Collectors and academics

[Peter B. High]

   "amnornes at umich.edu (Abe-Nornes)"?????????

amnornes> Makino Mamoru is simply extraordinary. 

I can't seem to find the thread which inspires Markus' encomium to Makino, but I must 
say I share every bit of Marcus' enthusiasm for this rare and wonderful "ultimate 
otaku-scholar=gentleman." Every time I get together with him we seem to get caught 
into a vortext-like conversation, challenging various elements of established film 
history "wisdom" and/or building our own theses with youthful fervor. For those of us 
with deep interests allied to his--including Marcus, Aaron, myself and many others, 
I'm sure--his presence tends to hover in the background of our work... as the source 
of a notion, often as the source of some all-important document, and very often as the 
voice of conscience ("but how do you account for...?").

 I'm not sure whether Markus knows this, but recently Makino Mamoru's diabetes has   
taken a turn somewhat for the worse and he was hospitalized for several weeks 
(although he managed to slip away--very much against doctor's orders--to do the second 
part of a seminar series on pre-war Japanese film at Kawasaki Shimin Museum where he 
is film curator). When I talked to him on the phone soon after his release from the 
hospital, he told me he was  going to confine his activities to the area around his 
home because he wasn't confident of himself on trains as yet. That seemed to make 
sense. Then, in almost the next breath, he announced he was off to a remote-sounding 
corner of northern Manchurian in July on a fact-finding excursion related to the last 
months of Man'ei!
Although the man is about eighteen years my senior, he has the zeal and psychic energy 
of one twenty years my junior!
May he be well and remain among us for another twenty or thirty years!
Peter B. High
Nagoya University 

--
Peter B. High
j45843a at nucc.cc.nagoya-u.ac.jp