1956),and this accelerated the Sun-Tribe-centering around Towa’s Kawakita Nagamasa and Kurwakit:
Kashiko,and including film critis like Ogi Masahiro and lscki boom,which was created by the novel sTaiyo no kisetsus(Sei-

son of the Sun,1956) by Yoiro’selder brotherlshihara Shintaro.Tsuneo of Sanwa Kogyo, but it’s probably safe to say that another
With Kdbiuke（Kises,1957),Masamura Yasuz, who hadcrucial factor was the film-historical turning point at that time.

In 1958,as many as 1,127,450,000Japanese people went to th
movies.The Japanese film world shall remember this as th Italy,similarly had come up with a new image of youngsters who

lay bare their individual desires, and evoked a lot of sympathy.biggest audience ever.Then,in 1960,the establishment of a net.
work was completed by the six major movie companies,and Of course the hact remains that there was a difterence that ma
thunks to the provision of a screening system, serial work by the even be called a rupture,but film-historically we should still
so-called egreat masters,and the rapid advance of rivaling inde. acknowledge that these films prepared the Shochiku Nouvelle
pendent productions,a peak of 547 produced films and 74! Vague.If we look a it commercialy,we can not deny that young
screens was reached. After thar,however, pardy due to the emer. asistant directors being promoted to directors in this way, was

the result of the upper levels at Shochiku aiming at rejuvenationgence of the new medium television, the number of moviegoers
| is a way out of the busines slump.But in a more historical con-and theatres steadily decresed, and the majors began to scale
rext,we can say that itis a group of works that was bom out ofdown their operation:

Meanwhile,several directors made theirdebuts:Oshima Nagi necssity amid the changing imes in the ltter half of the fifuies
amounting to alot more than industrildemands.These posrwarsa with Aito kib nO madbi(A Town of Love and Hope,1959),a

Shinoda Masahiro with Koimo kutawidbi kppw(One Way Ticketcinematic and hisorical turnabouts were a big presence in the
forLowe,1960),Yoshida Yoshishige with Rokude nasbi(C

革命戟褓O横集ld |

武装周争百为二上
飞高为

CLlertbtsyuta落r w四uuairTio mc应atoam woiom xka

VEWAI 0 M TMET GOIO

A New Film Current
As mcntioned earlier,1958 was a peak year for Japanese cinema,
bt uat Pd eoalbou here is pot that captral flmhito.

|but what Id lke to tialk about here is not that capital fim-histo-
|rical fact,but rather the strong current of new films that started

Irom this year.
The Nihon University Film Study Club(Nihon Daigaku Gei.

|jutsubu Eiga Kenkyukail released Ksg to kutrutbud no laitat
(Conurrsation Remren Naland Sok 1osgTheNnIlhi
Conversaion Between Nal and Sock,19-8).Ihe Nihon Unlversity Film Study Club had been formed the year before,and
ths hm took the shape of a group productio0,meaning all mem-bers equally participated in the film,regardless of roles such as
production,acting.photography lighting, assistant director,ctc.
|It was also a strictly independent production of the Film Srudy
Club,and by not seeking profit through screenings,it liminated
the arising of commercial demands. In the year that we can call
the most successful of the Japanese film world in the capitalistic Sair(19》),directed by Adachi Masao et.al.
sense,a film was made which was totally unrelated to that logic
ITIt wns an acmnt to eet rid of he hierardhy that put the dirert period,came into being,and the magazine Kiroku Eigas wasis

sued by the Documentary FilmmakersAssociation,led by Nodaon top,which inevitably went hand in hand with the films up til
Shinkichi and Matsumoto Toshio.The theory that aimed at thethen, and for that very reason supported the commercial succes

Of course, we can give the names of Hirano Katumi.KoHiroo.
etc.as actors,but it was strictly a group production, refusin the center of the debate, was put into practice with Matsumot
let the film be summed up by specitic proper names.

