Ainu actors in prewar Japanese film

Sat Sep 10 10:59:56 EDT 2011

It may be on other compilations as well, but "Les Aïnous à Yéso" is
definitely on the first disc of the Les films Lumière set that Geneon
brought out in Japan.

Fred.

On Sat, Sep 10, 2011 at 11:41 PM, Mark Nornes <amnornes at umich.edu> wrote:

> Hi Quentin,
>
> Could have sworn the Lumiere Ainu films were on one of the DVD
> compilations. The one by Travenier?
>
> The films are extant, and Institut Lumiere has them. There are several
> other documentaries/home movies. As Mark wrote, I write about these in my
> book.
>
> In 1993, I also showed Japanese-made films about the Ainu in Nibutani. The
> main footage was shot by a Scotsman, Neil Gordon Munro, who also wrote one
> of the first monographs on them (Ainu Creed and Cult). He was a doctor in
> Nibutani.
>
> The films are owned by an anthropology institute in Tokyo, so they are
> extant and can be programmed. Although the institute has it's own
> compilations on video, and that may be the only thing within reach. If you'd
> like their address, I've got it buried somewhere.
>
> Maria-Jose also mentioned Chipuchisekor, which is how he transliterated his
> name if I remember correctly. He was a great help back when I was
> programming our First Nations event at Yamagata (1993). At the time, he was
> also publishing his own little zine about Ainu representations in film and
> video games. I have a stack of them somewhere, if a serious researcher
> wanted to do work on them.
>
> Markus
>
>
>
>
> On Sep 10, 2011, at 3:37 AM, Mark Roberts wrote:
>
> Quentin,
>
> The Lumières film was entitled "Les Aïnous à Yéso", and there were two
> parts. Information on the net is sketchy, but it looks like these films are
> extant and screened at Yamagata in 1995. Markus Nornes also discusses them
> in the first section of his "Japanese documentary film: the Meiji era
> through Hiroshima".
>
> HTH,
>
> M
>
>
> On Sep 10, 2011, at 11:29 AM, Quentin Turnour wrote:
>
>
> My sidebar turns into a supplementary question: does any of the very early
> Ainu footage you mention survive? I know the survival rate for Lumiere
> titles is quite high, but whilst some tiles survive with Japanese scenes,
> I've not seen any title that indicates Hokkaido or Ainu footage.
>
> Then - whilst my French is better than my Japanese - it's still not good
> enough to fully access French-language Lumiere scholarship.
>
> QT
>
> Quentin Turnour, Programmer,
> Access, Research and Development
> National Film and Sound Archive, Australia
> McCoy Circuit, Acton,
> ACT, 2601 AUSTRALIA
> phone: +61 2 6248 2054  |  fax: + 61 2 6249 8159
> www.nfsa.gov.au
> [Please note that I am often absent Mondays]
>
> Film prints shipped to:
> NATIONAL FILM AND SOUND ARCHIVE OF AUSTRALIA
> att: Cinema Programming
> Loading Dock
> McCoy Circuit Acton Canberra
> ACT 2601 AUSTRALIA
> +61 2 6248 2289 / cynthia.piromalli at nfsa.gov.au (Please email all invoices
> to this address)
>
> The National Film and Sound Archive collects, preserves and provides access
> to Australia's historic and contemporary moving image and recorded sound
> culture.
>
>
>
>
>
>  *Maria Jose Gonzalez <tkarsavina at yahoo.com>*
> Sent by: owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
>
> 09/09/2011 07:10 PM
>  Please respond to
> KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
>
>   To
> "KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu" <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
> cc
>   Subject
> Re: Ainu actors in prewar Japanese film
>
>
>
>
> Something else I forgot to mention,Makino Productions "Ainu no Musume" from
> 1927,most likely without any Ainu in it although as Aaron has already
> mentioned,any existing actor of Ainu origin would have concealed their
> origins and in any case during the Meiji period most people had been forced
> to adopt Japanese names.
> Actor Takashi Ukajo surprised the media by confessing he was actually of
> Ainu origin when he was already 46 a few years ago!
>
> *http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/1927/bc003810.htm*<http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/1927/bc003810.htm>
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Maria Jose Gonzalez <tkarsavina at yahoo.com>*
> To:* "KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu" <
> KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>*
> Sent:* Friday, September 9, 2011 4:47 PM*
> Subject:* Re: Ainu actors in prewar Japanese film
>
> Fascinating question.
> Can you read Japanese,Peter?
> The sadly departed and Kyoto-based Ainu scholar,Chupuchisekor -I apologise
