[KineJapan] "Jinzo Ningen" as a film circa 1925?

Tue Apr 8 09:00:28 EDT 2025

Dear Steve,

Interesting project...I’ve looked a little bit into jinzō ningen, robotto, the intermedial constellation around Čapek’s play in Japan and the reception of Metropolis –  in connection with a project on the fetishization of female robots and display mannequins in Japan at the time (currently under peer review…).

Jinzō ningen was indeed Iga Itsuo’s translation of the title and robotto was Suzuki Zentarō’s. Apart from the staging of the play in the Tsukiji Little Theatre (directed by Osanai Kaoru and Hijikata Yoshi, with set design by Murayama Tomoyoshi,  (future) film star Natsukawa Shizue in the role of the robot Helena), there were also variety shows, burlesques (the fetishization of female robots is nothing new…:), at least one novellization set in Japan and a rumoured Nikkatsu film (mentioned by the Yomiuri newspaper and by the Kinema junpō film journal). This blog<http://rzeka.blog88.fc2.com/blog-entry-115.html> speculates that a film titled Ningen (not extant), listed in the Japanese Movie Database here<http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/1925/ba004260.htm>, might have been it – because the script is credited to Suzuki Zentarō. It seems like an interpretation of the play set in Japan (judging by the characters’ names).

‘Visions of jinzō ningen’ was also the title of special section in the journal Shinchō published in 1929, with great contributions by writers and artists, which I think was a response to Metropolis  and also to another key Weimar film, Henrik Galeen’s Alraune, both released in Japan in 1929…Like Hiraybayashi, they use jinzō ningen  in the broad sense of an artificially created human (not limited to robot).

Hirabayashi is a fascinating figure.A  Hirabayashi Hatsunosuke Reader<https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/hirabayashi-hatsunosuke-reader-9781350378162/> with his fiction and criticism is forthcoming from Bloomsbury…

Best of luck with your project...

Irena

Dr Irena Hayter
Associate Professor of Japanese Studies
Director of East Asian Studies

School of Languages, Cultures and Societies
University of Leeds

On 7 Apr 2025, at 14:19, Steven A Joyce via KineJapan <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>> wrote:

CAUTION: External Message. Use caution opening links and attachments.

Thanks, Anne! I was aware of other works using the title Jinzo Ningen from Japanese Perspectives on Kazuo Ishiguro<https://www.google.com/books/edition/Japanese_Perspectives_on_Kazuo_Ishiguro/vjvsEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=jinzo+ningen+Capek&pg=PA45&printsec=frontcover>. However, I had not heard of this story by HIRABAYASHI Hatsunosuke. I’m reading your translation right now ... there is one apparent parallel… Čapek’s robots were “humanoids”, if you will, and not mechanical . ..

<https://www.google.com/books/edition/Japanese_Perspectives_on_Kazuo_Ishiguro/vjvsEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=jinzo+ningen+Capek&pg=PA45&printsec=frontcover>
[https://s.yimg.com/lb/brands/80x80_google.png]
Japanese Perspectives on Kazuo Ishiguro
This collection of essays offers new perspectives from Japan on Nobel Prize–winning author Kazuo Ishiguro. It an...

[And I love the passage about Doctor Muraki  and the  “Kamakura Laboratory”!!! Brings back very fond memories of my brief 3 month I.T. consulting gig in Tokyo in the 90s when I took a train ride to see the Great Buddha. But anyway… ]

Can you tell me who was responsible for the translation in that link you provided? My research shows that both Zentatro Suzuki  and Uga Itsuo translated R.U.R.  If it was by Zentatro Suzuki, my interest is doubly piqued since it seems that his translation was used for the staging of the play. (If so, I’ll laboriously feed that link page-by-page thru my AI translator… I’ve unfortunately forgotten the dozen or so Japanese words that I knew ☹ )

Let me review where I am at with my overall research (if interested): It was at the at Tsukiji Little Theater in 1924. I have strong reason to believe that it was produced by Hijikata Yoshi under, yes, the title "Jinzō Ningen".   Senda Koreya – who later acted in several of Ishirō Honda’s movies – acted in the play. I’m in the process of trying to ascertain more via a number of inquiries.

Last but not least, I would love to read your essay. Thanks so much.

Stay well, Steve

On Sunday, April 6, 2025 at 10:51:43 PM EDT, kinejapan-request at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:kinejapan-request at mailman.yale.edu> <kinejapan-request at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:kinejapan-request at mailman.yale.edu>> wrote:

Send KineJapan mailing list submissions to
    kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>

To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
    https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan
or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
    kinejapan-request at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:kinejapan-request at mailman.yale.edu>

You can reach the person managing the list at
    kinejapan-owner at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:kinejapan-owner at mailman.yale.edu>

When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of KineJapan digest..."

Today's Topics:

  1. Re: "Jinzo Ningen" as a film circa 1925? (Steven A Joyce)
  2. Re: "Jinzo Ningen" as a film circa 1925? (Anne McKnight)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Sun, 6 Apr 2025 20:23:44 +0000 (UTC)
From: Steven A Joyce <steveajoyce at aol.com<mailto:steveajoyce at aol.com>>
To: Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>>,
    "Zahlten, Alexander" <azahlten at fas.harvard.edu<mailto:azahlten at fas.harvard.edu>>
Subject: Re: [KineJapan] "Jinzo Ningen" as a film circa 1925?
Message-ID: <789145405.1322400.1743971024059 at mail.yahoo.com<mailto:789145405.1322400.1743971024059 at mail.yahoo.com>>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

Thanks, Alex.

