Makino Collection Finds a New Home

[Mark Nornes]

An addendum to my last message.

Today I received email from a Waseda student who spent the last month  
packing boxes of books with Makino Mamoru. He tells me they pretty  
much sent away everything this week. They are enjoying the spring  
breeze running through an "empty" house for the first time in  
decades. And the family is, indeed, happy to have their home back!

Now we just have to wait.

Markus



On Mar 17, 2007, at 10:33 AM, Mark Nornes wrote:

> Googling around the internet, I stumbled on the following link:
>
> http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/news/libraries/ 
> 2006/2006-09-19.makino.html
>
> I didn't realize that they had announced this publicly, but have  
> seen this sale in the works for something like a decade. Makino  
> tried hard to find a buyer in Japan, but the libraries and archives  
> there only wanted bits and pieces. However, like all collectors, he  
> wanted it all in one pot—with his name attached. A few deals came  
> close, but collapsed. In the end, he got his wish thanks to Columbia.
>
> Although most people wanted to see the collection remain in Japan,  
> Makino himself liked the idea of planting the it in a foreign land  
> as a way of stimulating the study of Japanese cinema outside of the  
> country. I have to agree with James Schamus, who's quoted as  
> saying, “Under Columbia’s care, the Makino Mamoru archive will no  
> doubt become the springboard for entirely new ways of understanding  
> the history of Japanese cinema and twentieth century culture. For  
> film scholars and movie enthusiasts, the bringing to light of this  
> archive is something akin to the discovery of a new galaxy.”
>
> Having had the privilege of rummaging around Makino's oshiire-like  
> rooms, I can confidently say the collection is less like Fibber  
> Magee's closet and more like Doraemon's Dokodemo Door. This is a  
> remarkably rich archive, and it is going to enable countless new  
> avenues of study. While it's nothing like the archive for American  
> cinema, it will certainly rival that of most national cinemas out  
> there. The good thing about the move to America is that it will be  
> extremely easy to access. When Makino started making noise about  
> selling the collection, even the people who wanted the collection  
> to stay in Japan were worried that it would end up in a library  
> that would make it impossible to use. We can only hope that  
> Columbia moves it swiftly through cataloguing, which will be a  
> ridiculously complicated task.
>
> Makino's family will be so, so happy to have their home back.
>
> Markus

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