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Osanai Kaoru
was a Japanese theater director, playwright, and actor central in the development of modern Japanese theater. Biography Kaoru Osanai was born on July 26, 1881, in Hiroshima, the second son of Director of Hiroshima Army Garrison Hospital, Takeshi Osanai. His father was a former samurai from Hirosaki Domain. When he was five, Takeshi died abruptly at the age of 38, leaving his three children Reiko, Kaoru and Yachiyo to his wife Taka. Osanai subsequently moved to Tokyo where he received his education. The family lived comfortably at Takeshi's mansion where Taka and her female friends practiced music. Osanai studied English literature at Tokyo Imperial University, graduating in 1906. In 1909, Osanai founded the Free Theater (Jiyū Gekijō) with Ichikawa Sadanji II and staged translations of Ibsen, Chekov, and Gorky, but there he experienced the limits of doing realist theater with kabuki actors. Osanai described these limits as an "existing theatrical poison", for he aimed to e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hiroshima
is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui has been the city's mayor since April 2011. Hiroshima was founded in 1589 as a castle town on the Ōta River delta. Following the Meiji Restoration in 1868, Hiroshima rapidly transformed into a major urban center and industrial hub. In 1889, Hiroshima officially gained city status. The city was a center of military activities during the imperial era, playing significant roles such as in the First Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War, and the two world wars. Hiroshima was the first military target of a nuclear weapon in human history. This occurred on August 6, 1945, at 8:15 a.m., when the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) dropped the atomic bomb "Little Boy" on the city. Most of Hiroshima was destroyed, and by the end of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Gabriel Borkman
''John Gabriel Borkman'' is a 1896 play by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It was his penultimate work. Plot The Borkman family fortunes have been brought low by the imprisonment of John Gabriel who used his position as a bank manager to speculate with his investors' money. The action of the play takes place eight years after Borkman's release when John Gabriel Borkman, Mrs. Borkman, and her twin sister Ella Rentheim fight over young Erhart Borkman's future. Though ''John Gabriel Borkman'' continues the line of naturalism and social commentary that marks Ibsen's work over the preceding thirty years, the final act suggests a new phase for the playwright which was brought to fruition in his final symbolic work ''When We Dead Awaken''. Characters * John Gabriel Borkman * Mrs. Gunhild Borkman * Erhart Borkman, their son * Ella Rentheim, Mrs. Borkman's twin sister * Mrs. Fanny Wilton * Vilhelm Foldal * Frida Foldal, his daughter * Malene, housekeeper Background The Norwegia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kikuchi Kan
, also known as Kan Kikuchi (which uses the same kanji as his real name), was a Japanese author. He established the publishing company Bungeishunjū, the monthly magazine of the same name, the Japan Writer's Association and both the Akutagawa and Naoki Prize for popular literature. He came to prominence for the plays "Madame Pearl" and "Father Returns", but his ample support for the Imperial Japanese war effort led to his marginalization in the postwar period. He was also the head of Daiei Motion Picture Company (currently Kadokawa Pictures). He is known to have been an avid player of Mahjong. Early life and career Kikuchi was born on December 26, 1888, in Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan. In 1904-1905 after the Russo-Japanese War, literature in Japan grew more modern. French Realism was one of the first influences that immersed into Japan's literature. Building from the famous and classic works from the West, which include diaries and autobiographies, Japanese writers form ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jun'ichirō Tanizaki
was a Japanese author who is considered to be one of the most prominent figures in modern Japanese literature. The tone and subject matter of his work ranges from shocking depictions of sexuality and destructive erotic obsessions to subtle portrayals of the dynamics of family life within the context of the rapid changes in 20th-century Japanese society. Frequently, his stories are narrated in the context of a search for cultural identity in which constructions of the West and Japanese tradition are juxtaposed. He was one of six authors on the final shortlist for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1964, the year before his death. Biography Early life Tanizaki was born into a well-to-do merchant class family in Nihonbashi, Tokyo, where his uncle owned a printing press, which had been established by his grandfather. His parents were Kuragorō and Seki Tanizaki. His older brother, Kumakichi, died three days after his birth, which made him the next eldest son of the family. Tani ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Keio University
, mottoeng = The pen is mightier than the sword , type = Private research coeducational higher education institution , established = 1858 , founder = Yukichi Fukuzawa , endowment = N/A , president = Prof. Kohei Itoh , city = Minato , state = Tokyo , country = Japan , coor = , faculty = full time 2,791 , administrative_staff = full-time 3,216 , students = 33,437 , undergrad = 28,641 , postgrad = 4,796 , doctoral = 1,426excluding master course students as students in "Doctorate (prior)" , other_students = 0 In 2021, research students and auditors were not recruited due to the global epidemic of COVID‐19 (coronavirus disease). , campus = Urban , free_label = Athletics , free ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Denmei Suzuki
