The , shortened to Prokino, was a left-wing film organization active in the late 1920s and early 1930s in Japan. Associated with the proletarian arts movement in Japan, it primarily used small gauge films such as

16mm film 16 mm film is a historically popular and economical gauge of film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 and 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, educ ...

and 9.5mm film to record demonstrations and workers' lives and show them in organized events or, using mobile projection teams, at factories and mines. It also published its own journals. Most of its films were

documentaries A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in term ...

newsreels A newsreel is a form of short documentary film, containing news stories and items of topical interest, that was prevalent between the 1910s and the mid 1970s. Typically presented in a cinema, newsreels were a source of current affairs, informa ...

, but Prokino also made

fiction films Narrative film, fictional film or fiction film is a motion picture that tells a fictional or fictionalized story, event or narrative. Commercial narrative films with running times of over an hour are often referred to as feature films, or feature ...

and

animated films Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anim ...

. Prominent members included

Akira Iwasaki (18 November 1903 – 16 September 1981) was a prominent left-wing Japanese film critic, historian, and producer. Born in Tokyo, he became interested in film from his student days at Tokyo University. Early on, he helped introduce German experimen ...

and

Genjū Sasa (14 January 1900 – 7 July 1959) was a left-wing Japanese film director and film critic Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films and the film medium. In general, film criticism can be divided into two categories: journalis ...

, although in its list of supporters one finds such figures as Daisuke Itō,

Kenji Mizoguchi was a Japanese film director and screenwriter, who directed about one hundred films during his career between 1923 and 1956. His most acclaimed works include ''The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums'' (1939), ''The Life of Oharu'' (1952), ''Uget ...

Shigeharu Nakano was a Japanese writer and Japanese Communist Party (JCP) politician. Nakano was born in Maruoka, now part of Sakai, Fukui. In 1914 he enrolled in middle school in Fukui, Fukui, and attended high school in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa and Kanazawa, Ish ...

Tomoyoshi Murayama was a Japanese artist, play writer, novelist and drama producer active during the Shōwa period in Japan. Early life Murayama was born in the Kanda Suehiro district of Tokyo. His father, who was a medic in the Imperial Japanese Navy, died when h ...

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 ou ...

, Kogo Noda,

Takiji Kobayashi was a Japanese writer of proletarian literature. He is best known for his short novel '' Kanikōsen'', or ''Crab Cannery Ship'', published in 1929. It tells the story of the hard life of cannery workers, fishermen and seamen on board a cannery ...

Sōichi Ōya was a Japanese journalist noted for his research and commentaries on popular culture. Biography Born in what is now part of Takatsuki, Osaka, Japan where his father was a soy sauce brewer, Ōya showed an early interest in social issues, and aft ...

Fuyuhiko Kitagawa (3 July 1900 – 12 April 1990) was a Japanese poet and film critic. His real name was . While born in Shiga Prefecture, he was raised in Manchukuo in China due to his father's work on the South Manchurian Railway, and then graduated from To ...

Tokihiko Okada (February 18, 1903 – January 16, 1934) was a silent film star in Japan during the 1920s and early 1930s. A native of Tokyo, he first started at the Taikatsu studio and later he was a leading player for Japanese directors such as Yasujirō ...

Matsuo Kishi (18 September 1906 – 17 August 1985) was a Japanese film critic, director, screenwriter, producer, and biographer. His real name was Aji Shūichirō. Born in Tokyo, he became interested in film from his days in high school and, continuing on to ...

Kiyoshi Miki was a Japanese philosopher, literary critic, scholar and university professor. He was an esteemed student of Nishida Kitarō and a prominent member of the Kyoto School. Miki was a prolific academic and social critic of his time. He also had ...

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 n ...

, Teppei Kataoka, and

Shigeyoshi Suzuki was a Japanese football player who played for and later managed the Japan national team. Club career Suzuki was born in Fukushima Prefecture on October 13, 1902. He was a founding member of the football team at Waseda University High School in ...

. The movement was eventually suppressed by the police under the

Peace Preservation Law The was a Japanese law enacted on April 22, 1925, with the aim of allowing the Special Higher Police to more effectively suppress socialists and communists. In addition to criminalizing forming an association with the aim of altering the ''kokuta ...

, but many former members became prominent figures in the Japanese documentary and fiction film industries.

References

External links

Prokino
- ''Documentary Box'' (Interview with Katsuo Noto and Shizuo Komori by Mamoru Makino and

Aaron Gerow Aaron Gerow () is an American historian of Japanese cinema, and a member of the faculty of Yale University where he holds a joint position between the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures and the Film Studies Programs. Education Gero ...

) * Makino, Mamoru.
Rethinking the Emergence of the Proletarian Film League of Japan (Prokino)
" ''In Praise of Film Studies: Essays in Honor of Makino Mamoru''. Eds. Aaron Gerow and Abé Mark Nornes (Kinema Club, 2001).

Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan. Full text of many Prokino publications.
Prewar Proletarian Film Movements Collection: Films
Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan. QuickTime copies of six Prokino films. Film organizations in Japan Political art Japanese political films 1930s in Japanese cinema Far-left politics in Japan 1920s in Japanese cinema {{film-org-stub