made their debuts withAito kbno macbi and RoludeIf we explore the current of ]apanese independent and exp
ctively.The produced works violendly clashed with theorymental films,which sarted in the ltter half of the fiftis,we can

|name three groups1. the group of student flms centering

around the Nihon University Film Study Club, with Hirano Kat.
sumi,Jonouchi Motoharu. Adachi Masao. Okishima lsao.ete. isalo a ict thaKngi（o katiabi mo aranprecsded themmas
and further the Tomon Scenario Study Club of Waseda Universi.
ty (Shinaken),with Yamatoya Atsushi,Tanaksa Yo20, ctc., th
Kyoto University Film Club with Tanabe Yasushi, etc, the Kan
sai Academy Film Study Cub with Yamano Koichi, etc;2.t
group of avant.garde films of Teshiaharna Hiroshi.Teravam ut:face of the Japanese Communist Pry at the 6th
Shuji,the Experimental Srudio of Yamaguchi Katsuhiro, th
Graphic Group ot Otsuj Kiyoj, etc.,who followed the low ol
awvant-garde art that was advocated by Hanada Kiyoteru
Takiguchi Shu26,etc:）. and the group of personal films,repn stnuggle of1960.Just like the Bund (CommumitLegve h
sented by Obayashi Nobuhiko,Takabayashi Yoichi, etc., w
used 8mm cameris at home, like awint-erde artists who were unknown at the ime –

segawa Genpei,, Shinohara Ushio, Yoshimura Masunobu,
group, we can name lwanami Film Production’s Hani Susumu,
Kuroki Kazuo,Higashi Yoichi, Tsuchimoto Noriaki,Ogaw whidh unfolded from Yomiuri Independent,a public exhibitShinsuke,and also Matsumoto Toshio.Later all these grour without prior seletion,with 1957/1958 as a boundary-a new
|would become deeply involved with ATG films, which I will t: current was bom in film as well, which caused a big urnabout.abour again later on.Teshigahara belonged to the econd grou This brought forth Teshigahana’s Otosbiana (The Pifill,1962organized with Ogi Masahiro, Hani Susumu and others,6Cin
ma 57a, and together they made the group production To
1958in 1958.It was an aggregate of fimmakers and critics wl Nhon University Film Study Clu
were already active, and aimed at entnanc into owerseis exper VAN Filim Sclence Research Centermental film festivals.After that,they did not produce films,but it hs the 1960Security Treaty situation developed, the Nihon Uni.was a film group that was made to resolutely search for a direc. versity Flim Smdv Club cootinuuddommt—d .
tion of filmmaking that did not ride on any commercial bse. These are not films that were completed as they all persistentlystarted from the Sogetsu Art Center,which was established in th joined ranks with the Nihon University activists as participants,same year, and ws about to play an important role in experi and portrayed the struggles from that point of viewbut it aw
ments in all fields of art,including film, such as the prompt o6nuogy that presented imegs isa procs of ac.troduction of John Cage and Fluxus by Yoko Ono.
In the ifties, various movements were formed that concemed Jonouchi and Adachi, established the VAN Film Science Rese.themselves with the theory and practice of postwar art with a larch Center(VAN Eiga Kugaku Kenkyio)as a placetoboth livefocus on the fine arts. In film we can siy that uch theoretical a and produce films together. Together with the Yohimura Atelierpractical developments began to show from 1957,the year whe pf Neo DadaOrganisers, which was formed by Shinohara Ushio, the magazine sEiga Hyoronw was published by Kusu Sanpei,ar Akasgrwa Genpei and a few othen. VAN beame a space offrom 1958., when fim and crticism socicties,in which peoplc communication,whete not only fimmakers,but pcople from all like Oshima and Yoshida participated in their assistant directol genre of exprsion,likefie ars,photography,music, theatc,

IEWLfo03 AIT THETRE GI

uld meet. The recording of the strugle was completed through LSD experiments,black massceremonies:
he VAN production Dok)wwewto 6/1(Document 6/15) inproduced Sa

