New Publication

[bew]

Research Guide to Japanese Film Studies

by Abe Mark Nornes and Aaron Gerow

Michigan Monograph Series in Japanese Studies, No. 65
viii + 197 pp., 2009
ISBN 978-1-929280-53-X, cloth, $60.00
ISBN 978-1-929280-54-4, paper, $25.00
Published by the Center for Japanese Studies, The University of Michigan

"In its field I cannot imagine a research guide more needed. For whole  
decades scholars have struggled simply to locate sources, even to find  
out what there were. Now, however, the skill and stamina of Nornes and  
Gerow have resulted in a reference work which both illuminates and  
defines this field, clearing a formerly obscured terrain for future  
scholarship." —Donald Richie
"Every national cinema should be graced with such a resource as the  
one Nornes and Gerow have so generously and painstakingly assembled.  
This is a welcome and welcoming gateway through which will pass the  
next generation of scholars, able at last to swiftly draw on all that  
is available, as they make more become available in turn. Let’s hope  
that generation will exhibit the drive, clarity, comprehensiveness,  
and vision that these authors display. Their ‘frequently asked  
questions’ are ones I have been asked for decades; at last I have the  
answers." —Dudley Andrew, Yale University

The RESEARCH GUIDE TO JAPANESE FILM STUDIES provides a snapshot of all  
the archival and bibliographic resources available to students and  
scholars of Japanese cinema. Among the nations of the world, Japan has  
enjoyed an impressively lively print culture related to cinema. The  
first film books and periodicals appeared shortly after the birth of  
cinema, proliferating wildly in the 1910s with only the slightest  
pause in the dark days of World War II. The numbers of publications  
match the enormous scale of film production, but with the lack of  
support for film studies in Japan, much of it remains as uncharted  
territory, with few maps to negotiate the maze of material.
This book is the first all-embracing guide ever published for  
approaching the complex archive for Japanese cinema. It lists all the  
libraries and film archives in the world with significant collections  
of film prints, still photographs, archival records, books, and  
periodicals. It provides a comprehensive, annotated bibliography of  
the core books and magazines for the field. And it supplies hints for  
how to find and access materials for any research project. Above and  
beyond that, Nornes and Gerow’s RESEARCH GUIDE TO JAPANESE FILM  
STUDIES constitutes a comprehensive overview of the impressive  
dimensions and depth of the print culture surrounding Japanese film,  
and a guideline for future research in the field. This is an essential  
book for anyone seriously thinking about Japan and its cinema.

Abe Mark Nornes is Professor of Asian Cinema at the University of  
Michigan, where he specializes in Japanese film and documentary. He is  
the author CINEMA BABEL: TRANSLATING GLOBAL CINEMA, a theoretical and  
historical look at the role of translation in film history. He has  
also written two books on nonfiction film in Japan: FOREST OF  
PRESSURE: OGAWA SHINSUKE AND POSTWAR JAPANESE DOCUMENTARY and JAPANESE  
DOCUMENTARY FILM: FROM THE MEIJI ERA TO HIROSHIMA (all from the  
University of Minnesota Press).

Aaron Gerow is Assistant Professor of Japanese Cinema at Yale  
University. He has published widely in a variety of languages on  
early, wartime, and recent Japanese film, and is author of KITANO  
TAKESHI (BFI) and A PAGE OF MADNESS: CINEMA AND MODERNITY IN 1920s  
JAPAN (Center for Japanese Studies, The University of Michigan). He  
has a book on Japanese film culture of the 1910s forthcoming from the  
University of California Press.

Bruce Willoughby
Executive Editor
Center for Japanese Studies
The University of Michigan
1007 E. Huron St.
Ann Arbor MI 48104-1690
ph 734-647-1199
fax 734-647-8886
bew at umich.edu

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