Report on joint research findings
fiscal 2016
Principal research
1. Basic Research Survey of Materials Relating to Shoyo Tsubouchi and Shiko Tsubouchi
Selected Research
1. Research on Movie Theater and Music during the Silent Era Based on Musical Score Materials
2. Linking Data Catalog of Movie Theater and Exhibition Materials Owned by the Theatre Museum
3. A Multifaceted Research on Chikage Awashima Materials
4. Reconsidering the Magic Lantern in the History of Visual Culture: A Study on the Intermedial Relationship between the Magic Lantern and Visual Cultures during the Meiji and Taisho Periods
Principal research 1
Basic Research Survey of Materials Relating to Shoyo Tsubouchi and Shiko Tsubouchi
Principal Researcher
Kuniko Hamaguchi (Affiliated Lecturer, The College of Intercultural Communication, Rikkyo University)
Collaborative Researchers
Akira Kikuchi (Adjunct Researcher, Waseda University Theatre Museum),
Tomoaki Kojima (Part-time Lecturer, Musashino Art University),
Kaoru Matsuyama (Part-time Lecturer, Faculty of Education and Integrated Arts and Sciences, Waseda University),
Kaho Mizuta (Adjunct Researcher, Waseda University Theatre Museum),
Kazuko Yanagisawa (Part-time Lecturer, Faculty of Education and Integrated Arts and Sciences, Waseda University)
Research objective
In this research, we plan to complete the cataloging of all the unsorted letters addressed to Shoyo and sequentially reprint and release the letters that are related mainly to Collected Letter of Tsubouchi Shoyo. Organizing, reprinting, and studying letters addressed to Shoyo would allow us to estimate the age of undated letters found in Collected Letter of Tsubouchi Shoyo and conduct a study on contents seen as corresponding letters. It is expected to reveal the previously unknown sides of Shoyo’s activities, contexts in his era, and his relationship with others. It should also aid the revision of Shoyo’s Diary, which is currently underway.
In addition, the public awaits the release of the materials related to Shiko. The materials present Shiko as an individual who has increasingly been recognized in recent years for a variety of theater activities. Based on the manuscripts, scripts, leaflets, letters, and photographs, we can expect that Shiko’s accomplishments in modern Japanese theater and dance history (e.g., the plan of the New Bungei Kyokai and Takarazuka Revue Company prior to the war, shingeki activities at Takarazuka and Toho, critiques on classical Japanese dance, etc.) will be clarified more in detail.
Summary of the research findings
Shoyo Tsubouchi-related materials
In 2016, we continued the organization of the unsorted letters addressed to Shoyo Tsubouchi and the creation of a tentative catalog; we also completed the digital shooting of 733 letters by 329 individuals. These shootings include 101 letters by 35 foreigners, including William Archer.
As for reprinting the letters addressed to Shoyo, we completed 50 letters, including those by Shigetoshi Kawatake and Daigo Ikeda. We plan to reprint more and conduct further investigation to release them in 2017. In addition, we made detailed annotations to the main texts of the last 48 of the 128 letters by Yaichi Aizu reprinted in 2015, to publish on Engeki Kenkyu No. 40 (Kikuchi, Matsuyama, Yanagisawa, and Hamaguchi. “Reprint of the Letters Sent to Shoyo Tsubouchi 2: Reprint of the Letters from Yaichi Aizu to Shoyo Tsubouchi (2).” The majority of the letters to be published on this issue were written around the time when Yaichi Aizu was first assigned to teach the Oriental art history course at the Department of Literature of the Waseda University beginning in April 1926 on Shoyo’s recommendation. It will be the first public release of invaluable documents for us to understand the circumstances in which Yaichi, who focused on the observation of actual objects and documents research in his study on art history, expressed his emotions to Shoyo while undergoing great hardship in preparing for the course.
Shiko Tsubouchi-related materials
We finished creating a tentative catalog and digitizing materials related to Shiko Tsubouchi before the World War I; these include 147 materials on performing arts in Japan and 268 materials from the United Kingdom. We also began classifying the contents, including handwritten manuscripts, in 10 boxes out of the 20 by year. It revealed Shiko’s activities during the period between the late Meiji Period and the early Taisho Period, which were previously unnoticed because of the limited references. These activities include his frequent visits to the theater to see a dance performance (which was supposed to be his profession) while being involved in the Japanese Association in Boston at the time when he was abruptly ordered to study abroad. After moving to the United Kingdom to join the tour of Laurence Irving’s company, among others, we can see from the stage photographs, newspaper clippings, and excerpts of “Typhoon,” in which he was casted between 1912 and 1913, how Shiko encountered the trend of Japonism and fitted into the strange Japanese performed by European as a real Japanese. We presented our research findings on October 26, 2016, the second day of the Japan-France International Symposium on Theater (“Tsubouchi Shiko and Theatrical Circles in 1910–1914” by Mizuta).
