[KineJapan] 1931 amateur film by TAKEUCHI Kichinosuke this Saturday

[Noriko Morisue]

Dear Roger,

Thank you so much for your interest in this topic and for your question.

I am actually part of the project with Keith Johnston on the IAC World
Tour, and the description on Takeuchi (武内 吉之助) that you have quoted in your
email is something that I wrote up.

My knowledge may not be up to date since I have not been able to work much
on the topic since I finished my thesis a few years ago, but when I was
working on my diss, there was no comprehensive online resource on Japanese
amateur films or filmmakers as far as I was aware of (except for the
Amateur Movie Database you are referring to, although this website does not
include much information in the Japanese context). You may be able to find
some information in the Digital Collection of the National Diet Library,
but I do not think you can find anything that will give you a comprehensive
framework of this subject. Regarding the IAC World Tour in Japan, unlike
what is described in the Amateur Cinematographer article you have quoted, I
was able to find evidence of only one screening that took place in Japan
(at the hall of Konishiroku’s head office in Tokyo on January 20, 1938).

East Anglian Film Archive has made available the works of three Japanese
amateur filmmakers from the 1930s (Takeuchi, Okamoto Tatsuichi, and
Tsukamoto Koji), all of which are part of the IAC Film Collection.

https://eafa.org.uk/search/?q=Takeuchi&titleDateFrom=1890-01-01&titleDateTo=2022-12-30&perorg=&agentActivity=&featured=&workType=&descriptionType=&sound=&colourType=&searchSort=relevance_desc

The Collection also includes a film, Tambo, by American filmmaker Fred Ells
who was based in Japan from the mid 1920s through 1940, but somehow the web
video seems unavailable for his film.

Noriko

On Fri, Nov 4, 2022 at 9:32 AM Roger Macy via KineJapan <
kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:

> A heads-up and a question, please.
>
> This weekend, in London at the Cinema Museum, there’s a silent film
> weekend
> <http://www.cinemamuseum.org.uk/2022/kennington-bioscope-sixth-silent-film-weekend-saturday-5-november/>.
> On Saturday, at 13.50, there’s a programme of amateur films that recreates
> the *The Institute of Amateur Photographers’ Award-Winners’ Film
> Programme of 1935-39,* and includes a film, *Sister and Brother*, 1931 by
> TAKEUCHI Kichinosuke from the Amateur Movie Maker Contest of 1932.
>
> What I have gleaned so far from Keith Johnston of the research project at
> U. of East Anglia is:-
>
> ·         There’s a brief bio via the Amateur Movie Database:
> https://www.amateurcinema.org/index.php/filmmaker/kichi-takeuchi)
>
> ·         Report on *Sister *as part of IAC World Tour programme: ‘The
> first projection of the World Tour films, sponsored by the Institute of Amateur
> Cinematographers, London, to be held in the Far East was given tonight
> before three hundred members of the Sakura Kogata Eigo Kyokai (Cherry
> Amateur Movie Society). Winners in the 1934 contest of the Institute, these
> films have progressed through Europe and the Middle East. Veterans of
> numerous projections, the films are yet in excellent condition. Japanese
> amateurs were particularly appreciative of “Sister,” produced by *K.
> Takeuchi* of Kyoto, and  ...  Further projections are planned in Nagoya,
> Osaka, Kyoto, and possibly Yokohama, after which the films will be sent
> to Australia.’ (‘Notes of the Movie Clubs’ *American Cinematographer* v19
> n1, March 1938, p.121)
>
> ·         Years of birth / death are currently unknown
>
> ·         He owned a kimono shop in Kyoto
>
> ·         When Kodak Japan Limited established the Nippon 8 miri Kyōkai
> (8mm Film Association) in June 1934, Takeuchi served as one of the board
> members
>
> ·         He was also a board member of the Nippon 8 miri Eiga Renmei
> (8mm Film League) established in 1938
>
> ·         Takeuchi published a number of writings in amateur film
> magazines published locally in the Kansai region in the 1930s (which
> included cities such as Kyoto and Osaka.) The names of these magazines
> are *Bebī kinema *(Baby Kinema) and *Patē kinema* (Pathe Kinema), and the
> topics of his writings include the "theory and practice of small-gauge
> filmmaking for educating children" (that appeared in several issues of the *Patē
> kinema* magazine in 1932 and 19333) and a screenplay for a small-gauge
> production, titled *Goldfish* (April 1933 in *Patē kinema*)
>
> ·         Some of these publications included Takeuchi in a debate about
> the use of sequences from other people’s films in new works, whether
> editing was enough to create originality (following some of Pudovkin’s
> ideas) or if a film had to be a completely new creation
>
> ·         Some writings on amateur film in Japan include Noriko Morisue
> (she wrote her PhD at Yale on this topic) and Nada Hisashi, ‘The Little
> Cinema Movement in the 1920s and the Introduction of Avant-Garde Cinema in
> Japan’, *Japan Society of Image Arts and Society* vol.3 (1994): 39-68.
>
> I don’t have immediate access to these references, and none of that
> definitively gives me Takeuchi’s Japanese spelling, so I’m just giving what
> I have, before the screening.
>
> The questions are, is there any online resource on Japanese amateur
> filmmakers, and can anyone (Noriko Morisue?) tell me more, please.
>
> Roger
>
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