Japanese women filmmakers

[Abe-Nornes]

Here is an encyclopedia article I wrote for the upcoming Encyclopedia of
Postwar Japan (S. Buckley ed.). I suspect the editors wanted an article on
directors, but I tried to recognize a variety of roles (outside of acting)
that women have been important contributors to. I hope it gets you thinking
outside of the rubric of auteur approaches that exclude everything besides
the feature film director. ---Markus

Women in Japanese Film
Outside of acting, the Japanese film world is notoriously closed to women.
The few women who establish professional careers in film usually have
complicated---even antagonistic---relationships to feminism, even while
embodying its ideals of independence and self-expression. Nowhere are the
problems of breaking into the industry more clear than in directing. The
standard reference book for directors lists only 23 women amongst its 1,000
entries. The female feature film directors generally established themselves
as stars first, most notably Tanaka Kinuyo, Kurisaki Midori, and Hidari
Sachiko. However, most women direct within the documentary and avant-garde,
where independence allows a measure of freedom. Two pioneers whose careers
straddle 1945 were Sakane Tazuko (Japan's first female director) and Atsugi
Taka (one of the most important screenwriters and theorists of documentary,
and a key leader in the postwar women's movement). Other important
directors include documentarists Haneda Sumiko and Tokieda Toshie, and
video artist Idemitsu Mako. 

        Other fields of filmmaking where women have made their presence
felt include screenwriting (Sakane, Wada Natto) and foreign-film subtitling
(Kamishima Kimi, Toda Natsuko), professions that carry considerable
prestige in Japanese cinema. 

In the 1980s and 1990s women have made decisive contributions to the
national cinema through programming and distribution, where they play a
critical role in opening exhibition routes to women artists struggling
outside of the mainstream industry.* It was through these channels that
Japan's youngest woman director, Sento (Kawase) Naomi, rose from Super-8
experimental films to completion of a prize-winning feature film at Cannes
in 1997.

Abe' Mark Nornes

* These are important, background contributors to the Japanese film scene,
and include people like Tomiyama Katsue (Image Forum), Nakano Rie
(Pandora), Araki Keiko (Pia FF), and Ono Seiko and KineJapan member Fujioka
Asako (both at Yamagata Documentary FF). 

As for print sources, I'm sure that the major feature filmmakers are being
distributed by the Japan Foundation (in which case, you make a list of the
films you want and inquire if they've got them). JF definitely has films by
Tokieda and Haneda Sumiko (although beware their print of her later films
on Alzheimers, which has terrible British dubbing). Idemitsu is distributed
by either Women Make Movies or Video Databank, I forget which. JF also has
one tape of hers, along with some other women video artists, in their set
of 1980s video art. Sakane might be impossible; I haven't heard of prints
outside of the Film Center. You could contact Yasui Yoshio at Planet Film
Library in Osaka for finding prints of Atsugi Taka's work.