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William Archer’s letters addressed to Shoyo Tsubouchi August 2, 1912 |
Ritsuko Mori’s New Year’s greeting card addressed to Shoyo Tsubouchi January 1919 (Shoyo, who was born in the year of sheep, was collecting pictures and figures of sheep.) |
Mr. & Mrs. Irving with their company performed “Typhoon” in London on April, 1913 at the Haymarket Theatre Royal. |
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Selected Research 1
Research on Movie Theater and Music during the Silent Era Based on Musical Score Materials
Principal Researcher
Seiji Choki (Professor, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the University of Tokyo)
Collaborative Researchers
Makiko Kamiya (Visiting Researcher, National Film Center, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo),
Kotaro Shibata (Doctoral Program, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, the University of Tokyo)
Yohei Yamakami (Part-time Lecturer, Faculty of Music, Tokyo University of the Arts)
Research objective
In terms of the Hirano Collection, which is a collection of about 800 musical scores for silent movies preserved at the Theatre Museum, a basic catalog has been created based on the studies conducted before 2016. However, it is not easy to understand the detailed contents of the collection and grasp its significance because, in addition to the materials themselves being massive and complex, there have not been many previous studies on musical practices themselves in movie theaters during the same period. In this research, we aim to understand multifariously musical practices in showing silent movies during the periods between Taisho and early Showa.
Summary of the research findings
(1)Study and analysis of the music manuscripts in the Hirano Collection
・We refined the catalog we created prior to 2016 for the collection. We, especially Shirai, further looked at elements such as handwritten notes, music sheets, and ink. Doing so clarified the identity of the handwriting on the “Hirano Library of Accompaniment Music” (handwritten library scores transcribed and collected by musicians) and the “Hirano Compiled Scores” (handwritten compiled scores prepared for screening individual movies) and their differences from the writing on handwritten supplementary parts, such as shamisen music.
・We also demonstrated that organizing the Hirano Collection of musical notes in the order of release year of the movies can show diachronic changes in the policy of selecting music for historical dramas within the collection.
(2)Survey of related materials
・We surveyed the movie-related materials collected by movie researcher Yoshitaka Maki, along with the theater weekly pamphlets and various magazines held at the Theatre Museum, the National Film Center and Matsunagabunko to consider the similarities and diversity in musical practices in movie theaters in different regions in the same period.
(3)Performances of Hirano Collection music and reference screenings
・We held a workshop and, for the first time, we reconstructed a screening with the Japanese-Western ensemble (piano, violin, cello, flute, and shamisen) that the Collection indicates as main parts. In addition, members of our research group attempted to select music from the collection to understand the practical issues faced by musicians in the past and showed future challenges in reproducing screenings and performances of music.
・At the Study of Cinema Bibliographies meetings of the Japan Society of Image Arts and Sciences (JASIAS) and at the workshop, we compared and contrasted the screenings of contemporary and past accompaniment practices with the cooperation of today’s leading silent movie accompanists (Mie Yanashita and Joichi Yuasa). We examined where continuities and discontinuities between the two practices are found.
(4)Collaboration with relevant academic societies and comparative review against other fields
・We participated in the Film Preservation Society workshop and JASIAS study group, and introduced the significance of the Hirano Collection.
・We attempted to compare silent movies with other related practices. At the conference of the Musicological Society of Japan, we compared it with documentary movies and TV, which have BGM libraries similar to silent movies, with the cooperation of composer Kazuki Kuriyama and music editor Shoji Tsujita. At the workshop, we obtained the cooperation of Makiko Tsuchida and tried to compare silent movie accompaniments to kuromisu music (traditional Kabuki music) and reviewed the characteristics of silent movie accompaniments.
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“Fuji Music No. 21” from Kino Music Nikkatsu Scores (Violin part and handwritten supplementary part for shamisen |
Accompaniment Scores for Historical Drama: Sword Play New Music A1 Piano part (cover and 1st page) |
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Selected Research 2
Linking Data Catalog of Movie Theater and Exhibition Materials Owned by the Theatre Museum
Principal Researcher
Manabu Ueda (Part-time Lecturer, Faculty of Arts, Tokyo Polytechnic University)
Collaborative Researchers
Chie Niida(Adjunct Researcher, Waseda University Theatre Museum),
Susanne Schermann (Professor, School of Law, Meiji University),
Roland Domenig (Associate Professor, Faculty of Letters, Meiji Gakuin University),
Research objective
The purpose of this research is to promote joint studies focusing on the materials related to movie theater exhibitions owned by the Theatre Museum at the Waseda University, and explain the function of movie theaters in the Japanese film history to develop basic research on movie theaters and film exhibition materials in Japan. As unpublished non-film materials related to exhibitions are often excluded from the materials to be saved in existing film archives and other locations, inadequate primary source materials that should be analyzed have been sorted and investigated. For this reason, we will study multiple primary source materials in the Theatre Museum and proceed to create a linked data catalog in this study by looking into the contents of the exhibitions.
