25 years around films in Yanesen
Hop, step, jump to be a film projectionist...
The successful local magazine “Yanesen” was founded by three women, Noriko Yamasaki, Mayumi Mori, and Hiromi Ohgi. I know Mori-san and Ohgi-san were both from Dozaka, Yanesen. Were you also born in this area?
I’m from Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture. It’s been 30 years since I got married and moved to Yanesen. I’ve moved house seven times in this area alone.
I cannot forget that when I met your son sometime before he said, “My mum did not buy a TV but a 16mm film projector”. When he wanted to watch TV, he had to go to his friend’s place. He is young but this episode sounded like something from the “Showa-era”……
My oldest son was born in 1981, so it is all about “Heisei-era”, actually. The policy of not having a TV at home was my husband’s and I didn’t care either way. My husband was a book designer, and he did not have his own office. He worked at home, and his desk was our dining table. In such an environment he probably thought a TV would disturb his working time a lot. He did not hate TV at all. He could not stop watching it if we were traveling and there was one in the hotel room, or when we went back to our parents’ places.
What was your motive to buy a projector?
I first saw it close up when I went to film screenings at my son’s kindergarten, soon after he enrolled. Looking back, that was the last time when schools were using film projectors to show something. The film I saw at that time was a Japanese animation, “The Kindly Lion (Yasashii Raion)” (Mushi Production, 1970). I was so moved by both the film itself and the projection and really got into it.
Into film projection?
It was not a special film projectionist but my son’s teacher who was doing the projection. Kids were in the front, concentrating on the screen, and parents were kind of at the back, so I happened to be near the projector. I asked the teacher “Can film projection be done by anybody?”, then she told me about a film projection workshop held by Bunkyo ward. I immediately applied for it. At that time, Bunkyo ward was still having an annual projection workshop. The kindergarten screening was in April, and I attended the workshop in June, and I acted as a projectionist in the summer of the same year for the outside screenings of “Winnie-the-Pooh”, for the parents’ committee’s party in the park. Every step to get there was so quick and smooth. It was the year after the foundation of the Yanesen magazine (in 1984). It was fun, so I started projecting films here and there. My family was living at that time on the 3rd floor of this building where our office is now in the ground floor. I started “D-slope Cinema” in my place. It was on Fridays.
Every week?
Indeed. In this mansion, there are no kids anymore, but in those days there were a lot of mothers were living and working full time, and they were about the same generation as me. We were sharing the food shopping to reduce the cost. I remember about ten kids from 0 to four years old were here, so I did a weekly film show and they were all glued to the screen, meanwhile mothers were distributing the food and able to prepare dinner without being interrupted by their kids. This is the origin of “D-slope Cinema”, which went on for quite a long time, and I was interviewed by the media. The name is still used for the screenings for local people held during the Geiko-ten festival in October (the former name was Yanaka Geiko-ten).
How did you set the admissions?
I rented films from the audiovisual library in Bunkyo ward. The show at my place was free, of course, but when I did it in other venues or outside parks, I charged even those kids, about 50 yen or 100 yen. Kids turned out with a coin in their fist to see films. If they pay, they are eager to see it to make it worth the money. That’s the same as adults. So, I don’t like “free admission” very much.
For kids, did you show mainly animation films?
Those animation films were so different from those on TV. The pace was so slow. For example, when “Thumbelina (Oyayubihime)” was just turning her head, she took a very long time for the single movement. And “Kumanoko Ufu”…… when Ufu said “What – - am – - I – - made – - from?”, it was very slow. I sometimes took my kids to the theater in the holidays for big budget “Doraemon” series or something, and got shocked at how fast the story was. I remember projecting “Le Ballon Rouge” and_”Crin blanc” for children. And Canadian films or Czech films used be stored at Hibiya Library. They were very popular. We also had a show for adults, with beer. When those kids grew up to be elementary school students, they went to an after-school care center in Sendagi, and the teachers there suggested to me, “Why don’t you use here for screenings?”, and I started the monthly “Sendagi Cinema”. This was larger scale … 30 to 40 seats. For kids, it was an exciting event as they were allowed to go out at night. The parents came to pick them up at 8:30 or 9:00 and went home together.
Those kids are now grown up, and do you think they remember all those screenings?
I wonder if they remember anything? For some reason, the younger the keener. Toddlers who came with their brothers and sisters were concentrating so hard on the screen. That was like a miracle. Some were gazing at the flickering light coming from the projector.
I have an impression that you’re especially fond of films and that was your role in Yanesen Kobo.
