Report on joint research findings
fiscal 2018
Principal research
1. Basic Research Survey of Materials Relating to Shoyo Tsubouchi and Shiko Tsubouchi
Selected Research
1. Research on musicians and musical bands regarding Kurihara’s musical score collection: music for stageand cinema during the early-Showa era
2. Understanding the Studio System in Postwar Japanese Cinema: Empirical Research on Nikkatsu Roman Porno
3. The restoration of the Rissho Katsuei films based on multiple materials
4. Visual depictions of Chinese theater and the Taisho period in Japan: focusing on Nobuyo Fukuchi’s Shina no Shibai Sukecchi-cho
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)
Purpose of research
This research project will culminate in the complete inventory of all letters addressed to Shoyo Tsubouchi that have yet to be sorted, as well as putting them into order, developing a plan for reprints, and making public a number of letters, primarily those related tothe Collected Letters of Shoyo Tsubouchi. The sorting,reprinting, and study of letters addressed to Shoyo will enable the rough dating of any undated letters inthe Collected Letters of Shoyo Tsubouchi and allow their content to be studied within the context of an exchange of letters, shedding light on new facets of Shoyo’s activities, contemporary historical background and his interactions, as well as contributing to the further revision of Shoyo’s diary, which is currently in progress.Materials related to Shiko Tsubouchi that we began to investigate, incidental to this research project,depict a figure whose diverse theatre-related activities have drawn increasing praise in recent years, and the publication of these materials is eagerly awaited.We hope that the drafts, scripts, flyers, letters,and photographs will illuminate aspects of Shiko’scontributions to modern Japanese theatre and dancesuch as prewar Shinbungei Kyokai and Takarazuka Shingekidan plans, his activity in forms of new theatresuch as Takarazuka and Toho, and his criticism ofpostwar Japanese dance.
Research results
Shoyo Tsubouchi materials
We sorted and cataloged the previously unsorted letters of Shoyo Tsubouchi and associated documents,digitally photographing a total of 278 items, including documents related to the founding of the Theatre Museum and photographs owned by the late Shoyo,and five volumes (306 pages) of a scrapbook of letters addressed to Shoyo, which contained 263 letters,including the Rokuro Yashiro Letter Collection. Inaddition, the reprinting of 50 pieces of correspondence,including letters from Hogetsu Shimamura and MimeiOgawa, was completed. Following, a conference was held to report the results of research based on the reprinted letters (Nov. 12, 2018, Building 6, Room 318). Topics discussed in detail included Daigo Ikeda’s activities during the Mumeikai era, his process of writing Imayo torimushiuta and Meigetsu hachiman matsuri, and his close interactions with Shoyo (Matsuyama’s “Shoyo and Daigo Ikeda: Daigo Ikeda’s Letters to Shoyo in themid-Taisho period”), the life of Kagi Nishikawa and her relationship to Shoyo (who was a relative) (Hamaguchi’s“Kagi Nishikawa: Dance Activities and Tendencies inLater Years”), Wakatayu Wakamatsu’s interactions with Shoyo in 1924 on the subject of Fukusa ningyo(Yanagisawa’s “Wakatayu Wakamatsu’s 1924 Lettersto Shoyo”), and the relationship between Shoyo and Matsutaro Ishiwari as well as Ishiwari’s research on Ningyo joruri (Kojima’s “Matsutaro Ishiwari and Shoyo”).Detailed notes were added to 35 of the letters, which were published in Engeki kenkyu Vol. 42 (Matsuyama,Hamaguchi, and Yanagisawa’s “Letters to Shoyo Tsubouchi from Daigo Ikeda, Kagi Nishikawa, Shizu Oda,and Wakatayu Wakamatsu in Collection of Letters from Various People to Shoyo Tsubouchi 4”).
Shiko Tsubouchi materials
We created an inventory of 439 unsorted manuscriptsin Shiko’s own hand, which only covers the contents of one box out of twenty. Thirty-nine of these manuscripts were lecture plans from the late-Taisho period andshed further light on Shiko’s new theatre activities in the Taisho period and early-Showa period such as his involvement in the Gikyoku Kenkyukai and GeijutsuKyokai societies from 1921 to 1924 and in theTakarazuka Kokuminza theatre from 1926 to 1930.Until recently, this had rarely been examined due tolimited documentation. In lectures, Shiko discussed new forms of Japanese theatre in pursuit of a form of national theatre that would please the masses. In this regard, we issued a report (Mizuta’s “Records ofShiko Tsubouchi’s Lectures: Focusing on New Theatre Activities of the Late Taisho Period”) at a conference bythe team (Nov. 12, 2018, Building 6, Room 318).