1961.For the screening of the film a trailblazing intermedia ex.ermedia ex· after the 1960 Security Treaty defeat through the image of a
woman’s congenitlly constricted vagina.and organized a 6Sain periment was carried out.Under the concept of a one-time hap.
CeremonySain mo g the folowing year as a happeningpening, regardless of the fact that it was a gathering to mourn

Kanba Michiko, who got kiled during the struggle, sponsoredscreening.Tone Yasunao, Kosugi Takehisa of Group Music, etc.
by the Zengakuren (AllStudents Federation), westem paintings participated under the leadership of Adachi Masao,and an
|were projected on top of the screen with slides,obstaces were
|dangling from the ceiling, and two contradictory soundrracks unfolding. but on the day itself the film was stolen and the

screening became impossible. However, since they took evendashed against each other in the hall,.while symbolicilly inserting
police assaults or dose-ups of photographs of Kanbai’s face. |whole thing turned into one big brawl and uproar in which the

whole audience paricipated.In the end. the commotion was soWe can also name the earlier Axpo 而yakeu(Securiy Tre
1960) by Matsumoto Toshio as representative recording of tl

196O sruggle,but if we look back at the fact that both were PF to be raided.Just before, papers pertaining to a case of fake
1000-yen notes involving Akascgawa had been sent to the films that were requested by a specific party or group, and the

| fact that the numerous existing documentaries of the struggle by
SchoolJirisu Gakko） and the Tokyo Action Front (Tokyoindependent prodution companies uptill then could not han

Kodo Sensen),in which Adachi and the others had participated,been without connection to the Japanese Communist Party,thi
had carried out extreme direct action.so that apparently thiswork can be called the first filmic attempt of a movement tha
event was not judged to be a fim screening meeting but awould further unfold and be theorized in various forms from the

In other words, the sSain Ceremony presented confusion it-|The methodology of shooting a film with the cameraman sta
ing completely on the side of the objct is called the methodology self, which not only transgressed the genres of expression but

even the framework of art and polirics.bu that in irself allowedof complicity.The accepted theory is that it was established with
Tsuchimoto Noriki’s first independent film,Ryagaeusei Cwa the development of Dokyw期ewto 6/15,and it was a symbolical

|attempt that embodied the ideology of VAN as space of commu:Su Rinr(Chua Swee Lin,Exchange Student.196),and conti-
nication.The exnerimental spirit.which floowed from the Nihornued by Ogawa Shinsuke’sAssatamo mor(The Oppressed Stu.
University Film Study Club to the VAN Film Science Researchdents,1967).Dokyumewto 6/15 provoked the violent anger o
|Center,can be called the pillir that supported the undergroundthe participants, who had expected a proper recording of th
films of the sixties.and in its turm the concept of underground1960 Security Treaty strugle. Besides,through a defect,only or

of the collding soundtracks in the hall could be heard. so that culture itself.It was that which cleared the way for the late night
|showings at Art Theatre Shinjuku Bunka. and, through their suc.the executives heavily denounced the producers of VAN and the
cess,the flm production by ATG,from which the undergroundhall was tumed into confusion.Because of these circumstances.

it is hard to say that the screening of the work itself continued Ssori-za(Theatre Scorpio) was born.
into the developmcht of a movement,although it was scrcenec

Art Theatre Shinjuku Bunkaonce more at a gathering the following yeat. But what we can sl
is that this was unmistakably the first work that presented and As ATG got started,Kuzui Kinshiro became manager of the Ai

Theatre Shinjuku Bunka,the central theater of the ATG chain.put into practice the methodology of placing one’s own persor
Kuzui tried various experiments for the showings,and built up aon the side of the action.Later on,film screenings as perform

ances became formalized with visual artist limura Takahiko as film production system through ATG, so if there is one person
central figure.bur this screenine also paved the way for that type who can’t be omited from the story of ATG,it has got to be him.

