著者

溝渕 久美子 MIZOBUCHI Kumiko

出版者

名古屋大学大学院文学研究科附属「アジアの中の日本文化」研究センター

雑誌

JunCture : 超域的日本文化研究 (ISSN:18844766)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.5, pp.80-91, 2014-03-28

---

This paper focuses on the National Cinema Screenplay Prize, and discusses a screenplay contest that was held in wartime Japan. From 1914 to 1944, the National Cinema Screenplay Contest, sponsored by Department of the Interior and the Japan Film Society, was held with the intention of generating national cinema. The Japanese government tried to collect screenplays written by the people suitable for this new genre. At the 1st contest, people with various backgrounds (in terms of class, gender, employment, and residence) submitted 209 works. Kurosawa Akira's work received the Johokyoku-Sho (second place) and Shindo Kaneto's work earned honorable mention. Most studies mentioning this contest focus only on Kurosawa and Shindo from the viewpoint of their career during wartime; they ignore Koito Nobu and her work Hahakogusa (Jersey Cudweed), even though that was the only work adopted to film by Tasaka Tomotaka after the contest. In this paper, I will focus on Koito Nobu and Hahakogusa in order to examine the complexity of contests held in wartime Japan. The National Cinema Screenplay Prize was based on the national film policy, designed to generate national cinema. Hahakogusa, on the other hand, was a melodrama that depicted the relationship between a mother and her step children, which does not seem to fit the typical image of national cinema at the contest. Considering her career, her favorite novels, and her previous works, it is likely that Koito simply wrote a story that she wanted to write rather than what organizers. This contest was a part of the wartime mobilization efforts by the government, and therefore, Hahakogusa and Koito were used to fit that purpose. The movie Hahakogusa was highly praised as an example of national cinema, and Koito was treated as a female icon that contributed to wartime society.

著者

溝渕 久美子 Mizobuchi Kumiko

出版者

名古屋大学大学院文学研究科附属日本近現代文化研究センター

雑誌

Juncture : 超域的日本文化研究 (ISSN:18844766)

巻号頁・発行日

no.3, pp.114-124, 2012-03

---

In this article, I look into how the prizes for original stories and screenplays were established, and how the publicness of cinema was constructed under the Film Law of Japan. Since the enforcement of the Film Law in 1939, the Japanese film industry was controlled by the Japanese Government. There were not enough stories and screenplays in the film industry, because ready-made stories such as Soseki's works were difficult to fit into the requirements of wartime circumstances. So, film makers established an institute for writing and started to serialize articles titled "A Classroom for Screenplays" in a movie magazine to train writers. In addition, the Japanese government and film industry began various public offerings for original stories and screenplays in some newspapers and magazines. Unlike other jobs related to film making, writers did not need a license to work under the Film Law. This made it possible to assemble writers using public prizes. A representative example is the "Cinema and Theater Play of the Nation" prize, established in 1941. The winner "Hahakogusa (The Story of a Mother and Her Child)" written by Koito Nobu, an elementary schoolteacher, was adapted into a film by Tasaka Tomotaka and published in an anthology along with other prizewinners. People who wanted to apply need not be cultivated or rich, and their gender, job, class, education, age, or habitation did not matter. Anybody literate enough to read the application and to write stories or screenplays and agree with the purpose of the offering could apply. These prizes gave people a feeling of participation in making of national cinema for themselves. In other words, people were not only spectators who watched the films made by Japanese Government and film industry, but were also "film makers" of "National Cinema". "National Cinema" was not just films for the nation, it was also films by the nation.

著者

溝渕 久美子 Mizobuchi Kumiko

出版者

名古屋大学大学院文学研究科附属日本近現代文化研究センター

雑誌

JunCture : 超域的日本文化研究 (ISSN:18844766)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.3, pp.114-124, 2012-03-06

---

In this article, I look into how the prizes for original stories and screenplays were established, and how the publicness of cinema was constructed under the Film Law of Japan. Since the enforcement of the Film Law in 1939, the Japanese film industry was controlled by the Japanese Government. There were not enough stories and screenplays in the film industry, because ready-made stories such as Soseki's works were difficult to fit into the requirements of wartime circumstances. So, film makers established an institute for writing and started to serialize articles titled "A Classroom for Screenplays" in a movie magazine to train writers. In addition, the Japanese government and film industry began various public offerings for original stories and screenplays in some newspapers and magazines. Unlike other jobs related to film making, writers did not need a license to work under the Film Law. This made it possible to assemble writers using public prizes. A representative example is the "Cinema and Theater Play of the Nation" prize, established in 1941. The winner "Hahakogusa (The Story of a Mother and Her Child)" written by Koito Nobu, an elementary schoolteacher, was adapted into a film by Tasaka Tomotaka and published in an anthology along with other prizewinners. People who wanted to apply need not be cultivated or rich, and their gender, job, class, education, age, or habitation did not matter. Anybody literate enough to read the application and to write stories or screenplays and agree with the purpose of the offering could apply. These prizes gave people a feeling of participation in making of national cinema for themselves. In other words, people were not only spectators who watched the films made by Japanese Government and film industry, but were also "film makers" of "National Cinema". "National Cinema" was not just films for the nation, it was also films by the nation.

著者

溝渕 久美子 Mizobuchi Kumiko

出版者

名古屋大学大学院文学研究科附属日本近現代文化研究センター

雑誌

JunCture : 超域的日本文化研究 (ISSN:18844766)

巻号頁・発行日

no.1, pp.158-169, 2010-01

---

During the 1950s, Japanese Language Education in junior and senior high schools often included film-related topics. Even though this is an interesting phenomenon that calls for careful analysis, there has been no research into this topic in Japanese Film History up to now. The purpose of this paper is to show that this topic is important in Japanese Film History as well as a broader historical context. In Film Education that started in 1951, essays of film critics such as Iijima Tadashi, Tsumura Hideo, Imamura Tahei and Kitagawa Fuyuhiko were used. Narrative films and their screenplays were also used as course materials. Unlike science education films, this material was not specially created for educational purposes; these filmic and non-filmic texts were chosen and edited to adapt to the aims of Japanese Language Education. The aims of Japanese Education were twofold: the moral education as a citizen who can take part in the post-war democratic society, and the fostering of communication ability. In the context of moral education, films were regarded as a kind of art form useful for life, and emphasis was placed on the 'ideal' appreciation of films showing a suitable sensitivity based on the proper understanding of the characteristics of film as a medium. In the context of the fostering of communication skills, attention was paid not only to the visual aspects such as acting and expression, but also to the auditory aspects such as the spoken lines including their accents and tones. Cinema also played a role in proliferating standard Japanese to students all over Japan.