Historical Dictionary of Japanese Cinema

565 Pages·2011·3.67 MB·English

by  Jasper Sharp

Historical Dictionaries of literature
anD tHe arts
Jon Woronoff, series editor
Science Fiction Literature, by Brian Stableford, 2004.
Hong Kong Cinema, by Lisa Odham Stokes, 2007.
American Radio Soap Operas, by Jim Cox, 2005.
Japanese Traditional Theatre, by Samuel L. Leiter, 2006.
Fantasy Literature, by Brian Stableford, 2005.
Australian and New Zealand Cinema, by Albert Moran and Errol Vieth, 2006.
African-American Television, by Kathleen Fearn-Banks, 2006.
Lesbian Literature, by Meredith Miller, 2006.
Scandinavian Literature and Theater, by Jan Sjåvik, 2006.
British Radio, by Seán Street, 2006.
German Theater, by William Grange, 2006.
African American Cinema, by S. Torriano Berry and Venise Berry, 2006.
Sacred Music, by Joseph P. Swain, 2006.
Russian Theater, by Laurence Senelick, 2007.
French Cinema, by Dayna Oscherwitz and MaryEllen Higgins, 2007.
Postmodernist Literature and Theater, by Fran Mason, 2007.
Irish Cinema, by Roderick Flynn and Pat Brereton, 2007.
Australian Radio and Television, by Albert Moran and Chris Keating, 2007.
Polish Cinema, by Marek Haltof, 2007.
Old Time Radio, by Robert C. Reinehr and Jon D. Swartz, 2008.
Renaissance Art, by Lilian H. Zirpolo, 2008.
Broadway Musical, by William A. Everett and Paul R. Laird, 2008.
American Theater: Modernism, by James Fisher and Felicia Hardison Londré,
2008.
German Cinema, by Robert C. Reimer and Carol J. Reimer, 2008.
Horror Cinema, by Peter Hutchings, 2008.
Westerns in Cinema, by Paul Varner, 2008.
Chinese Theater, by Tan Ye, 2008.
Italian Cinema, by Gino Moliterno, 2008.
Architecture, by Allison Lee Palmer, 2008.
Russian and Soviet Cinema, by Peter Rollberg, 2008.
African American Theater, by Anthony D. Hill, 2009.
Postwar German Literature, by William Grange, 2009.
Modern Japanese Literature and Theater, by J. Scott Miller, 2009.
Animation and Cartoons, by Nichola Dobson, 2009.
Modern Chinese Literature, by Li-hua Ying, 2010.
Middle Eastern Cinema, by Terri Ginsberg and Chris Lippard, 2010.
Spanish Cinema, by Alberto Mira, 2010.
Film Noir, by Andrew Spicer, 2010.
French Theater, by Edward Forman, 2010.
Choral Music, by Melvin P. Unger, 2010.
Westerns in Literature, by Paul Varner, 2010.
Baroque Art and Architecture, by Lilian H. Zirpolo, 2010.
Surrealism, by Keith Aspley, 2010.
Science Fiction Cinema, by M. Keith Booker, 2010.
Latin American Literature and Theater, by Richard A. Young and Odile Cis-
neros, 2011.
Children’s Literature, by Emer O’Sullivan, 2010.
German Literature to 1945, by William Grange, 2011.
Neoclassical Art and Architecture, by Allison Lee Palmer, 2011.
American Cinema, by M. Keith Booker, 2011.
American Theater: Contemporary, by James Fisher, 2011.
English Music: ca. 1400–1958, by Charles Edward McGuire and Steven E.
Plank, 2011.
Rococo Art, by Jennifer D. Milam, 2011.
Romantic Art and Architecture, by Allison Lee Palmer, 2011.
Japanese Cinema, by Jasper Sharp, 2011.
Historical Dictionary of
Japanese Cinema

Jasper Sharp
The Scarecrow Press, Inc.
Lanham • Toronto • Plymouth, UK
2011
Published by Scarecrow Press, Inc.
A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
http://www.scarecrowpress.com
Estover Road, Plymouth PL6 7PY, United Kingdom
Copyright © 2011 by Jasper Sharp
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any
electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems,
without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote
passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
library of congress cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sharp, Jasper, 1971-
Historical dictionary of Japanese cinema / Jasper Sharp.
p. cm. -- (Historical dictionaries of literature and the arts)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-8108-5795-7 (cloth : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-0-8108-7541-8 (ebook)
1. Motion pictures--Japan--History--Dictionaries. I. Title. II. Series: Historical
dictionaries of literature and the arts.
PN1993.5.J3S45 2011
791.4303--dc22 2011010684
 ™
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Printed in the United States of America
For Thorin
This volume is dedicated to all who
lost their lives or were affected by the
Tôhoku Earthquake and Tsunami of 11 March 2011.

Contents
Editor’s Foreword Jon Woronoff ix
Preface xi
Reader’s Note xiii
Acronyms and Abbreviations xvii
Chronology xix
Introduction 1
THE DICTIONARY 15
Appendix A: Names of Japanese Film Companies, Studios,
and Other Organizations 313
Appendix B: Japanese Titles of Films Referenced in the Text 321
Appendix C: Individuals Referenced in Text 399
Glossary 419
Bibliography 423
About the Author 523
vii

Editor’s Foreword
Japanese cinema is deceptively familiar to most of us. We know some of the
outstanding directors and actors, at least those who have become popular in
the West. Many of us have marveled at the technical prowess of one or more
anime. We, as children or with our children, have gaped at Godzilla and other
monsters, thrilled to yakuza and swordplay films, and shivered through some
of the J-Horror, and without our children, may even have succumbed to pink
films and Roman Porno. If asked, many of us would put the Seven Samurai
and Rashomon on any list of all-time best. But there is so much more that we
are less familiar with, including the early pioneering works, documentaries,
many of the period pieces, comedy and household dramas, films on feminism
or minorities, and certainly the production of war films before and during the
Pacific War. The studio names are familiar, but not their genesis (and some-
times disappearance). And we do not really know the producers and actors
of popular Japanese fare that is rarely seen abroad. So this volume has the
double advantage of telling us more about the things we are familiar with, but
especially filling in the huge gaps regarding less known directors, actors, and
other film personnel; studios; and more typically Japanese genres.
This Historical Dictionary of Japanese Cinema goes about its work like
others in the series. A good place to start in this case is with the chronology,
which stretches further back than may be expected, indeed to the very earliest
days of cinema per se, and continues on for well over a century full of im-
portant cinematic events, but is also embedded in the broader political world
that is referenced in many films. The list of acronyms helps us in reading this
and other texts. And the introduction provides the general context. But the
bulk of the information comes in the dictionary section, with fairly extensive
entries on leading directors and actors, major studios, some filmmaking tech-
niques, assorted cinematic genres, significant historical periods, and several
outstanding films. In this case, since Japanese is not a familiar language for
nearly all foreigners, the glossary plays a special role in familiarizing us with
the related terminology. In the appendixes, the lists of companies and awards,
titles of films, and names of individuals give us the original Japanese for all of
these. And the bibliography, an amazingly plentiful one, can direct us toward
ix