Resources on film stock in Japan

Wed Jun 9 09:38:41 EDT 2010

Hello Jasper, 

Kae Ishihara is someone who might be able to help you with this. She is a graduate of the L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation at the George Eastman House and has worked with prints at the NFC Sagamihara vaults. Her English is excellent. She runs a website, Film Preservation Society (Eiga hozon kyokai) , at http://www.filmpres.org/.  The site used to be bilingual, but it seems the English page has been offline for some time, or at least there is only a temporary website. Fiddling around, I came to  http://www.homemovieday.jp/english/latest-news/ (Kae is also active in Japan's Home Movie Day). 

These are fascinating questions and I think that for sure the technicians at the Sagamihara vaults would be able to help you with answers. I know you are Europe-based: you might also try reaching someone knowledgeable on the subject through Paolo Cherchi Usai at the Haghefilm Foundation (www.haghefilmfoundation.org).

I hope this helps.

Joanne

Joanne Bernardi
University of Rochester

---- Jasper Sharp <jasper_sharp at hotmail.com> wrote: 
> 
> Thanks Markus.
> 
> There are two eras I am looking at.
> Firstly, the era 1897-14: According to John Belton's book Widescreen Cinema (pg 23): "Through the management of his patents, Edison controlled the use of his motion picture cameras and, in collaboration with Eastman, the use of 35mm motion picture film."
> 
> This was effectively how 35mm gauge film stock became adopted as a standard, due to the monopoly of Eastman in making the film for Edison's cameras, until October 1914 when a number of Edison's patents and business practices were ruled unlawful and in restraint of trade.
> However, Eastman wasn't the only company making film stock during this period. In France the Lumiere brother's also manufactured 35mm stock with the same 4:3 aspect ratio, though using circular sprocket holes as opposed to Edison's rectangular perforations).
> 
> So what I am wondering is where early Japanese filmmakers would have acquired their stock, as film stock wasn't made in Japan until 1934, I believe. My feeling is that they would have used the Lumiere's circular sprocket 35mm stock as opposed to Eastman's.
> 
> (I guess a general history in English of the production and circulation of film stock around the world would be really handy. Does anyone know if such a thing exists?)
> 
> The second question pertains to the 1950s, and is relevant to the subject of colour. According to Hisashi Okajima in his article "Color Film Restoration in Japan: Some Examples" in July 1952, the Japanese Diet passed a law to subsidize promotion of domestic color films and gave a research grant of 10 million yen each to two big film manufactures in Japan, Fuji Film and Konishiroku Film. Japan's first colour feature, Carmen Comes Home, was filmed using Fuji film. However, the other famous colour film from that era, Kinugasa Teinosuke's Jigokumon, was filmed using Eastman Colour.
> 
> Now, returning to Belton's book, when 20th Century Fox introduced the CinemaScope format and were initially selling it to exhibitors in America, it was packaged together as a bundle involving the anamorphic lenses for the projectors, stereo sound systems, curved screens and colour films. In America, CinemaScope wasn't just characterised by its aspect ratio, but the widescreen "spectacles" (The Robe, How to Marry A Millionaire etc) were all sold equally as being in full colour - I can't think offhand of a Hollywood CinemaScope production that was filmed in monochrome, although in Japan their were of course plenty (or at least in local variations of CinemaScope, such as NikkatsuScope, TohoScope et al).
> 
> For exhibitors, this of course ended up pretty pricey, and many exhibitors in America opted out of the full package, with stereophonic sound seen as a needless luxury - the fact that the first Japanese CinemaScope productions were monaural suggests that, for reasons of cost, Japanese exhibitors weren't adopting the full package either (I don't know if they, for example, used Fox's "Miracle Mirror" curved screens).
> Fox's CinemaScope productions were all shot using Eastman Colour, and I get the sort of impression that Fox and Eastman had a similar think going as Edison and Eastman in the early 1900s; that they were essentially trying to foist Eastman Colour onto the market as a standard, both domestically and internationally.
> So what I am wondering is, was there any commercial pressure applied to the Japanese studios to adopt Eastman Colour as the standard rather than domestic formats such as Fuji Colour, and if so, how did this pressure manifest itself? Was this in conjunction with Fox trying to encourage studios to adopt the full CinemaScope package? (and the pertinent thing about Japan is that,  unlike the US studio system, Japanese studios were in full control of both production and exhibition in a vertically integrated system).
> 
> I hope these questions sort of make sense. It's obviously a pretty tricky area to investigate, and as I said, I don't think there's a huge amount, if anything, out there in English, so if anyone could refer me to Japanese sources, I'd be forever grateful,
> 
> Jasper
> 
> Midnight Eye: The Latest and Best in Japanese Cinema
> www.midnighteye.com
> 
> More details about me on http://jaspersharp.com/
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Date: Tue, 8 Jun 2010 14:37:25 -0400
> From: amnornes at umich.edu
> To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
> Subject: Re: Resources on film stock in Japan
> 
> 
> 
> Jasper, there is more out there than you think in Japanese. Do you have more specific questions? Eras? Issues?
> Markus
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@A. M. NornesProfessorDepartment of Screen Arts & CulturesDepartment of Asian Languages & CulturesUniversity of Michigan6525 A  Haven HallAnn Arbor, MI  48109-1045Phone:  734-647-3456Fax:  734-936-1846Homepage: www.umich.edu/~amnornes
> 
> 
> 
> On Jun 8, 2010, at 12:03 PM, Jasper Sharp wrote:Dear Kinejapanners,
> 
> I have a query relating to that much neglected aspect of film studies, "film" - that is the manufacture, use and distribution of film stock.
> I was wondering if anyone can point me in the direction of any resources about film stock in Japan. So far I have found Hisashi Okajima's article Color Film Restoration in Japan: Some Examples which gives some interesting facts about the Japanese governments financial support for Fuji and Konica during the 1950s, to encourage the use of domestically produced colour stock, and it is known that Ozu preferred Agfa. In the silent era however, Japan didn't manufacture its own film stock, but imported it. In the 1910s, would this have been Eastman Kodak stock, or produced in France? During the war, the government restricted the amount of film stock used by the industry, as Peter High mentions in The Imperial Screen.
> I was wondering though if there are any more thorough resources out there about which film stocks Japan used throughout its history. English language would of course be best, but as I'm sure there's not a huge amount on the subject, any Japanese references would also be very handy.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Jasper Sharp
> 
> 
> Midnight Eye: The Latest and Best in Japanese Cinema
> www.midnighteye.com
> 
> More details about me on http://jaspersharp.com/
> 
> 
> 
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