[KineJapan] 1931 amateur film by TAKEUCHI Kichinosuke this Saturday

[Roger Macy]

Thank you, Noriko, for such a generous and quick response ! I appreciateall the work you have done on this.

Yes, I can see it’s a beautiful, well-crafted film.

The preserved film is shorn of its Japanese title and credits, so I wouldbe very much in the dark without your help.

Do you have the original title ? - 姉弟 ?

I’ll look forward toviewing the others.

Roger


    On Friday, 4 November 2022 at 11:10:18 GMT, Noriko Morisue <noriko.morisue at gmail.com> wrote:  
 
 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 atthe Cinema Museum,there’s a silentfilm weekend. On Saturday, at 13.50, there’s a programme of amateur films thatrecreates the The Institute of Amateur Photographers’ Award-Winners’ FilmProgramme of 1935-39, and includes a film, Sister andBrother, 1931 by TAKEUCHI Kichinosuke from the Amateur Movie Maker Contestof 1932.

What I have gleaned so far from Keith Johnston of the research project atU. of East Angliais:-

·        There’s abrief bio via the Amateur Movie Database: https://www.amateurcinema.org/index.php/filmmaker/kichi-takeuchi)




·        Report on Sisteras part of IAC World Tour programme: ‘The first projection of the WorldTour films, sponsored by the Institute of Amateur Cinematographers, London, to be held in the Far East was given tonight beforethree hundred members of the Sakura Kogata Eigo Kyokai (Cherry Amateur MovieSociety). Winners in the 1934 contest of the Institute, these films haveprogressed through Europe and the Middle East. Veterans of numerous projections, the films are yet in excellentcondition. 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 filmswill be sent to Australia.’ (‘Notes of the MovieClubs’ American Cinematographer v19 n1, March 1938, p.121)

·        Years of birth/ death are currently unknown

·        He owned akimono shop in Kyoto

·        When KodakJapan Limited established the Nippon 8 miri Kyōkai (8mm Film Association) inJune 1934, Takeuchi served as one of the board members

·        He was also aboard member of the Nippon 8 miri Eiga Renmei (8mm Film League)established in 1938

·        Takeuchipublished a number of writings in amateur film magazines published locally inthe Kansai region in the 1930s (which included cities such as Kyoto and Osaka.) The names of thesemagazines are Bebī kinema (Baby Kinema) and Patē kinema(Pathe Kinema), and the topics of his writings include the "theory andpractice of small-gauge filmmaking for educating children" (that appearedin several issues of the Patē kinema magazine in 1932 and19333) and a screenplay for a small-gauge production, titled Goldfish(April 1933 in Patē kinema)

·        Some of thesepublications included Takeuchi in a debate about the use of sequences fromother people’s films in new works, whether editing was enough to createoriginality (following some of Pudovkin’s ideas) or if a film had to be acompletely new creation

·        Some writingson amateur film in Japan include Noriko Morisue(she wrote her PhD at Yale on this topic) and Nada Hisashi, ‘The Little CinemaMovement in the 1920s and the Introduction of Avant-Garde Cinema in Japan’, Japan Society ofImage Arts and Society vol.3 (1994): 39-68.

I don’t have immediate access to these references, and none of thatdefinitively gives me Takeuchi’s Japanese spelling, so I’m just giving what Ihave, before the screening.

The questions are, is there any online resource on Japanese amateurfilmmakers, and can anyone (Noriko Morisue?) tell me more, please.

Roger

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