Ainu actors in prewar Japanese film

Sat Sep 10 10:41:37 EDT 2011

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 
>> 
>> 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 
>> 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 
>> 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
>> site: www.aarongerow.com
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
> 

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