[KineJapan] Tokugawa Musei and colleages, 1937

Roger Macy macyroger at yahoo.co.uk
Fri Sep 10 12:11:50 EDT 2021 

 
Thank you, Iris. It gives me a wider perspective.

When I first read this earlier in the week, it didn’t seem to make sense:I knew the cruiser Ashigara had sailed, with the Chichibus’ passenger liner,for Vancouver, so Singaporedidn’t fit in. At that time, I’d only stumbled on the embarkation report in theNichibei Shinbun. That was in a growing collection of expatriate newspapers,freely searchable at the Hoji Shinbun Digital Collection. I don’t think we’vementioned it before here https://hojishinbun.hoover.org/?a=p&p=home&e=01-03-1935-31-12-1939--en-10--1--img-%e5%be%b3%e5%b7%9d%e5%a4%a2%e5%a3%b0--------.

Since I could only find the Tokugawa report in the english-language pagesof that newspaper, I went to the library today to search Asahi Shinbun throughKikuzo. There were several more reports in there, which fitted it together. So,after dropping the royal party in Vancouver,the Ashigara headed them off at the pass, as it were, going through the Panama canal, picked up the artists after the coronation and returned viathe Mediterranean and ... Singapore.

In the first, embarkation report of March ’37 I can see the names ofTokugawa, your Shirai Shigeru as PCL photographer, and also the western-stylepainter Nakamura Ken’ichi.  The ‘export’edited version of Kaguya didn’t really ‘belong’ to PCL, or its predecessor JOby 1937 but to the ‘International Cinema Association of Japan’, as they creditthemselves on the surviving print; and would be more likely to be shipped onthe Chichibus’ passenger liner, than the cruiser, already with the extra burdenof a film crew. They seem to be tasked with the production of the hour-long 怒濤を蹴って / 怒涛を蹴って（present day characters). JMDb has it at 76 minutes http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/1937/bm003840.htm  . So I get what you mean by ‘the film’ Butnot by ‘Arden’. 

No one seems to have seen the film of the voyagesince. Have you tracked it down Iris? I can’t see it in the NFAJ catalogue butI recall Johan Nordström telling me that all the PCL films survive. It won’thave anything on Kaguya-hime, but in the blurb of the 2001 Yamagata catalogue, although they didn’t show it, it’s givenas a Kamei Fumio direction. I can’t see his name in these news reports,attached*, but  I’d definitely pay moneyto see what Kamei made of the coronation of the Emperor of India. DeepLtranslates the title as ‘Kicking up a storm’.

Roger

* I couldn’t get Kikuzo at the BL to deliver adigital file. I had to make paper copies and then photograph them. I compressedthe three images to 830K but they always seem to grow on transmission, over the1000 bytes limit, to ‘1182686 bytes ‘. So, I’ll try again, sending theMarch and the headlines of the Sep piece. Others available on application.


    On Thursday, 9 September 2021, 03:24:05 BST, Iris Haukamp via KineJapan <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:  
 
 Good morning,
Roger, this is an intriguing topic. Incidentally, I'm currently reading Shirai Shigeru's memoirs (Kamera to jinsei), and there are some pages on the Ashikaga trip and film. He mentions disembarking with Tokugawa Musei in Singapore and Arden in order to 'film beautiful girls dancing', and he also writes about his other tasks on the trip, such as buying filmstock and specific camera equipment abroad. Yet, he never mentions Kaguya hime or 'a film' they were supposed to take to the UK at all. It is curious, indeed.
All the best for now,Iris
On Thu, 9 Sept 2021 at 06:22, <kinejapan-request at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:

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Today's Topics:

   1. Re: Tokugawa Musei (Aaron Gerow)
   2. Re: Tokugawa Musei (Roger Macy)


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Message: 1
Date: Wed, 8 Sep 2021 15:56:30 -0400
From: Aaron Gerow <aaron.gerow at yale.edu>
To: Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>
Subject: Re: [KineJapan] Tokugawa Musei
Message-ID: <A8AD7D33-489A-4C24-94A7-B05CCD1CD007 at yale.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Both Kyoko Omori and Jeffrey Dym have done studies of Musei, but mainly in his activities as a benshi. 

