living national film treasures ?
Jonathan M. Hall
jmhall at uci.edu
Mon Jun 23 22:36:00 EDT 2008
Dear KineJapanners.
Earlier in the year, I had the good fortune again to attend a
katsuben performance by Sawato Midori in Monzen-nakacho, Tokyo. The
main feature was von Stronheim's Foolish Wives. After the
performance, the crowd surged up against Sawato-san and one man
exclaimed excitedly that Sawato should be covered by the Washington
Convention (... presumedly because she is an endangered species.)
This suggestion made me think of Ningen kokuho, or the Japanese
system of Living National Treasures. Leaving aside the question of
whether Sawato is a living national treasure (I personally think she
is ...), I began to wonder if there ever was a movement to include
more contemporary arts within the category of National Treasures and
nominate a Japanese director for the honor of Ningen Kokuho. I
suspect Kurosawa would have been the most likely candidate, given the
late recognition of film arts and his longevity. As we know, he was
not so nominated, but I wonder if anyone is aware of an effort to
broaden the categories ...
Jonathan
----
Jonathan M. Hall
Japanese Film, Media, and Modern Literature
Visiting Assistant Professor (Spring 2008)
East Asian Languages & Cultures
UC Berkeley
Assistant Professor, Comparative Literature / Film & Media Studies
320 Humanities Instructional Building
UC Irvine, Irvine CA 92697-2651 USA
office: 1-949-824-9778
fax: 1-949-824-1992
Co-Chair, Caucus Coordinating Committee, Society for Cinema and Media
Studies
Co-Chair, Queer Caucus, Society for Cinema and Media Studies
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