A letter from Daigo Ikeda to Shoyo Tsubouchi, June 25, 1918(“On Meigetsu hachiman matsuri”)
Geijutsu Kyokai performanceflyer, April 1924, KobeShurakukan Theatre
Selected Research 1
Research on musicians and musical bands regardingKurihara’s musical score collection: music for stageand cinema during the early-Showa era
Principal Researcher
Masaaki Nakano (Affiliated Lecturer, School of Arts and Letters, Meiji University)
Collaborative Researchers
Midori Takeishi (Professor, Faculty of Music, Tokyo College of Music)
Makiko Kamiya (Visiting Researcher, National Film Center, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo)
Fumito Shirai (JSPS Research Fellow PD), Yohei Yamakami (Part-time Lecturer, Faculty of Music, TokyoUniversity of the Arts)
Masato Mori (Independent Researcher)
Purpose of research
Shigekazu Kurihara (1897-1983) was a musician active in the early-Showa period as a conductor andan arranger in Ken’ichi Enomoto’s band, ShochikuKinema’s performance department, and also the PCL(Photo Chemical Laboratory) film studio in the earlydays of talkies. This research project investigates and analyzes the Sheet Music Collection of Ken’ichi Enomoto’s Band/Shigekazu Kurihara (approximately 500 pieces),which is supposed to be a part of the entire original collection. Starting from a basic investigation of the sheet music materials available, this research project investigates and compares contemporary documents,related materials, and other sheet music collectionsin order to examine the creation and performances of contemporary theater troupes and movie theaters based on the activities of musicians and bands from the early-Showa period across a wide range of genres.
Research results
We have completed a general investigation of approximately 500 materials from the sheet music collection noted above, discovering that these materials comprise a detailed record of the collection and usage of imported musical pieces by Kurihara, who was activein Ken’ichi Enomoto’s band from the early-Showa period until after the war.
Cataloguing and investigation/analysis of an inventory of sheet music materials
Ultimately, we created an inventory of 494 piecesof sheet music from the collection, which is mostly comprised of imported musical pieces with a focus on jazz and includes a mixture of printed music and handwritten scores. The printed music is divided between published music that lists publication information and whose sellers are known (220 pieces), and printed music whose sales and distribution channels are unclear(approximately 150 pieces). We reviewed information such as the piece titles, composers’ names, lyricists’names, arrangers’ names, and publishers of the music,as well as the names of the theater troupe and the names of bands when available (e.g., Pierre Brillant/Ken’ichi Enomoto Ichiza and Toho Orchestra) as well as information such as shop names (e.g., Ogura InstrumentShop) and seals indicating ownership by Kuriharahimself or the Asakusa Shochikuza Theater, in the caseof hand-written scores on staff paper (approximately 80pieces). As a result of transcribing this information intoan inventory list and investigating it, we determined that it is highly likely that these materials are part of asystematically organized collection of sheet music that Kurihara collected and used from the 1930s until after the war.
On the provenance of the sheet music materials
In combination with our investigation of materials,such as the NHK (Japan’s national public broadcasting organization) television program “Nihon kigekijinden (1)- gendai seminar - Enoken to sono nakamatachi” (July 16,1990), it became clear that this sheet music collection was only a portion of 25 cardboard boxes of sheetmusic from the total collection given by Kurihara to jazzcritic Masahisa Segawa. Among the materials are pieces of sheet music ordered alphabetically with four-digithandwritten numbers. Many numbers in the four-digitsequence are missing, and it will be necessary to collectand investigate further materials from the collection inorder to obtain a more robust picture of what the entire collection contains.
An attempt to compare and apply image and sound sources
On August 20, 2018 we held a seminar at which Kurihara- and Enomoto-related SP recordings from the collection of research team member Masato Mori were analyzed. Then, at a public conference on January 30,2019, we held a symposium to discuss outlines of the investigation by the joint researchers and a research presentation on the activities of Enomoto, in which Shigekazu Kurihara was involved, such as plays, films,and revues. Jazz performer Kyoichi Watanabe and others held a reference performance based on Mori’sanalysis of the recordings, providing an opportunity to consider the concrete characteristics of the songs on the sheet music owned by Kurihara.
