was a Japanese

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: journalistic criticism that appears regularly in newspapers, magazines and other popular mass-media outlets ...

and

film theorist Film theory is a set of scholarly approaches within the academic discipline of film or cinema studies that began in the 1920s by questioning the formal essential attributes of motion pictures; and that now provides conceptual frameworks for unde ...

. Born in

Saitama Prefecture is a landlocked prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Saitama Prefecture has a population of 7,338,536 (1 January 2020) and has a geographic area of 3,797 km2 (1,466 sq mi). Saitama Prefecture borders Tochigi Prefecture ...

, he attended the Kobe University of Commerce (the precursor to

Kobe University , also known in the Kansai region as , is a leading Japanese national university located in the city of Kobe, in Hyōgo Prefecture, Hyōgo. It was established in 1949, but the academic origins of Kobe University trace back to the establishment of ...

) but left before graduating. In 1935 he helped found the film

dojinshi , also romanized as ', is the Japanese term for self-published print works, such as magazines, manga, and novels. Part of a wider category of '' doujin'' (self-published) works, ''doujinshi'' are often derivative of existing works and created b ...

''Eiga shūdan'' (Film Collective). Writing from a left-wing perspective, he was a strong advocate of the realistic aspects of cinema and thus a champion of

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

. He was also the first in Japan to pursue an extensive study of

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

. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he became the publisher of the journals ''Eiga bunka'' (Film Culture) and ''Eizō bunka'' (Image Culture). In his later years, he penned a study of the novelist

Naoya Shiga was a Japanese writer active during the Taishō and Shōwa periods of Japan, whose work was distinguished by its lucid, straightforward style and strong autobiographical overtones. Early life Shiga was born in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, ...

. He published over 27 books during his career. Underlining how Imamura was a unique figure in the history of Japanese film theory,

Heiichi Sugiyama was a Japanese poet, film critic, and film theorist. Career Born the son of a wealthy engineer in Fukushima Prefecture, Sugiyama studied art history at the University of Tokyo, and it was at that time that he was discovered by the poet Tatsuji M ...

subtitled his autobiography of Imamura, "A solitary and original critic of the image".

Anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

directors such as

Isao Takahata was a Japanese director, screenwriter and producer. A co-founder of Studio Ghibli, he earned international critical acclaim for his work as a director of Japanese animated feature films. Born in Ujiyamada, Mie Prefecture, Takahata joined Toei ...

have expressed their debt to ImamuraHauru no ugoku shiro
(in Japanese) and

Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation studio headquartered in Koganei, Tokyo."Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment". ''Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment''. Retrieved 2020-12-14. It is best known for its animated feature films, and ha ...

has republished his book on animation, ''Manga eigaron''.

Selected publications

* * *

Notes

References

*Amit, Rea (2019)."What Is Japanese Cinema?: Imamura Taihei’s Wartime Theory of Japanese Film, Tradition, and Art," ''Positions: Asia Critique''27.4 (November 2019):pp.597-621. *Driscoll, Mark (2002). "From Kino-Eye to Anime-eye/ai: The Filmed and the Animated in Imamura Taihei's Media Theory," ''Japan Forum'' 14.2 (September 2002): pp. 269–296. Japanese film critics Film theorists 1911 births 1986 deaths {{anime-bio-stub