Summary of the research findings
First, we cataloged the materials related to movie theater exhibition, which are the core of this research owned by the Theatre Museum, in 2016. These are exhibition materials from Kotobukiza, a movie theater in Nishiwaki Town, Taka District, Hyogo Prefecture from 1935 to 1944. The collaborating researchers selected materials for digitization and decided on the fields in the database over the course of two study sessions, and subsequently proceeded with cataloging. Actual accomplishments include the creation of digital stills from 117 materials and, as of the end of December, the extraction of film exhibition data, such as the number of audience, amount of expenses and sales, and titles of screened movies from 54 out of those 117 items. As for screened movies, we proceeded with the preparations to relate data by assigning movie numbers based on Nihon Eiga Sakuhin Jiten (Encyclopedia of Japanese Movies) and Hakurai Kinema Sakuhin Jiten (Encyclopedia of Imported Foreign Movies) published by Kagaku Shoin, foreseeing the integration with the movie theater program database of the Theatre Museum in the future.
Second, a basic joint study was conducted on movie theaters and exhibitions during the Showa Period. We first interviewed Hifumi Fujimoto, the owner of Sadamitsu Gekijyo in Tsurugi Town, Mima District, Tokushima Prefecture, and Takayoshi Takuma, the president of Soleil Co. that manages a mini theater in Takamatsu City, Kagawa Prefecture, to gather information from individuals in the field about regional film exhibitions during the Showa Period. We will also conduct a joint study at the Toshima Ward Folk Museum that is scheduled for February 2017.
Based on these accomplishments, we made an oral presentation in the panel titled “Movie Theatres in Japan” at the Cultural Typhoon in Europe (University of Vienna) in September 2016. In addition, Ueda presented the regional film exhibitions during the prewar Showa Period at the symposium titled “Cinemas as Regional Culture” held in October at Matsunagabunko in Kitakyushu City. We will also publish the outcome of the aforementioned interview with Hifumi Fujimoto of Sadamitsu Gekijo on the Bulletin of Meiji Gakuin University; the publication is scheduled for March 2017.
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Kotobukiza exhibition list of paid expenses (December 1943) |
Kotobukiza sales ledger (November 1936) |
Selected Research 3
A Multifaceted Research on Chikage Awashima Materials
A Multifaceted Research on Chikage Awashima Materials
Principal Researcher
Takafusa Hatori (Assistant Professor, Faculty of Humanities, Niigata University)
Collaborative Researchers
Aki Ishizaka (Adjunct Researcher, Waseda University Theatre Museum),
Marie Kono (Affiliated Lecturer, College of Contemporary Psychology, Rikkyo University),
Makiko Yamanashi (Part-time Lecturer, Faculty II, Department of Japanese Studies, Trier University)
Research objective
The purpose of this research is to catalog and study the materials left by the late actress Chikage Awashima (1924–2012), which were donated to the Waseda University Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum in 2012. The academic significances in studying the materials (hereinafter referred to as the Awashima materials) are as follows. First, as Awashima shifted the focus of her activities, while remaining to be at the forefront, from Takarazuka Revue during the period between the 15-year war and the occupation to Japanese cinema amid its second golden era in the 1950s to 1960s, to pioneering TV dramas in the 1950s to 1960s, and further to commercial theater after the 1960s, the entertainment history of the 20th century Japan can be reviewed diachronically and synchronically by studying the Awashima materials as starting point. Second, as the Awashima materials cover the period between the time when she entered the Takarazuka School of Music and Revue and her latest years, they are substantial in both quality and quantity even when compared with other materials in the Theatre Museum.
Summary of the research findings
As regards the accomplishments of this study, first, we finished shooting about 400 digital images of Takarazuka-related materials and creating their primary database by assigning each digital image a material name and an ID number starting from AWA. We are currently preparing for more detailed secondary database.
Second, through a special screening at the National Film Center of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, we verified the fact that a 16mm film in the Awashima materials includes a personally filmed record of the making of Yunagi (1957).
Third, through the research reporting at the 12th Annual Conference of the Japan Society for Cinema Studies, we analyzed Awashima’s activities in the latter half of the 1950s. These activities were clarified from studying newspaper articles included in the scrapbooks in the Awashima materials. We had a discussion on the politics of the “friendship” among stars across major film companies under the studio system and the place of Awashima in the “friendship” while focusing on the Tokyo Actors Club in which she was involved actively.
