<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><DIV><B>An addendum to my last message. </B></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><SPAN class="Apple-style-span">Today I received email from a Waseda student who spent the last <I>month</I> packing boxes of books with Makino Mamoru. He tells me they pretty much sent away everything this week. They are enjoying the spring breeze running through an "empty" house for the first time in decades. And the family is, indeed, happy to have their home back! </SPAN></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Now we just have to wait.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Markus</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><BR><DIV><DIV>On Mar 17, 2007, at 10:33 AM, Mark Nornes wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite">Googling around the internet, I stumbled on the following link:<DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><A href="http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/news/libraries/2006/2006-09-19.makino.html">http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/news/libraries/2006/2006-09-19.makino.html</A></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>I didn't realize that they had announced this publicly, but have seen this sale in the works for something like a decade. Makino tried hard to find a buyer in Japan, but the libraries and archives there only wanted bits and pieces. However, like all collectors, he wanted it all in one pot—with his name attached. A few deals came close, but collapsed. In the end, he got his wish thanks to Columbia. </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Although most people wanted to see the collection remain in Japan, Makino himself liked the idea of planting the it in a foreign land as a way of stimulating the study of Japanese cinema outside of the country. I have to agree with James Schamus, who's quoted as saying, <FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana">“Under Columbia’s care, the Makino Mamoru archive will no doubt become the springboard for entirely new ways of understanding the history of Japanese cinema and twentieth century culture. For film scholars and movie enthusiasts, the bringing to light of this archive is something akin to the discovery of a new galaxy.”</FONT></DIV><DIV><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana"><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></FONT></DIV><DIV><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana">Having had the privilege of rummaging around Makino's oshiire-like rooms, I can confidently say the collection is less like Fibber Magee's closet and more like Doraemon's Dokodemo Door. This is a remarkably rich archive, and it is going to enable countless new avenues of study. While it's nothing like the archive for American cinema, it will certainly rival that of most national cinemas out there. The good thing about the move to America is that it will be extremely easy to access. When Makino started making noise about selling the collection, even the people who wanted the collection to stay in Japan were worried that it would end up in a library that would make it impossible to use. We can only hope that Columbia moves it swiftly through cataloguing, which will be a ridiculously complicated task. </FONT></DIV><DIV><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana"><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></FONT></DIV><DIV><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana">Makino's family will be so, so happy to have their home back.</FONT></DIV><DIV><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana"><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></FONT></DIV><DIV><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana">Markus</FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR></BODY></HTML>