A Hundred Years of Japanese Film – Chapter 1 Detailed Study Notes

Opening Context & Thematic Epigraph

  • Quote from novelist Nagai Kafu (in 1937 novel A Strange Tale from East of the River): reflects bewilderment at the speed with which motion pictures entered everyday Japanese conversation.

    • Significance:

    • Illustrates generational and cultural shift provoked by cinema.

    • Serves as a time-capsule of early public perception.

First Appearances of Motion Pictures in Japan (1897–1899)

  • Technological introductions

    • Cinématographe Lumière  Osaka debut in 1897.

    • Thomas Edison’s Vitascope  shown in Osaka, quickly reaches Tokyo.

  • First native camera

    • Imported by photographer Asano Shirō (Konishi Camera Shop, 1897).

    • Immediately shoots Tokyo street scenes.

  • Corporate engagement

    • Mitsukoshi Dept. Store opens photography section.

    • Cameramen Shibata Tsunekichi & Shirai Kanzō film Ginza district and geisha.

  • Early subjects & commercial logic

    • By early 1899 cameras focus on geisha dances.

    • Geisha postcards were the photographic best-sellers ➔ guaranteed audience demand ➔ justified cinematic investment.

  • First production company initiative

    • Komada Kōyō forms “Association of Japanese Motion Pictures” mid-1899.

    • Programs of geisha dances screened at the Tokyo Kabuki-za despite inflated admission.

Filming Kabuki & Technical Firsts (Late 1899)

  • Shibata films Armed Robber: Shimizu Sadakichi (first dramatized scene).

  • Filming of kabuki excerpts:

    • Maple Viewing (Momijigari) (1899) – survives today; contains accidental “flying fan” caused by wind, later praised for charm.

    • Ninin Dōjōji – first tinted Japanese film (Yoshizawa Company).

  • Actor Ichikawa Danjūrō IX initially rejects film as “vulgar amusement” but capitulates when promised posterity.

Birth, Function & Longevity of the Benshi

  • Definition: live narrator/lecturer providing explanation, voices, commentary during silent-film screening.

  • Timeline

    • Common worldwide at dawn of cinema.

    • Fades in U.S. by 1910, yet continues in Japan until challenged in 1932; effectively ended by Josef von Sternberg’s talkie Morocco (early 1930).

  • Reasons for endurance

    1. Limited Japanese exposure to West (<40 yrs since Meiji “opening”) ➔ benshi fills knowledge gaps.

    2. Offers a “reassuring native presence.”

    3. Performs connective tissue between short, unrelated clips.

    4. Extends program length via commentary & tasuke (continuous-loop repetition).

  • Examples of repetition

    • Tanizaki Jun’ichirō recalls repeated surf/dog scene (1898 viewing).

    • Edison May Irwin/John Rice Kiss (1896): looped into \approx 12 kisses; commentator Ueda Hoteikan averts censorship by framing as Western custom.

  • Narrative consequences

    • Benshi provides stories, moralizing conclusions, and “over-determined” repetition  constitutive of meaning for Japanese audiences.

    • Arguably delayed adoption of self-contained cinematic narrative—but also fostered a distinctive, commentary-centered film culture.

Traditional Roots of the Narrating Voice

  • Japanese pre-modern theatre always employs an informative voice:

    • Noh chorus, bunraku jōruri chanter, kabuki gidayū.

  • Film therefore assimilates to theatrical model:

    • Early technique kagezerifu (“shadow dialogue”) – actors speak lines behind screen.

    • Rensageki (“joined drama”) – alternates live scenes with filmed ones; actors voice roles from backstage.

    • Kowairo (“voice coloring”) – benshi uses multiple vocal personas; e.g., Tsuchiya Shōju deploys “seven distinct voices” in The Golden Demon (1912).

Benshi Culture & Wider Roles

  • Style variations:

    • Historical films ⇒ inflated, nasal delivery.

    • Contemporary life ⇒ colloquial.

    • Foreign pictures ⇒ sententious, didactic.

  • Shared performances & contests; some benshi become draw bigger than films themselves.

  • Audio recordings made—e.g., narration of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919) sold on 78 rpm without images.

  • Censorship utility

    • French Pathé film on French Revolution re-voiced into The Cave King (1908) shifting story to “Rocky Mountains,” making monarchy-toppling content acceptable.

Cinematic Form Shaped by Benshi Preferences

  • Favored simple, episodic stories that showcase their narration skills.

  • Encouraged each scene to behave as self-contained drama (mise-en-scène): no pressure for visual continuity across scenes.

  • Legacy persists: modern Japanese TV dramas rely heavily on voice-over recaps (Joseph Anderson anecdote—can follow plot from another room).

Film, Theatre & Audience Etiquette

  • Japanese public treated cinema as new theater form, not mere photography.