> if the romanised version is not correct,for I have never seen it- did a very
> interesting series on "Images of Ainu in Japan" for Kyoto Shimbun.
> You can find it here:
> *http://www6.plala.or.jp/fynet/2scrap411nihonnoainu.html*<http://www6.plala.or.jp/fynet/2scrap411nihonnoainu.html>
> Available online,you will also find a summary for a seminar titled "Ainu
> Culture and Media",where he discusses
> Ainu in films.
> *http://www.frpac.or.jp/rst/sem/sem1109.pdf*<http://www.frpac.or.jp/rst/sem/sem1109.pdf>
> The first Ainu moving images date from 1898 courtesy of the very own
> Lumière  Brothers so they predate Japanese cinema!Accounted next are
> documentary films regarding the Russo-Japanese war,which geographically
> makes a lot of sense .After these,the emphasis is on landscape/nature
> documentaries and next he discusses some studio films.
> Since so much has been lost,it is impossible to say for sure how much Ainu
> appeared in *Yamato *productions but Chupinsenkor talks about three
> Shochiku films from 1921 and 1922,mentioning there were others he did not
> watch and where the Ainu were often depicted as bad characters.
> I have not watched the Naruse you cite but was this the case?
> Already at war,北の同胞-Northern Brothers ?-from 1941 is a Kokusaku Eiga where
> both Ainu and Yamato people fight for their country...
> I am not that familiar with Ainu culture but will confess to finding this
> information after watching Kimi no Na,which Chupu-san also discusses.
> There is not much available in English and it is a pity.Just a study of
> name places and Japanese words that actually come from Ainu would be an
> excellent read.
>
>
> Maria-Jose Gonzalez
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Maybe not strictly relevant, but have you seen the footage from Benjamin
> Brodsky's A TRIP THROUGH JAPAN WITH THE YWCA which includes 1919 shots of
> the Ainu community? The NFSA recently restored it in collaboration with the
> National Film Preservation Foundation in the US. See
> http://www.filmpreservation.org/preserved-films/screening-room/a-trip-through-japan-with-the-ywca-ca-1919
>
> I mention this as we are curious to know if there is any earlier surviving
> material which shows Ainu community, whether drama or actuality?
>
> Quentin Turnour, Programmer,
> Access, Research and Development
> National Film and Sound Archive, Australia
> McCoy Circuit, Acton,
> ACT, 2601 AUSTRALIA
> phone: +61 2 6248 2054  |  fax: + 61 2 6249 8159
> www.nfsa.gov.au
> [Please note that I am often absent Mondays]
>
> Film prints shipped to:
> NATIONAL FILM AND SOUND ARCHIVE OF AUSTRALIA
> att: Cinema Programming
> Loading Dock
> McCoy Circuit Acton Canberra
> ACT 2601 AUSTRALIA
> +61 2 6248 2289 / cynthia.piromalli at nfsa.gov.au (Please email all invoices
> to this address)
>
> The National Film and Sound Archive collects, preserves and provides access
> to Australia's historic and contemporary moving image and recorded sound
> culture.
>
>
> Hello all,
>
> This will be an odd question, but does anyone know if there were any
> Ainu actors in prewar Japanese film? I have seen a couple of silents
> recently which featured actors that look like they might, in fact, be
> of Ainu decent, though I could just be seeing things. The western
> looking man in Naruse's "No Blood Relation" (1932) comes to mindPardon
> me if this is an odd question.
>
> Pete
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Aaron Gerow <aaron.gerow at yale.edu>*
> To:* KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu*
> Sent:* Wednesday, September 7, 2011 2:59 AM*
> Subject:* Re: Ainu actors in prewar Japanese film
>
> I have not heard of any actors from that era who then or later termed
> themselves Ainu. Perhaps there were some but because of factors such as
> discrimination, which lead zainichi actors for instance to hide their
> backgrounds, did not admit it publicly.
>
> A good paper could be written about the representations of Ainu in Japanese
> cinema, which incidentally could include Naruse's Kotan no kuchibue, as well
> as other works like Kimi no na wa or Daisogen no wataridori.
>
>
> Aaron Gerow
> Professor
> Film Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
> Director of Undergraduate Studies, Film Studies Program
> Yale University
> 320 York Street, Room 311
> PO Box 208236
> New Haven, CT 06520-8236
> USA
> Phone: 1-203-432-7082
> Fax: 1-203-432-6729
> e-mail: *aaron.gerow at yale.edu* <aaron.gerow at yale.edu>
> site: www.aarongerow.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/kinejapan/attachments/20110910/a3ae2dfd/attachment.html 