A-Tisket A-Tasket (Arrangement: Jack Mason, piano part, pages 2-4)
St. Louis Blues (Arranger unknown, hand-written part)
Selected Research 2
Understanding the Studio System in PostwarJapanese Cinema: Empirical Research on Nikkatsu Roman Porno
Principal Researcher
Michiko Usui (Associate Professor, Kanto Gakuin University)
Collaborative Researchers
Keisho Kihara (Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies,The University of Tokyo)
Marie Kono (Part-time Lecturer, Rikkyo University and Aoyama University)
Mio Hatokai (Doctoral Program, Waseda University, JSPS Research Fellow DC2)
Fujii (Professor,Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences)
Purpose of research
The adult “program picture” films labelled “Nikkatsu Roman Porno” were the last stand of the studio system;as such, they played an important role in the history of postwar Japanese cinema. By sorting Roman Porno presssheets held by the Theatre Museum and investigating their content, this joint research project examines from multiple angles the history of Nikkatsu, a film studiothat did everything from production to exhibition ofits films, with a focus on the Roman Porno period.Also, by focusing our research on press sheets, which have not been employed in previous academic studies even though they can help to clarify such aspects as distribution and exhibition, we aim to suggest new directions for film studies.
Research results
The existence of press sheets as materials related to advertising of film products is widely known,and in recent years there have been cases of presssheets assisting with the analysis of individual films.Conversely, many facets of the press sheets themselves remain unknown, such as the categories and details of the information they display and the methods by which they were employed in actual advertising; similarly, they have not been sufficiently investigated as a research theme. In this sense, the present investigation has a highdegree of significance in terms of illustrating the role of press sheets in the process of production, distribution,and exhibition of films, and in building a foundation for their application in film studies research. The two main achievements of the research project are described below.
Discovery of general information concerning the Nikkatsu Roman Porno press sheets held by the Theatre Museum
We sorted the Roman Porno press sheets held by the Theatre Museum which had previously remained unsorted, clarifying general information such as the actual number of sheets (955), their differences in size,changes in the number of sheets by year, and other criteria. We also digitized all the large-size sheets, which have high value as research materials; as such, we expect that these materials will be digitally displayed on museum terminals in the future.
Held a public conference entitled “Nikkatsu Roman Porno Interpreted Through Press Sheets”
Along with the research team’s report on sorting of materials and case studies using the press sheets(Part One), two former Nikkatsu employees involved inproduction and advertisement of Roman Porno (NaoyaNarita and Tomoko Saotome) were invited to give talks on the subject (Part Two). In the past, Roman Porno films were largely ignored, except when directed by acritically acclaimed “auteur.” On this occasion, however,by placing the focus on press sheet materials, were confirmed the important role played by advertising within the framework of the studio system during the period of Roman Porno.
Front of the press sheet for Nureta yokujo: hirake! Churippu(directed by Tatsumi Kumashiro, 1975)
Selected Research 3
The restoration of the Rissho Katsuei films based on multiple materials
The restoration of the Rissho Katsuei films based on multiple materials
Principal Researcher
Manabu Ueda (Associate Professor, Faculty of Humanities, Kobe Gakuin University)
Collaborative Researchers
Susanne Schermann (Professor, School of Law, Meiji University)
Roland Domenig (Associate Professor, Faculty of Letters, Meiji Gakuin University)
Fumiaki Itakura (AssociateProfessor, Graduate School of Intercultural Studies Department of Cultural-Interaction, Kobe University)
Chie Niita (Adjunct Researcher, Waseda University Theatre Museum)
Kazuto Kondo (JSPS ResearchFellow PD)
Purpose of research
This research project sought to present and environmentally restore films made by the RisshoKatsuei Film Company using related but non-filmmaterials held by the Waseda University Theatre Museum. In collaboration with Shozo Makino’s film production company, Makino Kyoiku Eiga, RisshoKatsuei was a film production company that made religious films from the late-Taisho period to the early-Showa period, but the course they charted in the history of cinema is nearly unknown. Because Rissho Katsueiwas a small production company, extant materials areextremely limited, and due to restoration issues, it isessential to carry out research using multiple materials.
Research results
First, at the Kobe Discovery Film Festival in 2018, we screened digital materials from one of the two extantrolls of Nabekaburi Nisshin as part of “Discovery and Research: Religion and Film” (Oct. 26, 2018, Kobe PlanetFilm Archive). In addition, Ueda discussed MakinoKyoiku Eiga and Rissho Katsuei, and Yulia Burenina(collaborator) discussed the Nichiren Buddhism of thattime period. Also, based on the screenplay of Nabekaburi Nisshin (written by Saku Senoo), the original intertitles of the first film roll were collected and distributed to theattendees. The task of re-writing the intertitles based onthe screenplay, including the missing portions, remains in progress so far in 2019. Next year, the intertitles will be applied to creating restored footage that incorporates still photographs.
Second, a joint investigation of Rissho Katsuei materials was undertaken. While selecting the materials to be digitized this year, we conducted an analysis of those materials to understand the production and the exhibition. There were 29 materials found related tothe film Nichiren that made up the core of the RisshoKatsuei materials, though the joint investigation was unable to create a film despite extensive backing of Nichiren-adherent Buddhists; however, the materials found (including an unused screenplay by YoshitakeHisa) did clarify their importance as a means to understand the background and processes of religious film production.
