Tsutomu or Takeshi (E+J)

[Michael McCaskey]

Dear Colleagues,

A book I have at home and which is on my desk as I write, Nihon no shinario sakkatachi 日本のシナリオ作家たち、Japanese Scenario Writers, by Tayama Rikiya 田山力哉、pub. ダヴィッド社　1978, p. 183, at the start of an essay on this very writer, puts the furigana tsutomu つとむ alongside the third character of his name in kanji 田村孟. The author appears to have known Tamura, and makes a point of putting in this yomi, so Tsutomu seems likely to be Tamura's own choice.

I am a professor of Japanese lang., lit., & culture at Georgetown Univ. who teaches a course on Japanese films (mostly made from 1990 on) and their literary connections. I was born in and partly grew up in Japan, and I saw a lot of classic Japanese films along the way, when they were not yet classics. With the advent of DVD's and region-free players, I can now study old classics, as well as very new films obtained direct from Japan, and this has become one of my main research interests--almost an addiction.

I have followed this list for some time now, have enjoyed it and learned a lot from it, but felt guilty for not self-introducing and not contributing. Prof. Gerow's inquiry has now given me a chance to make up for this.

Michael McCaskey
Georgetown University

----- Original Message -----
From: Aaron Gerow <gerowaaron at sbcglobal.net>
Date: Thursday, July 1, 2004 10:23 am
Subject: Tsutomu or Takeshi (E+J)

> Just a simple question: Which is the correct reading for the name 
> of 
> the screenwriter for many of Oshima's and Shinoda's films, Tamura 
> Tsutomu or Tamura Takeshi (in Japanese ???)?
> 
> The Japanese Diet Library gives Tsutomu, the KineJun database 
> Takeshi. 
> The Japan Writers Guild gives Tsutomu, but many English texts give 
> Takeshi. The IMDb has both readings existing as if they are 
> different 
> people.
> 
> I would tend to side with Tsutomu since the Diet Library is the 
> principal authority on name readings and since Tamura was a 
> prominent 
> member of the Writers Guild. But I was wondering if anyone out 
> there 
> has confronted this problem before and can tell us the Answer.
> 
> Aaron Gerow
> Film Studies and East Asian Languages and Literatures
> Yale University
> 
>