Support Projects for Enhancing Function
Digitization and Sharing
of Theatre and Film-related Materials
Fiscal 2017
The aim of this project is to digitize the Theatre Museum’s film materials and its many manuscripts with a view of sharing these precious primary materials.
Digital Archive of Materials Related to Michio Ito
In 2017, we aimed to expand and enhance the “Database of Materials Related to Michio Ito,” which is a product of the previous year’s research work. To this end, we worked on digitally archiving the materials, in particular, 12 scrap books of Michio Ito. These scrapbooks constitute more than 1400 items of vast data, including newspaper and magazine articles and pamphlets from Michio Ito’s time in America. As such, they represent a precious resource to those seeking to examine the dancer-choreographer’s activities in detail. By cataloguing these diverse scrapbooks, we have enabled researchers to search and navigate the vast content therein. One achievement from the previous year was to make content accessible along with released photograph albums, thus enabling researchers to peruse both photographic and textual content. We believe that these efforts will radically expand the possibilities of primary materials and lead to the innovation of the research environment.
A Pamphlet, attached to a scrapbook
Digitization of TV Scripts of the Early Period
Subsequent to our work in 2016, we made efforts to expand and enhance the museum’s digital database; in particular, we added television scripts to the digital archive. These included scripts which are based on the works of Shoyo and Shiko Tsubouchi (e.g., Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream, En no gyoja), and scripts which are written by Tadashi Iijima (e.g., Kaettekita hito), who was a film critic and active in early-era television, and by film director Yasujiro Ozu (Seishun hokago). These scripts represent a precious resource to those seeking to ascertain the relationship between early-era television works and related genres, including theater and film. Shedding light on these boundary cases would accelerate television studies, theater studies, and cinema studies.
TV Scripts of Seishun hokago by Yasujiro Ozu
Digitization of Film- and Non-film Materials of the Theatre Museum
This year, we digitized some of the precious materials of motion pictures, including not only 8 mm video materials but also a 35 mm film Nogi shogun, which was considered to be lost. Interestingly, this surviving version has been reedited as a silent film, though it was formerly produced as a sound film. These materials are expected to be utilized and contribute to further researches.