Support Projects for Enhancing Function
Digitization and Public Offering
of Theatre and Film Materials
Fiscal 2018
As part of this project, we are newly digitizing theater and film materials held by the Theatre Museum, and are carrying out a number of projects that expand the usage and application of materials digitized in prior years.
Digitization of early television scripts
As part of the Early Television Script Digitization Project, ongoing since 2016, we have digitized scripts related to adjacent fields (literature, film) that played important roles in the early days of television. These materials demonstrate that television was an important field for a wide range of 17artists, including Kobo Abe, Shuji Terayama, Yasujiro Ozu, Nagisa Oshima, and Susumu Hani. The digitized scripts have been provided for viewing on special terminals in the library at the Theatre Museum and as part of the permanent exhibitions of the Museum, to communicate the significance of these script materials to a wide range of museum visitors.
Digitization of film materials
We have worked to expand the usage and application of two types of film materials digitized in prior years. First, we worked on Chie no Wa Kurabu (TBS, 1966), a television program that featured the Theatre Museum. Because the film copy held by the museum contains no sound other than the opening music, we commissioned actress Shigeru Muroi to voice five characters based on the broadcast script, and had the program edited by film and television director Takashi Nishihara. The footage with the new audio was unveiled at the museum’s 90th anniversary ceremony, to the great fascination of attendees.
Screening of Chie no wa kurabu
To celebrate the digitization of the film Nogi Shogun(directed by Tomiyasu Ikeda, 1935), found in the collection of the late Shoichi Ozawa, we held a symposium and film screening entitled “Japanese Film and the Culture of Katarimono” (Dec. 15, 2018, Ono Auditorium). Because the film was a silent edited version of a “rokyoku talkie,” two screenings were held, one with benshi Ichiro Kataoka and pianist Eri Kanzaki, and one with rokyoku performer Ichitaro Azumaya and shamisen accompanist Mitsu Azumaya. In are related program, Satsuma biwa player Nobuko Kawashima played one of the biwa scripts held by the National Film Archive of Japan, which is for a film of the same name, Nogi Shogun. At the symposium, research associate Shibata, Masayoshi Manabe (professor at the University of Kitakyushu), and Hiroshi Komatsu (professor at Waseda University) held discussions from multiple perspectives including the history of film, the history of rokyoku, and the history of the film’s musical style. Also, theater and entertainment critic Seiichi Yano discussed the involvement of the film’s one-time owner Ozawa in rokyoku, nogimono, and theater with the museum’s vice-director Kodama serving as interviewer. This film, held by the museum, provided an opportunity to shed light on multiple facets of the diverse culture of story within Japanese film.
Screening of Nogi Shogun by the Azumayas
Digitization of the Tsuruta Collection
We proceeded with the digital release of the Tsuruta Collection, consisting of 893 materials related to prewar film in Kumamoto, owned by the late Kashichiro Tsuruta. With the joint sponsorship of the Kumamoto University Faculty of Education and the Yamaga City Regional Development Corporation (a general incorporated foundation), we held a film screening and symposium titled “Resurrecting Silent Films at Yachiyoza” (Sept. 1, 2018) at Yachiyoza theater in Kumamoto. Manabu Ueda, Yutsuki Kanda (professor at Ochinomizu University), the museum’s vice-director Kodama, and research associate Shibata provided multifaceted discussions on Edo period theater culture, the shinkokugeki theater of the Taisho and Showa periods, and Kumamoto’s film industry.
Question and answer session
We are also preparing to publicize many digital images accumulated through the joint research projects, and to complete the work of exhibiting film score materials, prewar Japanese film industry materials, and Chinese theater materials in the museum. We hope that digitally publicizing the museum’s valued theater and film materials will further invigorate theater and film research.