Historical Dictionary of Japanese Cinema
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HISTORICAL DICTIONARIES OF LITERATURE AND THE ARTS Jon Woronoff, Series Editor Science Fiction Literature, by Brian Stableford, 2004. Hong Kong Cinema, by Lisa Odham Stokes, 2007. American Radio Soap Operas, by Jim Cox, 2005. Japanese Traditional Theatre, by Samuel L. Leiter, 2006. Fantasy Literature, by Brian Stableford, 2005. Australian and New Zealand Cinema, by Albert Moran and Errol Vieth, 2006. African-American Television, by Kathleen Fearn-Banks, 2006. Lesbian Literature, by Meredith Miller, 2006. Scandinavian Literature and Theater, by Jan Sjåvik, 2006. British Radio, by Seán Street, 2006. German Theater, by William Grange, 2006. African American Cinema, by S. Torriano Berry and Venise Berry, 2006. Sacred Music, by Joseph P. Swain, 2006. Russian Theater, by Laurence Senelick, 2007. French Cinema, by Dayna Oscherwitz and MaryEllen Higgins, 2007. Postmodernist Literature and Theater, by Fran Mason, 2007. Irish Cinema, by Roderick Flynn and Pat Brereton, 2007. Australian Radio and Television, by Albert Moran and Chris Keating, 2007. Polish Cinema, by Marek Haltof, 2007. Old Time Radio, by Robert C. Reinehr and Jon D. Swartz, 2008. Renaissance Art, by Lilian H. Zirpolo, 2008. Broadway Musical, by William A. Everett and Paul R. Laird, 2008. American Theater: Modernism, by James Fisher and Felicia Hardison Londré, 2008. German Cinema, by Robert C. Reimer and Carol J. Reimer, 2008. Horror Cinema, by Peter Hutchings, 2008. Westerns in Cinema, by Paul Varner, 2008. Chinese Theater, by Tan Ye, 2008. Italian Cinema, by Gino Moliterno, 2008. Architecture, by Allison Lee Palmer, 2008. Russian and Soviet Cinema, by Peter Rollberg, 2008. African American Theater, by Anthony D. Hill, 2009. Postwar German Literature, by William Grange, 2009. Modern Japanese Literature and Theater, by J. Scott Miller, 2009. Animation and Cartoons, by Nichola Dobson, 2009. Modern Chinese Literature, by Li-hua Ying, 2010. Middle Eastern Cinema, by Terri Ginsberg and Chris Lippard, 2010. Spanish Cinema, by Alberto Mira, 2010. Film Noir, by Andrew Spicer, 2010. French Theater, by Edward Forman, 2010. Choral Music, by Melvin P. Unger, 2010. Westerns in Literature, by Paul Varner, 2010. Baroque Art and Architecture, by Lilian H. Zirpolo, 2010. Surrealism, by Keith Aspley, 2010. Science Fiction Cinema, by M. Keith Booker, 2010. Latin American Literature and Theater, by Richard A. Young and Odile Cis- neros, 2011. Children’s Literature, by Emer O’Sullivan, 2010. German Literature to 1945, by William Grange, 2011. Neoclassical Art and Architecture, by Allison Lee Palmer, 2011. American Cinema, by M. Keith Booker, 2011. American Theater: Contemporary, by James Fisher, 2011. English Music: ca. 1400–1958, by Charles Edward McGuire and Steven E. Plank, 2011. Rococo Art, by Jennifer D. Milam, 2011. Romantic Art and Architecture, by Allison Lee Palmer, 2011. Japanese Cinema, by Jasper Sharp, 2011. Historical Dictionary of Japanese Cinema Jasper Sharp The Scarecrow Press, Inc. Lanham • Toronto • Plymouth, UK 2011 Published by Scarecrow Press, Inc. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 http://www.scarecrowpress.com Estover Road, Plymouth PL6 7PY, United Kingdom Copyright © 2011 by Jasper Sharp All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sharp, Jasper, 1971- Historical dictionary of Japanese cinema / Jasper Sharp. p. cm. -- (Historical dictionaries of literature and the arts) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-0-8108-5795-7 (cloth : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-0-8108-7541-8 (ebook) 1. Motion pictures--Japan--History--Dictionaries. I. Title. II. Series: Historical dictionaries of literature and the arts. PN1993.5.J3S45 2011 791.4303--dc22 2011010684 ™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Printed in the United States of America For Thorin This volume is dedicated to all who lost their lives or were affected by the Tôhoku Earthquake and Tsunami of 11 March 2011. Contents Editor’s Foreword Jon Woronoff ix Preface xi Reader’s Note xiii Acronyms and Abbreviations xvii Chronology xix Introduction 1 THE DICTIONARY 15 Appendix A: Names of Japanese Film Companies, Studios, and Other Organizations 313 Appendix B: Japanese Titles of Films Referenced in the Text 321 Appendix C: Individuals Referenced in Text 399 Glossary 419 Bibliography 423 About the Author 523 vii Editor’s Foreword Japanese cinema is deceptively familiar to most of us. We know some of the outstanding directors and actors, at least those who have become popular in the West. Many of us have marveled at the technical prowess of one or more anime. We, as children or with our children, have gaped at Godzilla and other monsters, thrilled to yakuza and swordplay films, and