Dear Kinejapaners,<div><br></div><div>Those of you who have approached Nakai Masakazu's theory may know that he often seemed reluctant to fully quote his sources. The realm of his interests is actually known, more or less, and can be linked, for instance, and besides other japanese fellows who were his contemporaries, to german thinkers from the end of 19th century to the beginnig of the 20th. </div>
<div>Nonetheless, when reading Nakai's "Introduction to Aesthetics" (Bigaku nyûmon), it may be far from easy to locate his sources. In the chapter "Eiga ni kûkan", Nakai talks about the pyramid of Egypt, and the "fear of space" they symbolize : this idea actually was borrowed from " one critic" (p. 298 in the Iwanami Bunko edition), but who that critic is, that's something I wouldn't know. </div>
<div>Being something as a detail of small significance, where he took that idea may seem of minor importance, but I have the feeling that knowing the name of that very "critic" may help to rebuild a little further Nakai's network of influences, thus, to evaluate what was the novelty of his thinking in the field of "iconology", and then, in the theory of cinema. </div>
<div>I tried to find the answer in Takahashi Naoyuki's "Nakai Masakazu to sono jidai", but wasn't lucky enough. I have been searching until now around Burckhardt and his followers too, such as Wölfflin, for Nakai's theory seems close to the idea of "Zeitgeist" ; around Panofsky's iconology also, after Warburg, and Cassirer. Anyway, I couldn't find yet the proper quotation... </div>
<div>Would someone know the answer ? Many thanks.</div><div><br></div><div>Mathieu Capel</div><div>Paris</div><div><br><br>
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