Dym: "Tokugawa Musei: A Portrait Sketch of One of Japan's Greatest Narrative Artists." In Praise of Film Studies: Essays in Honor of Makino Mamoru.

Omori: https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9781315534374-12 <https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9781315534374-12>

So you could inquire with them about any archives they have used.


Aaron Gerow
Professor
Film and Media Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
Chair, East Asian Languages and Literatures
Yale University
143 Elm Street, Room 210
PO Box 208324
New Haven, CT 06520-8324
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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Message: 2
Date: Wed, 8 Sep 2021 21:15:53 +0000 (UTC)
From: Roger Macy <macyroger at yahoo.co.uk>
To: 'Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum' <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>
Subject: Re: [KineJapan] Tokugawa Musei
Message-ID: <143248728.4776411.1631135753646 at mail.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"


Thank you Adrian, Jasper and Aaron for yourinterest.
Adrian,?I've been incontact with the Royal Archives and the Royal Collections Trust in Windsor, the archives at Buckingham Palace and the Queen's private office, as well asthe Imperial Household Agency. From the lower depths of London, where I come from, we would say I've hadmore royal brush-offs than you've had hot dinners ;>)
In truth, Rachel Peat of the Royal Collections made useful suggestions and they have allresponded. The BFI is a hopeless black hole. They've been sitting on the printfor 70 years but have no knowledge how they got it and no interest in it. I wastold six years ago that it was not on the list of Palace acquisitions.? Ieven asked for the list, a couple of months ago to check, but, as usual, havehad no response.
But I don't thinkit got to the Palace.? The plans of Prince and Princess Chichibu werecurtailed by their illnesses and, one can hazard, other developments in 1937.The Princess wrote a memoir, which even name-drops a birth-family connection tothe Princess Elizabeth, but which doesn't mention a princess Kaguya.
Nevertheless, a second, 1937print did get to London.? There had to be some ambition. It's tantalizing.? What weretheir plans as they set sail ? I'd like to hear from Japan's No. 1 film explainer, who was there onhand.
So, thank you, Aaron and Jasper, I'll take up your suggestions.Roger



    On Wednesday, 8 September 2021, 13:13:38 BST, Adrian- Restoration Asia <adrian at restorationasia.org> wrote:  


Dear Roger,

 ?

When you say the Royal Archives are you speaking about the British Royal Family?s archives at Windsor Castle?

 ?

>From what I know then the film materials, especially nitrate based elements as I assume these to be, are on deposit with the BFI National Archive. If you need contact details then feel free to ask.

 ?

Best regards,

 ?

Adrian Wood

 ?

From: KineJapan On Behalf Of Roger Macy via KineJapan
Sent: 08 September 2021 20:14
To: KineJapan discussion forum <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>
Cc: Roger Macy <macyroger at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: [KineJapan] Tokugawa Musei

 ?

Dear KineJapaners,

I?m writing to ask whether anyone has done work on Tokugawa Musei, or knows where his archives are.

I am interested in what he did in his trips to the UK, and, in particular, in 1937. I see from a newspaper cutting that he was on the ship with Prince and Princess Chichibu, bound for the coronation of King George VI, traveling via Canada and New York.

My quest, still, is to try and nail down any history of the Kaguya print in the UK. I have a provenance without a surviving print ? the one sent to the Japan Society in Nov>Dec ?36 and kept in London, but lost films are not, alas, news ? and the second one sent in early ?37, which is the one that survives (from the Imperial censorship stamp). My best guess, still, is that it was on that ship.

Mar?a Jos? has kindly looked at his published reminiscences but they have not revealed anything relevant.

I?ve already tried all the Royal Archives and the Imperial Household Agency. Even if I can?t connect the print to Tokugawa, I?d still like to know something of what he did in the UK.? He has no mention in the ten volumes of Britain and Japan ? Biographical Portraits.

Roger

 ?

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