Fist of ll,Kuzui remodeled the theatre and radiclly threw outof intermedia experiments.
After Nmo kirokw(The Record of N,1959) and Pa P(Pu Pu, advertising posters for commercial films,and on the other hand
1959),the Nihon University Film Study Club was reorganizeda
the New Film Study Club.Following the happening events Zer art, expanded the number of seats for the audience,and con-

structed a comfortable viewing system based on fixed seatingde conduite and Wan(A Lacquered Bowl,1962),and while goi
capacity, etc. So, he turned it intoJapan’s first art theatre worthy
of the name. Seeing he got off to a good start,in19c he tried, as
a further experiment,to organize a performance of an avant.
garde play after the end of the last show:. This atrempt to turn
Shinjuku into the Japanese Of-Broadway succeeded splendidly.
and Shinjuku Bunka was no longer just abour film,but became a

formances by new dramatical companies that came into being
through scssion from the maijor theatrical companies affiated
with the existing tradirional sbingeI (New Theatre).If we consi-
der that Oshima,Shinoda.Kurokicetc.paralllylft Shochiku
and lwanami around the same time,we have to realize that the

same trend was going on regardless of genre of exprssion,be it
film or drama.This theatrical experiment would later also have a

pig influence on film itself.
| The dramatical performances would sill continue afer this,Sain(19c),dreted by AdachiMsao et.al.

VIENALE003 ART THEATRE CGUILD

以归冬|

Rakak rw3okey 人aatma (AKA.Scrial Killkr,1969),directed by Adachi Maao ct.al.

Novenber 19pthe fist late night show flm sereening in the fild of activity of independent and personl filmmakers,and
|was oruanized.That film ws Sui.Ever ince thetogether with Kaneaka Kenij,Adach

ud been lokingi vain formed At bhe end of the vear they held a puble eshibition|had an opportunity to show it,and they had been looking in vin
for a screning venue in Tokyo. But then the screening at Shin
juku Bunka ws deided.There was suppor from a lot of culur |canccld the yearbefore,aso induded many works by musicians

and arists like Tone Yasunao and Akasegrwa GCenal people and artists. and this time the show was a big suces
Then,in 1965,the late night shows at Shinjuku Bunka began,

ako created the opportunity to succesively organize animatiol
specials and creenings of individualfilmmakers. The following goto （Secret within Wall,1965) ws oicially entered into themonth.under the tirle -South Korea Toda (Kankokuno genio).
there was the doublebll of Yanbogino wikk(Yunbogiks Dlan
[y and Ai to kio no macbi as well s letures by OAhima hin im, suddenly tracted a lot of atention as a means of under.self.The event was organized during eight days,and since atte
dance was good.people started to believe that for low budget in ijioined Wakamatsu Productions and produced several master.dependent productions.funds could be recouped even with
screnings at just the Shinjuku Bunka.a long s a long run w
possible. It was from this idea that Oshima’s Nini bugeid emporary artists and films, focusing on the major cinematic
(Manual of Ninja Martil Arts,1967) was born. So,after the b
experiment with dramatical performance at the theatre after th cntitledaWorld Awant-Garde Fim Festival-The Pioneers olend of the screnings and the late night show of Sain,the founda. Cinematie Arte.Although a number of texts had reachedJapan,tion for ATG;film production wslhid byOxhima’s sreening an there had been few chances to come in touch with the aw
lecture. the big hir Yakoeu (Patriotism,1966) by Mishima Yul garde films themselves. So, these serial screenings, which wererdeased at the same time as Luis Bunuel’sLejornalZ’uwt fwn | organizd by condensing the time axis from Diga Vertow and de dumbre,which wais a crucial factor in the aspet of theatri |Man Ray up untilChris Markerhad a big impact on the entierun,and the production and distribution of Ninja bugeicbo.

Then,the film festival aUnderground Cinema Japan/AmeriUnderground Theater Sasor-za (Theatre Scorplo) was hed at the same Sogetsu ArtCenter in June 19lbringingIn 19d.ObayashiNobuhiko,TikabayashiYoichi,limurna Taka: together ten American andJapanese flms,and this is when the|hko and Dynld Richicmsried a groun ward 意 the Bnousdks | term wndergowld got anchored in Japan. American filmmakersExperimental Flm Fesival. This was the signal to try and expandlike Stan Brakhage and RobertNelson wereinivited,and this uni.