It was just because there was no TV in my house. Things related to films are just the tip of everything Yanesen Kobo has been dealing with. The film projector was rented from Bunkyo ward for the first year, but it’s so heavy to carry so I soon got fed up with it. Then I decided to buy one. I asked the agent introduced by Bunkyo ward and asked them to look for a used projector for me.
Do you remember how much it was at the time?
Sure. It was 240,000 yen with a screen. It was 22 to 23 years ago. I’ve heard that the original cost would have been over 400,000 yen. That was a Hokushin SC-10, an auto feed type whose arm was rotated. I used it for quite a long time, but the belt broke so I sold it and looked for a replacement. The next one was the SC-20, which I’m still using. The zoom lens was a present from my colleague, Hiromi. I’ve heard that it cost 20,000 yen. The Elmo one we deposited at FPS was donated by a company in Minato-ku, Tokyo, when they tried to threw it away. Even after the purchase, you had to take it to the ward office for an annual inspection, which was really a pain. Films are heavy enough but the machine is more than that. So every time I had to do that, I wrote a letter to the head of the ward office to suggest that films should be rented at the counter of the nearest library, even if it would take extra time and I had to wait longer, it would be no problem. Mr Osamu Haraguchi (a part time staff member at Bunkyo Academy) is now taking care of all the projectors’ inspection, and he visits us annually, which is a great help. In those days when I went for the inspection, I was surprised at so many projectors gathered together. But probably they were mainly from schools. The reason Mr Haraguchi can visit each owner’s place now is that the total number has dropped off dramatically, I guess.
Now we strongly feel that we can do such grassroots film preservation activities because we are based in Yanesen. Was there the kind of atmosphere that made it relatively easy to start the local activities here before you started the magazine?
I suppose in those days in Tokyo, there were also other similar areas such as housing complexes where lots of same generation families were living…… But, yes, you’re right, this area was very convenient for any women with jobs. Wherever your work place is, it’s easy to commute, and kindergartens, elementary schools, libraries and parks are nearby…… very comfortable. In those days, I had never thought that letting kids outside was such a dangerous thing as nowadays. So, it did not matter how small the house was. The apartment I was living in was less than 10 tsubo. It was one bedroom of 30 square meters or so.
Discovery of Film Treasures in Yanesen...
About film discoveries, we know already “Trip to Europe (Oshuryoko)” (1931, 16mm, 15 minutes) shot by a railway engineer, “Our Town (Watakushitachi no machi)” (1955, 16mm, 15 minutes) introducing the town of Shichiken-cho, Ikenohata, and the late Hanzo Kumasawa’s handmade animations…. such film treasures were discovered by you.
Kumasawa-san’s house used to be a traditional confectionery shop, a branch shop of “Takoshogetsu” in Asakusa. His shop was in Dangozaka, and we met him when we took up the traditional sweets in Yanesen as the topic of one of our issues. In the interview he said “Actually I’m making animation films”, so we asked him to show them, and found out how great they were. Since then we did film screenings so many times. At that time, he did not let anybody touch his films, but did the projection by himself. Kumasawa-san was doing annual 8mm film screenings with his pals in a theater in Shinjuku. When we went there we found another great 8mm filmmaker, Nakane-san, and we did shows for her films as well. In case of “Our Town”, shot in 1955, we found out about it through the daily work of Yanesen magazine. We immediately went to interview the owner of the camera shop (Ikenohata, Taito ward) who used to be a member of Pachiri-kai. As it was such a high quality film, when we decided to show it at Shinobazudori Fureaikan (Nezu, Bunkyo ward), it got a lot of media attention. The show attracted over 100 people. That was in 1998.
Shinobazudori Fureaikan is the first venue we held Home Movie Day at in Tokyo. Could you tell us your first impression of HMD? It was FPS’ first encounter with Yanesen Kobo, thanks to the librarian we both knew.
I found HMD interesting. Films such as “Our Town” are somehow intended to be shown to the public, right? But home movies are not something like that. They are very personal, but still it’s fun to see them…… I wonder why. I’ve been attending HMD every year since 2004, and realized that there is a clear division between interesting films and uninteresting films. Even if you know the family very well, when you visit somebody’s place and get forced to see videos of their kids or something, that is not really amusing……
It could be just a pain. I’d easily get fed up.
Something that could easily be a pain is turning out to be no pain at all … where is the border? Why are films belonging to somebody you do not even know worth going out to see and amusing? I can’t explain it very well.
When the owner of the film is there, and says something about the films, it suddenly can become amusing, which often happens.
