[KineJapan] Magino Village: A Tale digitally restored

[Markus Nornes]

This is wonderful. People tend to split into two groups when it comes to Ogawa Pro. There the people who think Heta Buraku is the pinnacle, and others to peg it at Sundial with a Thousand Years of Notches. 

I go back and forth by the day. 

But if you are in Tokyo and haven’t seen this film, by all means do. It’s one of the most profound meditations on time and history in film history. 

I thought I’d take this opportunity to mourn the passing of the still photographer for this film, Naito Masatoshi. He passed away a couple weeks ago.

Naito was one of the great photographers of postwar Japan. His theme was “yami,” and no one did blacks like he did. His book Tokyo captures the city at night like no other. Naito was interested in Buddhism and folk religions, and he did amazing photo series on the mummies and festivals of Tohoku. 

So it was inevitable that he’d hook up with Ogawa Pro in Kaminoyama. He did a long dialogue with Ogawa for the theater program of Sundail, and it seemed like he was always around. They were clearly dear friends. He had was one of the few people that could keep up with Ogawa in a conversation. Naito contributed most of the Magino era photographs in the Ogawa Pro books.

If you’ve never seen Naito's photography, Google Image 内藤正敏 and spend some time with him. 

Markus



> On Jul 21, 2025, at 8:35 PM, matteoB via KineJapan <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:
> 
> Dear all,
> 
> Many of you might be already aware of it, but Ogawa Pro's 1000-Year Sundial: Magino Village: A Tale has been digitally restored (DCP) from the original 16mm negative, and a screening will be held at the Athénée Français Cultural Center on August 16th:
> 
> https://athenee.net/culturalcenter/program/og/ogawa2025.html
> 
> mb
> 
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> KineJapan at mailman.yale.edu
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