[KineJapan] KineJapan Digest, Vol 40, Issue 4

Fri Sep 10 12:38:04 EDT 2021

Off topic, but I guess "Arden" is the strategic port of "Aden".

Years ago I read about Tsuburaya Eiji shooting Doto o kette -- I always
wondered if the procession of battleships at the end of Hawai-Marei
okikaisen came from that film.

Michael Raine, Department of English and Writing Studies
Western University, Canada
co-editor, Journal of Japanese and Korean Cinema
co-editor, The Culture of the Sound Image in Prewar Japan (Amsterdam UP,
2020)
co-editor, Developments in the Japanese Documentary Mode (MDPI, 2020)

On Fri, Sep 10, 2021 at 12:12 PM Roger Macy via KineJapan <
kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:

> 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 Singapore didn’t fit in. At that time, I’d only
> stumbled on the embarkation report in the Nichibei Shinbun. That was in a
> growing collection of expatriate newspapers, freely searchable at the Hoji
> Shinbun Digital Collection. I don’t think we’ve mentioned 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 pages
> of that newspaper, I went to the library today to search Asahi Shinbun
> through Kikuzo. 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 via the
> Mediterranean and  ... Singapore.
>
> In the first, embarkation report of March ’37 I can see the names of
> Tokugawa, your Shirai Shigeru as PCL photographer, and also the
> western-style painter Nakamura Ken’ichi.  The ‘export’ edited version of
> Kaguya didn’t really ‘belong’ to PCL, or its predecessor JO by 1937 but to
> the ‘International Cinema Association of Japan’, as they credit themselves
> on the surviving print; and would be more likely to be shipped on the
> Chichibus’ passenger liner, than the cruiser, already with the extra burden
> of 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’ But not by ‘Arden’.
>
> No one seems to have seen the film of the voyage since. Have you tracked
> it down Iris? I can’t see it in the NFAJ catalogue but I recall Johan
> Nordström telling me that all the PCL films survive. It won’t have anything
> on *Kaguya-hime*, but in the blurb of the 2001 Yamagata catalogue,
> although they didn’t show it, it’s given as a Kamei Fumio direction. I
> can’t see his name in these news reports, attached*, but  I’d definitely
> pay money to see what Kamei made of the coronation of the Emperor of India.
> *DeepL* translates the title as ‘Kicking up a storm’.
>
> Roger
>
> * I couldn’t get Kikuzo at the BL to deliver a digital file. I had to make
> paper copies and then photograph them.
>
>
> 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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> than "Re: Contents of KineJapan digest..."
>
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> Today's Topics:
>
>    1. Re: Tokugawa Musei (Aaron Gerow)
>    2. Re: Tokugawa Musei (Roger Macy)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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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