[KineJapan] Fukei Film Locations at Modern Japan History Workshop Sophia University

[Shayne Bowden]

Hi

I will be presenting on fukeiron at Sophia University on July 16th for those who are interested and in the vicinity.  Info courtesy of William Andrews attached below.

Thanks

Shayne Bowden BA, MA (USYD)
PhD Candidate
School of Languages and Cultures
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
The University of Sydney



Dear all,

Please join us for the next meeting of the Modern Japan History Workshop on Thursday, July 16 at 6 p.m. (JST). Our presenter will be Shayne Bowden (University of Sydney), who will present his work on fukeiron (landscape theory).

We will meet in Building 10, Rm. 301 at Sophia University's Yotsuya Campus (map available here<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/AM_QCZY1NqiD92JgRhzfNfBUNmF?domain=sites.google.com>).

The workshop is open to all, and no prior registration is required.

Please direct any questions to William Andrews at william.david.andrews at gmail.com<mailto:william.david.andrews at gmail.com>. We hope to see you there.

_______________________

Fukei Film Locations and Knowledges
Shayne Bowden (University of Sydney)

This paper will discuss dissertation fieldwork undertaken during the first half of 2026 in Tokyo. My dissertation research is concerned with the creation of an intersection between rephotography, cinephilic pilgrimage, and fukeiron (landscape theory). The fieldwork involved revisiting and rephotographing a select number of locations associated with fukeiron, particularly locations associated with two films that have become synonymous with fukei cinema, Ryakusho: Renzoku Shasatsuma (1969) and Tokyo Senso Sengo Hiwa (1970). Using the methodology of rephotography, the fieldwork sought to assess the spatial changes occurring within the said locations evident by way of a comparative imaging of stills and sequences from those films and how these variations complement the main tenet of fukeiron, that all banal space is saturated with the invisible power dynamics of the state.

In dissertation chapters on rephotography, film pilgrimage, and landscape theory, those topics were introduced as respective methodologies, spectatorial practice, and activist theory that are complementary by way of commonalities, the recognition/discussion of which has mostly been lacking from respective discourses and research. During this presentation, I want to consolidate these three factors and discuss how these parts were exercised in the field, in actual film locations associated with fukei cinema, in order to demonstrate how these pieces or components complement and work as theoretical and practical visual means to measure how film locations spatially transition through time. By doing so, this may substantiate or conflict with fukei cinema as a proposed measure of power dynamics in space, as well as with the rephotographical possibilities of observing and measuring spatial change, and how visiting film locations is also a reconciliation of spectatorial trauma.

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