shivered through some of the J-Horror, and without our children, may even have succumbed to pink films and Roman Porno. If asked, many of us would put the Seven Samurai and Rashomon on any list of all-time best. But there is so much more that we are less familiar with, including the early pioneering works, documentaries, many of the period pieces, comedy and household dramas, films on feminism or minorities, and certainly the production of war films before and during the Pacific War. The studio names are familiar, but not their genesis (and some- times disappearance). And we do not really know the producers and actors of popular Japanese fare that is rarely seen abroad. So this volume has the double advantage of telling us more about the things we are familiar with, but especially filling in the huge gaps regarding less known directors, actors, and other film personnel; studios; and more typically Japanese genres. This Historical Dictionary of Japanese Cinema goes about its work like others in the series. A good place to start in this case is with the chronology, which stretches further back than may be expected, indeed to the very earliest days of cinema per se, and continues on for well over a century full of im- portant cinematic events, but is also embedded in the broader political world that is referenced in many films. The list of acronyms helps us in reading this and other texts. And the introduction provides the general context. But the bulk of the information comes in the dictionary section, with fairly extensive entries on leading directors and actors, major studios, some filmmaking tech- niques, assorted cinematic genres, significant historical periods, and several outstanding films. In this case, since Japanese is not a familiar language for nearly all foreigners, the glossary plays a special role in familiarizing us with the related terminology. In the appendixes, the lists of companies and awards, titles of films, and names of individuals give us the original Japanese for all of these. And the bibliography, an amazingly plentiful one, can direct us toward ix x • EDITor’s FOREWORD further reading on topics that interest us particularly and also some we hardly realized existed. As hinted above, it is hard to really know Japanese cinema without putting in a lot of effort, much more than most of us can manage, and also without knowing the Japanese language. Over the past decade or so, few have dug deeper than Jasper Sharp, who is a frequent visitor to Japan, having lived there for three years, and otherwise follows events closely from Great Britain, where he lives. During this time, he has written (with Tom Mes) The Midnight Eye Guide to New Japanese Film and more recently Behind the Pink Curtain. He has also contributed to several anthologies and journals, curated film programs and retrospectives, and served on the advisory board of the Journal of Japanese & Korean Cinema. Most important in many ways, along with Tom Mes, he cofounded and helps keep the Midnight Eye website brimming over with information. This historical dictionary is his biggest recent project and certainly a significant contribution to increasing our knowledge of what is, after all, the world’s third biggest film industry, one that everyone should know more about, from the average cinemagoer to those who are fascinated by one facet or another. Jon Woronoff Preface This book is aimed at researchers, students, teachers, and general readers as both an introduction to and overview of the long history of Japanese cinema. It aims to provide an entry point for those with little or no familiarity with the subject, while it is organized so that scholars in the field will also be able to use it to find specific information. For this reason, the introduction and the chronological timeline sections are quite detailed. In themselves, they should provide sufficient background to the length and breadth of Japanese cinema, pointing to specific information that can be found in more detail in the dictionary entries. A single volume focusing on Japanese cinema can never hope to be ex- haustive, owing to the long history and sheer scale of production the industry has enjoyed since the arrival of the medium. Japan not only possesses the old- est unbroken film history of a non-Western nation, but also one of the largest; in Asia it is outproduced only by India. As such, a degree of selectivity has been applied to what has been included in the entries section. The choices are weighted in favor of those names and films best known internationally, or that characterize and shed more light on specific eras or genres, while the bibliography aims to provide a thorough review of the research that has al- ready been undertaken on this vast subject and suggest possible fruitful paths still to be followed.