[KineJapan] Makino Mamoru

[Aaron Gerow]

We were waiting until the family said it was OK to announce this, but I am sad to say that our "shisho" Makino Mamoru passed away on September 18th. He was 94. 

Many of you know Makino-san as the man behind the phenomenal Makino Collection at Columbia University, as well as the author of important books on censorship and the editor of reprints of many important film-related books and magazines. For scholars like me, he was our sensei, who opened his home to us and let us dive into his collection years before it ended up at Columbia. He'd share some soba and some tales emerging from his vast knowledge of the Japanese film world. He was in fact also a documentary filmmaker, and I fondly remember his yearly bonenkai with members of his former film crew. While his writings on censorship are crucial, I have been most indebted to his groundbreaking work on the history of Japanese film theory, in which he not only collected and wrote about the early theorists, he went out to interview them. 

Markus and I decided back in the 90s to pay a little portion of the debt we owe him by publishing a festschrift in his honor, but there is no way to pay the debt in full. 

I made a point of visiting Makino-san regularly even after I returned to the States, even bringing Ian or Seiko on occasion. It was very much a family affair, as we got to know the entire Makino family. The last time I saw him was in August, when Markus and I visited him in his care facility, led by his son Satoru. Makino-san could barely speak, but his smile told a thousand words. Otsukaresama, Sensei.

Makino Collection: https://library.columbia.edu/libraries/eastasian/special_collections/makino_mamoru.html

In Praise of Film Studies: Essays in Honor of Makino Mamoru: https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/107972


Aaron Gerow
Alfred W. Griswold Professor of East Asian Languages and Literatures and Film and Media Studies
Chair, East Asian Languages and Literatures
Yale University
320 York Street, Room 108
PO Box 208201
New Haven, CT 06520-8201
USA
Phone: 1-203-432-7082
Fax: 1-203-432-6729
e-mail: aaron.gerow at yale.edu
website: www.aarongerow.com






















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