Fourth, through the research meeting at the National Film Center of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, we screened Hotarubi (1958) in which Awashima played the role of Otose of Teradaya, a landlady of an inn in Fushimi, Kyoto who provided sanctuary to dissident activists, such as Ryoma Sakamoto, during the last days of the Tokugawa shogunate. We also held a talk between Takafusa Hatori as an interviewer and actor/director Akira Kasahara (1948–) who played the counterpart Ryoma Sakamoto when Awashima in her latest years played the same role of Otose. In addition to Kasahara reciting a letter addressed to Awashima by Shogo Shimada (1905–2004), who was one of the leaders of the theater company Shingokugeki where Kasahara trained, new information was derived, such as the place of Awashima in commercial theater from the 1970s when Kasahara began his theatrical career to the 21st century.
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Takarazuka School of Music and Revue entrance examination admission slip for Keiko Nakagawa (Awashima’s real name) at the age of 1 |
Full-house bonus envelop from Hachiya Iansha in Fushun dated October 21, 194 |
Selected research 4
Reconsidering the Magic Lantern in the History of Visual Culture
A study on Inter-media Causal Relationship between the Magic Lantern and Various Cultures in the Meiji and Taisho Periods
Principal Researcher
Ryo Okubo (Project Research Associate, Faculty of Letters, Department of Humanities, Aichi University)
Collaborative Researchers
Machiko Kusahara (Professor, Faculty of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, Waseda University),
Eriko Kogo (Associate Professor, Meisei University School of Humanities),
Miyuki Endo (Curator, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography)
Maya Hatano (Part-time Lecturer, School of Commerce, Waseda University)
Research objective
The Theatre Museum holds numerous materials related to screen culture before the history of cinema that are extremely rare even by international standards. In particular, the collection of magic lantern slides, which is projection media existed before the movie, includes 3,000 pieces on a wide variety of subjects. In 2016, we aimed to explain the intermedial relationship between the spread of the magic lantern culture during the Meiji and Taisho Periods and the visual culture in the same periods by taking the results of previous joint research collaborations and comparing the magic lantern-related materials held at the Theatre Museum with the sales catalogs of slides and magic lanterns.
Summary of the research findings
(1)Reports at the Association for Studies of Culture and Representation
Members of the joint research collaboration made a panel presentation on “Intermediality of Visual Culture in the Meiji and Taisho Periods: In Terms of Cultural Complexity of Photograph, Magic Lantern, and Cinema” at the 11th Annual Conference of the Association for Studies of Culture and Representation held at the Ritsumeikan University. The presentation, which was moderated by Machiko Kusahara, included reports titled “Application of Photography in the Meiji Period to Everyday Items” (Endo), “Screen Practices in the Early Meiji Period” (Okubo), and “The Relationship Between the Format of Showing Chain-drama and the Style of Japanese Movies” (Ueda) that considered the discussions in the joint research. Along with the discussions with the commentator Masato Hase from the Waseda University and the audience, we were able to explain the multifaceted causal relationship between magic lantern and visual culture during the same period.
(2)Reports at the Annual Conference of the Association for Cultural Studies
We participated in the panel presentation “Doing Screen Studies in Japan” at the annual conference of the Association for Cultural Studies held at the University of Sydney. Based on the results of the joint research and discussions at the annual conference of the Association for Studies of Culture and Representations, we presented a report titled “Japanese Screen Culture in the Nineteenth Century: Focusing on the Various Styles of Mixture Between Stage and Screen” (Okubo). The presentation aimed to propose the understanding of the Japanese culture of magic lantern in the 19th century. The presentation included related materials, such as magic lanterns and the slides for magic lantern held at the Theatre Museum, from the contexts of both the history of screen images and the history of theater. With the participation from researchers in the fields of movie history and media archeology, we were able to conduct discussions to reevaluate the results of the joint research in the context of international research trends.
(3)Digitization of the Sale Catalogs of Magic Lantern
We verified the contents and mainly entered information on the title of slides for 33 volumes of sales catalogs of magic lanterns of which we had taken pictures and digitized in the joint research in 2015. Although the work is still currently underway, we can expect to find out the previously unknown details, such as the year of production, title at the time of sales, price, and producer of the slides by comparing the data on sales catalogs and slides held at the Theatre Museum. We plan to complete the digitization as much as possible by the end of 2016.
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From the catalogue of Magic Lanterns and slides by Toraku Ikeda company |
Front cover of the catalogue of Lantern slides by Hatsuzo Tsurubuchi compan |