YIENMLE 00 ART TMEATREGULD

fied a set of fims that had been variously called independentall forms of expression, be it underground or eabowe grounds,
met,and thus it gave birth toal kinds of cinematic ideas,includ-film,personal film,student lim,experimental Him,OH-Holy·
ing ATG and underground.Both expressed themselves in an in.wood Cinema,ec. Under the oveaill support of Sato Shigecomi,

the editor-in-chief of the magazine Eiga Hyorons,and with the dependent space and domain, and no matter what they focussed
cooperation of Kanesaka Kenji and limura Takahiko, the Sogetst

each other and at times there were crosovers.That we may callArtCenter kept striving to introduce underground cinema,
mainly from the US,and in November 1967 it started an experi the very relation between Shinjuku Bunka and Sasor-za,and th

|mental film festival that was open to public applications.Plenty
of filmmakers emerged from there. FromJune 19g. Sato himself
rented the playhouse Underground Theater Jliyu Gckijo, and Translated by Luk van Haute
began independent showings.The following year,in 19?diree.
tors formed the Japan Filmmakers Cooperative to manage un HIRASAWA G0
derground cinema, and the Japan Underground Center,fo Born in 1975 in the Kanagawa prefecture.Graduated from Meili
which Sato served as representative, supervised it. Even after th Gakuin University. Free-lancing film historian with a focus on

|underground cinema and revoluionary cinema of the 1960s.HeCooperative broke up over a leadership dispute,the screeniny
activities sill continued, and in 1971 Kawanaka Nobuhiro re. has organized severalretrospectives and is the editor of a number

| of books such s aUnderground Fim Archives(2001);&Bunbeiorganized it as the Underground Center. On the other hand.
bessatsu- Godard (2002); Adachi Masao.Eiga/Kakumei| when the All-Campus Joint Strugele (Zenkyoto)movement

(2003);eJokyo bssatsu-AdachiMasro Eia/Kakumei o megut-arose, numerous documentarie of the struggle were produced,
mainly by Tsuchimoto Noriaki and Ogawa Shinsuke,and inde.tea(2003).
pendent screening activities were organized, revolving around
the barricade strikes at factories and universities
|In 1966, in the middle of this period of excitement for under.

ground cinema, Kuzui Kinshiro set out on a trip to the United
States and several European countries.He wanted to do a tour of
small theatres and underground theatres around the world, in
|order to rebuild the dressing rooms in the basementr of Shinjuku
Bunka into a,be it small, experimental theatre for film and plays.
So,in August1967 the undergroundTheatre Sasori-za was com.
peted,comparible to spaces of expression of underground cul-
ture elsewhere in the world.The fomal opening film was Adachi
Masao’s Gingukei(Galaxy,1967).It is a symbol of underground
cinema in Japan, following in the wake of the Nihon University
Film Study Club and VAN,and should even be called a monu.
mental work. Since then, the Sasori-za was the foothold of un.
derground cinema,the place where many artists. yeterans and
youngsters alike,were active, and later on quite a few ATG film.

makers would emerge from there as well. However,the Sasori-za,
which was also open as a lounge bar after the end of the screen-

ings, was actually a space of communication where people from

44AtA3一1-A

P pi(1959,drected by Jonouchi Moharu

VIENMAIE2003 ART THE盯TR COIO0

The topic I chose is No.3

3. Discuss cinematic constructions of masculinity in two films of your own choosing. You may focus on how the films portray the main male character(s)’s bodies and actions and consider how the films’ formal and stylistic features contribute to your perception of their masculinity.

Movie you have to watch:

1. Shura 1971

2. Seven suMurai 1954

Please have clear thesis and citation

3 Articles you may use

1. Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, Toho, 1954)Video Resource

2. Inuhiko Yomota “Two or Three Things I know about ATG”

3. Go Hirasawa “Underground Cinema and the Art Theatre Guild”