In connection with the publicly selected research projects of 2018 and prior, we held an international symposium titled “Between Ideology and Show Business:Colonial/Imperial Movie Theaters and Film Culture”(Nov. 3, 2018, Korean Film Archive). To publicize resultson joint research themes, the team members delivered the following research presentations: Ueda, “Manchurian Movie Theaters and Screening Tours”; Kondo,“‘Movie Theaters at War’: Off-screen at Wartime”; Niita,“Modernization of Japanese Movie Theaters after the Great Kanto Earthquake”; Itakura, “Censorship of Korean Films by the Ministry of Home Affairs in Imperial Japan”; and Chung (collaborator), “Between Ideology and Exhibition: Movie Theaters in Seoul from the Mid-1930s to the Early 1940s.” In addition, Roland Domenig servedas a discussant concerning the wartime film industry/policies.
A Manuscript of Nichiren (Honan hen) by Yoshitake Hisa
A Poster of Nabekaburi Nisshin
Selected research 4
Visual depictions of Chinese theater and the Taisho period in Japan: focusing on Nobuyo Fukuchi’s Shina no Shibai Sukecchi-cho
Principal Researcher
Norikazu Hirabayashi (Professor, Faculty of Political Science and Economics,Waseda University)
Collaborative Researchers
Yuan
Yingming (Professor, College of Performing and Visual Arts, ObirinUniversity)
Yoko Tamura (Professor, Faculty of Literature, Kinjo Gakuin University)
Li Liwei (AssociateProfessor, South China Normal University)
Tong Wancheng(full-time Lecturer, College of humanities,Guangzhou University)
Purpose of research
The core of this research project, “Visual Depictionsof Chinese Theater and Taisho Period Japan: Focusing on Nobuyo Fukuchi’s Shina no Shibai Sukecchi-cho,”is an investigation of Nobuyo Fukuchi’s Shina no shibai sukecchi-cho, which is a sketchbook of Chineseplays held by the Theatre Museum. It emphasizes the relationship between Chinese theater and Japan during the Taisho period, when Mei Lanfang gave two performances (1919, 1924). This research is based mainly on visual materials, with the purpose of shedding light on one facet of the period.
Research results
Research activities in 2018 included the three areaslisted below, as are the results either already obtainedor those that are expected to be obtained.
(1)Investigation work on Nobuyo Fukuchi’s Shina noshibai sukecchi-cho
Prior to the initiation of the research project, the Theatre Museum had already put all materials related to the sketchbook into a database, and the text written in each sketch had been fully reprinted. As part of research activities beginning in 2018, the reprinted content was referenced against materials such as performance advertisements in contemporary periodicals such as Shuntian shibao, Chenbao, and Shenbao, and an investigation was conducted to determine the extent to which the content was accurate. These contemporary materials provided support for particular details of plays that Fukuchi witnessed at the time.
(2)Study of Nobuyo Fukuchi
In addition to drawing the sketchbook in China,Fukuchi actively supported the 1919 Japanese performance by Mei Lanfang, and adapted the Kun opera Sifan, which was often performed during that period by Mei Lanfang, transforming it into a symbolic work of new dance (Shin-buyo). With regard to the new dance version of Sifan, research team member Li Liweigave a Chinese language research report titled “The Transmission and Reception of Sifan in Japan: With a Secondary Emphasis on the Influence of the Japanese Performances of Mei Lanfang.” Studies using materialsheld by the museum other than the sketchbook clarified details concerning the creation of the new dance version of Sifan for the first time.
Together with the Shanghai Kun Opera Troupe, which visited Japan in October 2018, we hosted a lectureand performance called “100 Years of Kun Opera andJapan,” featuring a special performance of Qintiao by the troupe, which was part of the original 1919 performance, to aid attendees’ understanding of the Chinese plays Fukuchi attended around that time.
(3) Study of Taisho period visual materials on Chinese theater
When Nobuyo Fukuchi drew the sketchbook, a large quantity of visual materials that also depicted Chinese theater, such as sketches, paintings, photographs, and carvings, was in circulation. With regard to such aspects of the contemporary cultural environment within which Fukuchi drew the sketchbook, research team members Yuan Yingming, Takashi Sasaki, Li Liwei, and NorikazuHirabayashi will each present results at the Academic Symposium to Commemorate the 100th Anniversary of Mei Lanfang’s Japanese Performance, which will be held in Beijing on Jan. 26, 2019.
Fukuchi, Nobuyo,“ Mei Lanfang’s‘ Guifei zui jiu,’”Shina no shibai sukecchi-cho