Momijigari(film)
| Momijigari | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Shibata Tsunekichi |
| Starring | Onoe Kikugorō V,Ichikawa Danjūrō IX |
Release date |
|
Running time | 3 min. 50 sec. (at 16 fps) |
| Country | Japan |
Momijigari(Hồng diệp thú,a.k.a.Viewing Scarlet Maple Leaves,Maple Leaf Viewing,orMaple Viewing)is a Japanese film shot in 1899 byShibata Tsunekichi.It is a record of thekabukiactorsOnoe Kikugorō VandIchikawa Danjūrō IXperforming a scene from the kabuki playMomijigari.It is the oldest extant Japanese film and the first film to be designated anImportant Cultural Property.
Film content
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The film features the scene in whichTaira no KoremochidefeatsMomiji,akijowho has disguised herself as Princess Sarashina.
Production and exhibition
[edit]Momijigariwas planned primarily as a record of the performance of the two famous actors.[1]Shibata, who worked for the Konishi Photographic Store, shot it using aGaumontcamera.[2]It was filmed in November 1899 in an open space behind theKabuki-zainTokyo,with Shibata using three reels of film.[3]It was a windy day, however, and a gust blew away one of Danjūrō's fans, a mishap that remained in the film since retakes were not possible.[4]
Since the film was meant only as a record, it was not initially shown publicly. Danjūrō only saw it himself a year after it was filmed.[3]There was an agreement that it would not be screened for the public until after Danjūrō's death, but when he fell ill and could not appear at a performance at theNaka-zainOsaka,it was screened in his place.[3][5]It ran from 7 July to 1 August 1903, a long run spurred in part by the fact that Kikugorō had recently died.[3]Danjūrō himself died in September 1903, and the film showed at the Kabuki-za after that, for one week starting on 9 February 1904.[3]
Legacy
[edit]Barring the discovery of another film,Momijigariis the oldest Japanese-made film for which a print still exists.[6]Kabuki actorOnoe Baiko VIstated on his bookUme No Shita Kazethat a test movie of the dance dramaNinjin Dojo-ji,starring himself and fellow actor Ichimura Kakitsu VI (laterIchimura Uzaemon XV), was shot months before but it probably got lost before 1912. It is also an early example of the kind of "kabuki cinema" that would become prominent in the first decades of the Japanese film industry, in which films were often records of or attempts to reproduce kabuki theater.[7]According to the film historian Hiroshi Komatsu, it is also an example of how the distinction between fiction and non-fiction cinema was not yet an issue at the time, since the film was both a documentary of a stage performance and a presentation of a fictional story.[1]
In 2009,Momijigaribecame the first film to be designated anImportant Cultural Propertyunder Japan's Law for the Protection for Cultural Properties.[8]What has specifically received that designation is a dupe negative 35mm celluloid print of the film that is 352 feet in length, which if projected at 16 frames per second would be 3 minutes and 50 seconds long.[9]The film historianAaron Gerow,however, has speculated that the film received this designation less because it was an example of the legacy of Japanese film art than because it was a historical document.[10]The print is preserved at theNational Film Center of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.[11]
References
[edit]- ^abKomatsu, Hiroshi (31 July 1995)."Questions Regarding the Genesis of Nonfiction Film".Documentary Box(5). Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival.
- ^Komatsu, Hiroshi (2005)."Konishi Photographic Store".In Abel, Richard (ed.).Encyclopedia of Early Cinema.Routledge. p. 363.ISBN0415234409.
- ^abcdeTanaka, Jun'ichirō (1975).Nihon eiga hattatsushi(in Japanese). Tokyo: Chūō Kōronsha. pp. I: 78–83.
- ^Richie, Donald(2005).A hundred years of Japanese film: a concise history(revised ed.). Tokyo: Kodansha International. p. 18.ISBN9784770029959.
- ^McDonald, Keiko I. (1994).Japanese classical theater in films.Rutherford: Fairleigh Dickinson Univ. Press. p. 39.ISBN9780838635025.
- ^Irie, Yoshiro (2009)."Saiko no Nihon eiga ni tsuite"(PDF).Tōkyō Kokuritsu Kindai Bijutsukan Kenkyū Kiyō(in Japanese) (13). National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo: 67.ISSN0914-7489.Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 19 January 2013.Retrieved9 December2014.
- ^Komatsu, Hiroshi (1992). "Some Characteristics of Japanese Cinema before World War I". In Noletti, Arthur Jr.; Desser, David (eds.).Reframing Japanese Cinema.Indiana University Press. pp.234–236.ISBN0253207231.
- ^"Eiga firumu no jūyō bunkazai shitei"(in Japanese). National Film Center, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.Retrieved9 December2014.
- ^"Eiga firumu Momijigari".Cultural Heritage Online(in Japanese). Agency for Cultural Affairs.Retrieved9 December2014.
- ^Gerow, Aaron."Film as an Important Cultural Property".Tangemania.Retrieved10 December2014.
- ^"Hakkutsu sareta eigatachi 2009"(in Japanese). National Film Center, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.Retrieved10 December2014.
Further reading
[edit]- Da Silva, Joaquín (31 July 2014)."Chronology of Japanese Cinema: 28 November 1899".EigaNove.