  • Viewing customs (still prevalent):

    • Arrive at program start, stay through credits; minimal mid-show movement.

    • Watch in silence (paralleling Western live-theatre decorum, not chatter of some cinemas elsewhere).

  • Early content mapped onto two theatrical genres:

    1. Kyūha (old-school) = kabuki-based  becomes jidaigeki/jidaimono (period-film).

    2. Shimpa (new-school, ca. 1890) = modern, colloquial dramas  germ of gendaigeki (contemporary-film).

  • Technical staging

    • Camera locked in frontal position ≈30 ft from actors; curtain between scenes (Konishi Ryō’s Chūshingura, 1907).

    • Director Chiba Kichizō suspends curtain on beach for My Sin (1909) to literalize proscenium within film frame.

Rise of the Star System & Director Makino Shōzō

  • Audience needed visual focal point because benshi voice not tied to specific screen figure.

  • Onoe Matsunosuke

    • Discovered by Makino; premier “tachimawari” (kabuki sword-fight) star.

    • Headliner of Goban Tadanobu (1909) and later Sukeroku (1914).

    • Output: > hundreds of films (≈ 9 per month) until death on set in 1926.

    • Pop-culture stature: ranked 2nd “greatest man” among schoolchildren (Emperor 1st; a famed benshi 3rd).

  • Production practice: no scripts; Makino shouts lines during filming (akin to bunraku chanter).

  • Legacy

    • Nearly 6000 jidaigeki produced 1908–1945; TV descendants continue today.

    • Audience comprehension often derived solely from star’s presence + benshi narration.

Western Concepts of Realism vs. Japanese Presentational Aesthetics

  • Japanese arts prize mediated presentation:

    • Gardens, ikebana, theatre—reality shaped, voiced, or arranged.

  • Western representational realism (photography-based) foreign to Japan.

    • Hence early Japanese film comfortable with “stagy artificiality.”

    • Documentary/newsreel realism adopted slowly; Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905) newsreels initiate shift.

  • Fakery tolerated & enjoyed (flags, bands, narration in “news” screenings);

    • Pathé/Urban actualities mixed with staged shots; authenticity claims accepted as entertainment.

  • Contrast with West: U.S. distribution blocked fake San Francisco Earthquake footage (1906) ➔ demonstrates higher premium on factual realism.

  • War drama Yamato zakura (1909) displays studio lot ridge, firecracker “explosions” – theatricality prioritized over fidelity.

Emerging Pressures for Realistic/Narrative Complexity

  • Audience fatigue with static kabuki/shimpa films by ≈1910.

    • Sato Tadao: “Japanese films were rubbish compared to foreign films; patrons were basically kids.”

  • Shingeki (Western-style proscenium theatre) introduces realism in acting/literary naturalism.

  • Rising import of foreign films (especially American) provides models of sophisticated narration & editing.

Influx of Western Films & Their Influence (1915–late 1920s)

  • Universal opens Tokyo branch, brings Bluebird Photoplays (hour-long features).

    • Features: location scenery, determined heroines, sentiment, urban–rural tension.

    • Technical novelties: shorter scenes, multi-angle coverage, close-ups.

    • Benshi adapt by becoming lyrical rather than didactic (e.g., Southern Justice finale “Stars strewn across the sky…”)

  • Landmark foreign titles embraced by future Japanese auteurs:

    • D. W. Griffith’s Intolerance (1916) ➔ industry sensation.

    • Akira Kurosawa watches > 100 foreign films 1919–1929; influenced by Chaplin, Griffith, William S. Hart.

    • Repeatedly imitated American films (per Sato): Lubitsch’s The Marriage Circle (1924), Murnau’s Sunrise (1927), Borzage’s Seventh Heaven (1927), Capra’s Lady for a Day (1933).

Adoption of Scenarios & Narrative Planning

  • Makino realizes necessity of scripts after studying foreign films.

    • Original Chūshingura (1912) shot from mere 45-item scene list.

    • 1917 remake employs full scenario, matching cuts, reframing pans: prioritizes “Story ➔ Clear Picture ➔ Action.”

  • Wider trend: shift from postcard-like scene assemblage to causally linked sequences.

    • Moves control of meaning from benshi to filmmaker.

    • Aligns Japanese practice with Sontag’s dictum: “only that which narrates can make us understand.”

Continuing Ethical, Philosophical & Practical Implications

  • Persistence of authoritative voice (benshi/narration) highlights cultural comfort with guided interpretation vs. Western valorization of viewer autonomy.

  • Flexibility toward staged “reality” reflects pragmatic, entertainment-first ethos rather than moral panic over authenticity.

  • The eventual tension between presentational tradition and imported representational realism seeds creative hybridity that will characterize later Japanese cinema (e.g., Ozu’s mix of static framing & narrative subtlety, Kurosawa’s fusion of kabuki dynamism with Hollywood pacing).