I should have put that the film was planned in the mid-1920s. (oops. Careless of me!) and, yes, it's interesting that that title Jinz?Ningen was used quite a bit back then. As I understand it, even one of the 1st translations of ?apek's R.U.R. went by that name...
    On Sunday, April 6, 2025 at 04:16:28 PM EDT, Zahlten, Alexander <azahlten at fas.harvard.edu<mailto:azahlten at fas.harvard.edu>> wrote:

Hi Steve,

?

I don?t have any knowledge of an upcoming Jinz?Ningen film?but the first translation of R.U.R. into Japanese in 1923 was apparently?indeedtitled Jinz?Ningen. It is also the title of a very interesting manga series from 1929, written by Tagawa Suih? (who later create the series around Norakuro).

?

All best,

Alex

?

From:KineJapan <kinejapan-bounces at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:kinejapan-bounces at mailman.yale.edu>> on behalf of Steven A Joyce via KineJapan <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>>
Date: Sunday, April 6, 2025 at 11:53
To: kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>>
Cc: Steven A Joyce <steveajoyce at aol.com<mailto:steveajoyce at aol.com>>
Subject: [KineJapan] "Jinzo Ningen" as a film circa 1925?

Hello,

?

Does anyone know more about plans to make a film with the titleJinzo Ningen?

>From what little I can gather on the internet, the plans were aborted.

?

I'm especially interested to know if it was going to be a direct interpretation of Karel ?apek's R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots). (I can't help but imagine that it would have been indirectly influenced by ?apek).

?

Any details whatsoever would be appreciated. Full disclosure: I'm writing a book on the worldwide performances of R.U.R. I will gladly give acknowledgement for assistance.

?

Best,

Steve Joyce

?

?

?

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/kinejapan/attachments/20250406/51673e70/attachment-0001.html>

------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Sun, 6 Apr 2025 19:51:19 -0700
From: Anne McKnight <annekmcknight at gmail.com<mailto:annekmcknight at gmail.com>>
To: Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>>
Subject: Re: [KineJapan] "Jinzo Ningen" as a film circa 1925?
Message-ID: <73CFDC1B-3976-4FFE-B75B-E1136EC788C3 at gmail.com<mailto:73CFDC1B-3976-4FFE-B75B-E1136EC788C3 at gmail.com>>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

HI Steve, and all~

I?m not sure about a film titled Jinz? ningen, but I thought I might mention that the first ?robot story? in fiction with that name was written by HIRABAYASHI Hatsunosuke and published in 1928 in the magazine Shin seinen, which is known for a lot of translations of genre fiction, including SciFi and ero-guro-nonsense. I actually translated the story into English a few years ago. I didn?t write a critical introduction, but Hirabayashi is a major film critic/writer/women?s rights advocate you can read about (and whom I think some other members of this list might be in the process of translating?). It is worth noting that the ?artificial human? in question in the story turns out to be a chemical solution, not what we would call a robot with obvious links to Rossum-style robots; the story is a rip-roaring melodrama not really recognizable from the plot of RUR. It truly is, literally, an artificial human.

The National Diet Library shows <https://ndlsearch.ndl.go.jp/en/books/R100000002-I000000590799> a translation of Capek in Taisho 12, or 1923. So, the info was out there?and linked to Capek. Though the translation was from English, and kind of wild. I can send you a kind of potted history of the ?Ginzo ningen? term I wrote in an essay called "Future-Oriented Blackness in Sho?wa Robot Culture?1924 to 1963,? if you like. In 1925, I am not sure if it?s possible to say anything definitive about RUR?s relation to that film, due to the wildness of translation and the expansive understanding of what it is to be ?artificial,? at least by Hirabayashi> it might be a literal transposition, or something else entirely. I would be really interested in any further puzzle pieces you turn up, regarding the status of all the words--?artificial,? ?human? and ?artificial human?...

If you?re interested, you can read Hirabayashi?s story in Japanese here <https://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000221/files/2411_22551.html>, and English here <https://eeeditorial.gumroad.com/l/manmadebaby?_gl=1*1av3a4g*_ga*Nzk1NDg0NDc0LjE3NDM5OTMxMzY.*_ga_6LJN6D94N6*MTc0Mzk5MzEzNS4xLjEuMTc0Mzk5MzE4Ni4wLjAuMA> or here <https://www.amazon.com/Man-made-Baby-Vintage-Japanese-SF-ebook/dp/B00GWNS3N0>.

Hope that helps, or at least is an interesting rabbit-hole, with some useful rabbit-work?

Anne

> On Apr 6, 2025, at 8:53?AM, Steven A Joyce via KineJapan <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>> wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> Does anyone know more about plans to make a film with the title Jinzo Ningen?
> From what little I can gather on the internet, the plans were aborted.
>
> I'm especially interested to know if it was going to be a direct interpretation of Karel ?apek's R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots). (I can't help but imagine that it would have been indirectly influenced by ?apek).
>
> Any details whatsoever would be appreciated. Full disclosure: I'm writing a book on the worldwide performances of R.U.R. I will gladly give acknowledgement for assistance.
>
> Best,
> Steve Joyce
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> KineJapan mailing list
> KineJapan at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:KineJapan at mailman.yale.edu>
> https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/kinejapan/attachments/20250406/23976d4e/attachment.html>

------------------------------

Subject: Digest Footer

_______________________________________________
KineJapan mailing list
KineJapan at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:KineJapan at mailman.yale.edu>
https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan

------------------------------

End of KineJapan Digest, Vol 83, Issue 5
****************************************
_______________________________________________
KineJapan mailing list
KineJapan at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:KineJapan at mailman.yale.edu>
https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/kinejapan/attachments/20250408/13af1366/attachment-0001.html>