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Does anyone know the circumstances surrounding the discovery of Kon
Ichikawa's long lost puppet film Musume Dojoji? I have been working on
a review of it for my <a href="http://nishikataeiga.blogspot.com/">blog</a>,
but have not been able to find out how the film was rediscovered. The
film is historically very significant as Ichikawa's first live action
film (it's marionettes with a short animated special effects sequence)
and the cinematography is spectacular. <br>
<br>
When Cinematheque Ontario published its monograph on Kon Ichikawa in
2001, the film was still considered lost and not even Ichikawa himself
knew what had become of it. The complete film, in near mint condition
surfaced on Kadogawa Pictures' DVD <a
href="http://www.yesasia.com/us/style-of-%E5%B8%82%E5%B7%9D%E5%B4%91-art-cm-animation-dvd-%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E7%89%88/1011885495-0-0-0-zh_TW/info.html">Style
of Ichikawa Kon: Art + CM + Animation</a> released in 2008. The
accompanying booklet includes the complete storyboard that Ichikawa
drew up with Hasebe (and kept in his own possessions), but there is no
explanation as to where the film had been hiding for half a century. <br>
<br>
Rumour had it that it had been confiscated by GHQ, but I suspect that
the truth is much more mundane and that it has just been collecting
dust on Toho's shelves all these years. An English subtitled version
of it surfaced on youtube last year and was quickly taken down due to a
copyright claim by Toho. <br>
<br>
Does anyone know how it was rediscovered? I would also be interested
to know if Kon Ichikawa found out that the film survived before he
passed away. He died in February 2008, and the DVD was released in
November.<br>
<br>
Sincerely,<br>
Cathy Munroe Hotes<br>
<a href="http://nishikataeiga.blogspot.com/">Nishikata Film Review</a><br>
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