was a Japanese film actor most famous for starring roles in gendaigeki of the silent era. Career Suzuki was born in Tokyo and was a championship swimmer at Meiji University when he first appeared in ''Souls on the Road'' in 1921 under the name Zeya Tōgō (東郷是也, a pun on the English "to go there"). After graduating in 1924, he joined the Nikkatsu studio and began acting under his own name. He moved to Shōchiku's Kamata studio the next year and became a major star appearing in youth films often directed by Kiyohiko Ushihara. He also worked with directors such as Kenji Mizoguchi, Minoru Murata, Masahiro Makino, and Yasujirō Shimazu. He also directed some films and even ran for political office, though unsuccessfully. Selected filmography * ''Souls on the Road'' (路上の霊魂, Rojō no reikon) (1921) * '' Marching On'' (進軍, Shingun) (1930) * '' The Mountain Pass of Love and Hate'' (愛憎峠 Aizo toge) (1934) * ''Ahen senso (or ) aka ''The Opium War '' is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yasujirō Shimazu
was a Japanese film director and screenwriter, and a pioneer of the ''shomin-geki'' (common people drama) genre at the Shōchiku studios in pre-World War II Japan. Biography Shimazu was born in Tokyo, the second son of merchant Otojirō Shimazu. His father owned a long-established seaweed business named Kōshū-ya directly in front of the main Mitsukoshi department store in Nihonbashi. Shimazu entered Shōchiku in 1920 after answering an advertisement and began training under Kaoru Osanai. He gave his debut as director in 1921 at Shōchiku's recently established Kamata studio, directing both comedy and melodrama films, often depicting the everyday life of the lower middle classes. ''Our Neighbor, Miss Yae'' (1934) and ''A Brother and His Younger Sister'' (1939) are regarded as his most exemplary and best films. By the end of the 1930s, he moved to Tōhō studios, where he made some films in cooperation with the Manchuria Film Association. He died of cancer just after the war e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daisuke Itō (film Director)
was a Japanese film director and screenwriter who played a central role in the development of the modern jidaigeki and samurai cinema. Career Born in Ehime Prefecture, Itō joined the actors school at Shōchiku in 1920, but soon began writing screenplays under the recommendation of Kaoru Osanai. He made his directorial debut in 1924 at Teikoku Kinema with ''Shuchū nikki''. After trying to start his own production company, he settled at Nikkatsu and established his name in 1927 with the three-part ''Chūji tabi nikki'', which is considered one of the masterpieces of ''jidaigeki''. Especially in the silent era, he was known for a very mobile camera style that earned him the nickname "Idō daisuki" (Loves Motion), which is a pun on his name. The heroes of his films, such as Tange Sazen and Kunisada Chūji, were often disaffected, nihilistic loners and thus Itō's early films were sometimes considered tendency films. He was criticized, however, for being more of a stylist than a t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kiyohiko Ushihara
was a Japanese film director most famous for his gendaigeki of the silent era. Career Born in Kumamoto Prefecture and graduating from Tokyo University, Ushihara joined the Shochiku studio in 1920 on the invitation of Kaoru Osanai. Starting out by helping on the script to Minoru Murata's Gorky-influenced ''Souls on the Road'', he made his directorial debut in 1921 and later directed adaptations of such works as Victor Hugo's ''Les Misérables'' under the title ''Aa mujō''. In the mid-1920s he went to America to study Hollywood filmmaking, working under Charlie Chaplin. He returned to film romantic comedies and action films starring Denmei Suzuki and Kinuyo Tanaka such as '' Shingun''. Between 1928 and 1932 he co-edited the journal ''Eiga kagaku kenkyū'' (Scientific Studies of Cinema) with Murata. He left Shōchiku in the early 1930s and worked at studios such as Nikkatsu, Shinkō Kinema and Daiei. Quitting directing following the Second World War, he starting to teach filmmaki ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minoru Murata
was a Japanese film director, screenwriter, and actor who was one of the major directors of the silent era in Japan. Career Born in Tokyo, Murata started out as a shingeki actor on the stage. Murata's troupe appeared in the first " pure films" directed by Norimasa Kaeriyama at Tenkatsu in 1918. On the recommendation of the playwright Kaoru Osanai, he then joined Shochiku in 1920 and participated in the actors school Osanai ran there. He ended up directing ''Souls on the Road'' (1921), a ground breaking reformist film that is one of the few films surviving from that era. Murata later moved to Nikkatsu, where he directed such critical hits as '' Seisaku's Wife'' (1924) and ''The Street Juggler'' (1925) which were "important in establishing the form of Japanese films about contemporary life." He later worked at Shinkō Kinema. He started up the important journal, ''Eiga kagaku kenkyū'', in 1928 with Kiyohiko Ushihara, and helped found the Directors Guild of Japan in 1936, becom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Japanese Cinema
The has a history that spans more than 100 years. Japan has one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world; as of 2021, it was the fourth largest by number of feature films produced. In 2011 Japan produced 411 feature films that earned 54.9% of a box office total of US$2.338 billion. Films have been produced in Japan since 1897, when the first foreign cameramen arrived. ''Tokyo Story'' (1953) ranked number three in ''Sight & Sound'' critics' list of the 100 greatest films of all time. ''Tokyo Story'' also topped the 2012 ''Sight & Sound'' directors' poll of The Top 50 Greatest Films of All Time, dethroning ''Citizen Kane'', while Akira Kurosawa's ''Seven Samurai'' (1954) was voted the greatest foreign-language film of all time in BBC's 2018 poll of 209 critics in 43 countries. Japan has won the Academy Award for the Best International Feature Film four times, more than any other Asian country. Japan's Big Four film studios are Toho, Toei, Shochiku and Kadokawa, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Souls On The Road
is a 1921 Japanese silent film directed by Minoru Murata. Film critic Mark Cousins (film critic), Mark Cousins wrote that it was "the first landmark film in Japanese history". See also * Cinema of Japan References Further reading * * * * * External links * 1921 films Japanese silent films Japanese black-and-white films {{1920s-Japan-film-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