That’s right. In 2006, I saw “Masao’s bicycle ride (Masao no jitensha)” which was just great in itself, but since we got to know that Masao-kun was there in person the film became much more fun. That moment was wonderful. (”Masao’s bicycle ride was shot sometime in the 1960s in Kita ward, Tokyo. In a very peaceful, rural-looking scene, Masao-kun and his sister and friends are practicing riding a bike and his dad shot the very moment he finally succeeded riding by himself).I’m not interested in shooting my own kids on video or taking pictures of them, but sometimes after the interview for the magazine, we ask them to show old family albums. Old streets, very rare costumes … such albums are great to see. For example, the picture showing the day one of the family members is going to war shows the atmosphere of the day very vividly. Recently I went to interview the Chinese restaurant “Otome” in Nezu. They used to be a bakery called “Otomepan”. After WWII, all the school lunches in the whole area had Otomepan, I’ve heard. They showed me the bakery factory photos, which were really interesting. Even for those who had never seen them, those photos must be very interesting, I believe.
Could you tell us more about impressive discoveries? Something to do with films?
“Tokyo, 20 yeas after (20 nengo no Tokyo)” made by urban design office of Tokyo in 1946 is the one. We were able to interview Shizue Miyazaki (formerly Watanabe) who works for Tokyo metropolitan office and saved the print of this film. Although she has no interest in films, she restored this print at her own expense. That made a big impression on me. Another one is a wartime 8mm film of a sports festival shot in Negishi elementary school in Taito ward. Batons were used as pretend bombs, and students competed with each other to see how quickly they could pass on the bombs to each other, and girls were doing parachute dance etc … it was shot by a doctor who lived in Negishi. I could not stop laughing as I was seeing it, but in reality it’s a very painful visual image. In the steeplechase race, boys are playing injured soldiers’ roles, with bandages and crutches, and girls are nurses. The owner does not want to show it in case it gets damaged, so I’ve seen it only once. Others are…. let me see, well, a Jewish film maker Benjamin Brodsky’s “Beautiful Japan” shot in the 1910s all over Japan. It seems Soichiro Asano from Asano cement was something to do with it. More than two hours of film is left, and about 15 years ago Masako Okada from Tokyo Cinema Shinsha (Hakusan, Bunkyo ward) was researching it and asked us for some help. It was such old footage that we asked an architect, Kaijiro Fujishima (1899-2002) to come with us and watched it on video together. We tried to tell if we knew where each sequence was shot but all we could tell and point out the place on the map was just the New Year parade of the fire brigades at Shinobazu Pond. So it was not much help in the end.
I’d like to ask you about cinemas in this area. As the Sanbyakunin Gekijo is gone, there’s no cinema in the Yanesen area.
Sanbyakunin was not a permanent movie theater but I loved it so I’m very disappointed. The last cinema in this area was Korakuen Cinema in Bunkyo ward. I did some research for our movie issue (out of print（Vol. 30 “Movies and movie theaters (Eiga to eigakan)”) and wrote that there were Dozaka Cinema in Honkomagome, or Nezu Academy in Sendagi. But all of them were closed down in the 1970s. I think there should be one community cinema in Yanesen.
* Unfortunately FPS’ library does not have Vol 30.
Lastly, I’d like you to talk about publishing a local magazine as it is the core of your job. Nowadays handmade “zines” are really popular among young people, but it’s not a business. I think a lot of people are longing for the published magazine, not web magazine, but it is financially difficult, as FPS cannot publish anything on paper.
I think the distribution route of the publishing industry is the problem. Such a system is unnecessary for a personal zine or small scale publishing. How to find somebody who really needs a particular magazine is impossible without the Internet at the moment. At one point, we had a lot of visitors who wanted to publish a magazine. We were asked how to make it by so many people. Two groups came from Okinawa – Borderink is one of them. It’s amazing to have them here before the foundation of the magazine but after a few months they sent us a copy to say “It’s ready, here you are!” and are still publishing. We are very impressed.
In the future, there will not be another Yanesen magazine in this area any more, but people who are thinking about something new can come here and learn how to get started, which is great.
Mayumi and I had some experience working in a publishing company. I once was a freelance editor and Mayumi was a freelance writer, so we were not absolute beginners, but we just knew part of the whole process of publishing. There were a lot of things we learned here in Yanesen. We can do it by hand and with basic stationery but that way is too old fashioned, I’m afraid. We are not making best use of PCs, which might make our printing costs higher. The basic process for us is not necessarily dependent on contemporary publishing processes. When you want to start doing your local activities, whatever they are, the rent is the burden. I really think that if the rent is reasonable, your possibilities expand. Our office is inexpensive but FPS’ is much cheaper. We should have moved into your place, instead of you!
Why don’t we share the office? Please think about it!
March 13th 2008 At Yabesen Kobo, Interviewer: K Ishihara
Please refer to Yanesen Net to know more about Yanesen Kobo.
