Film

Select Archival Collections

Containing amateur films, news films, and other non-feature films related to Japan

George Eastman Museum http://eastman.org/

Harvard Film Archive Home Movies Collection http://hcl.harvard.edu/hfa/collections/home_movies.html

Hearst Metrotone News Collection https://newsreels.net/

Home Movie Registry (online resource) http://www.homemovieregistry.org/

Hugh M. Hefner Moving Image Archive (USC School of Cinematic Arts) http://cinema.usc.edu/index.cfm

Human Studies Film Archives (Smithsonian Institute) http://www.anthropology.si.edu/naa/home/hsfahome.html The HSFA YouTube channel, HSFAFilmClips, features many wonderfully diverse excerpts of amateur travel films of Japan.

Internet Archive (online resource) https://archive.org/

Japanese Film Heritage: NFAJ Non-film Collection Portal ( 映画遺産ー国立映画アーカイブ映画資料ポータル　https://nfajfilmheritage.jp/ A selection of film-related materials from the National Film Archive of Japan (NFAJ) that highlights the history of Japanese film culture and the individuals who contributed to it.

Japanese Small Gauge/Amateur Footage Search (Film Preservation Society, Tokyo). http://filmpres.org/project/hmd/search/

Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division Captured Foreign Collections: Japan http://www.loc.gov/rr/mopic/mpcoll.html

Moving Image Research Collections (MIRC) Digital Video Repository, University of South Carolina University Libraries Over 100 entries for Japan, including home movies and outtakes and released newsreels from the Library's extensive Fox Movietone News collection (circa 1919-1944). This collection includes Fox News (silent, 1919-1930) and Fox Movietone News (sound, ran from 1927 through 1963). http://mirc.sc.edu/

NHK 戦争証言アーカイブ (NHK Sensō shōgen aakaibu) Japanese language site featuring films and other media documenting World War II http://www.nhk.or.jp/shogenarchives/

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) http://www.archives.gov/

National Film Archive of Japan (NFAJ / 国立映画アーカイブ), Tokyo (E) http://www.nfaj.go.jp/english/

Pacific Film Archive Cinephiles: University of California Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive http://cinefiles.bampfa.berkeley.edu/cinefiles/

Shōwa-kan (昭和館): National Shōwa Memorial Museum (J/E) http://www.showakan.go.jp/  

Film Preservation Links

Association of Moving Image Archivists Non-profit professional association established to advance the field of moving image archiving http://www.amianet.org/

Film Archives Online Multilingual. Access to catalogue information of film archives from all over Europe. Works can be searched for by content, filmographic data and physical characteristics. Search results provide information about existence and location of the materials and contact details to facilitate access. Focuses on non-fiction material; i.e. documentary and educational films, newsreels, travelogue, advertising, scientific, industrial, experimental, sports films, and animation films www.filmarchives-online.eu

Filmcare.org Newly launched by the National Endowment for the Humanities, this is "a central resource for best practices in film preservation that provides guidelines for dealing with the preservation of all types and formats of film materials. It addresses the requirements for preserving black-and-white and color film and nitrate, acetate, and polyester-based film. It also addresses specific issues for motion-picture film, sheet film, still roll film, microfilm, and aerial film, as well as the management of collections containing a variety of media types (certainly the most common real-life situations encountered in the field). This approach focuses primarily on storage, condition surveys, and the development and implementation of best-fit environment-based strategies. Users can create a FREE account to evaluate their own collections and get specific guidance on next steps for best practices for film preservation." https://filmcare.org/

Film Forever: the Home Film Preservation Guide For DIYers who find gold in family attics, flea markets, etc. http://www.filmforever.org/

Moving Image Archive News: a clearinghouse of information on film archiving and related endeavors Current film archival activities (preservation projects, symposia, access information etc.) around the world http://www.movingimagearchivenews.org/workplace/

National Film Preservation Foundation (USA) http://www.filmpreservation.org/

The Pordenone Silent  Film Festival (Le Giornate del Cinema Muto) Features special programs of films from Japan in 2001, 2005, 2010, 2011, etc., has searchable database http://www.cinetecadelfriuli.org/gcm/

“Preserving the World of Burton Holmes” Podcast by George Eastman Museum (formerly George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film), introduction to travel-lecturer Holmes and efforts to preserve a collection of his work https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwC9COY_TEo

Small Gauge Film: The Basics Tutorial helpful for identifying small gauge films. http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/technology/tutorials/graphics/film/

Video Aids to Film Preservation Helpful videos demonstrate film care, preservation, and restoration http://www.folkstreams.net/vafp/  

Other Online Archival Media Resources

The Burton Holmes Archive The World's largest repository of films, photographs, programs, scrapbooks and other ephemera related to the life and career of travel photographer, filmmaker and lecturer Burton Holmes http://www.burtonholmesarchive.com/

Huntley Film Archive Independant, commercial film archive with an extensive and unique range of films related to Japan, including newsreels; commercials; travel, informational and educational films; and amateur home movies (1890s-2000). http://www.huntleyarchives.com/

Media History Digital Library: Online access to the histories of Cinema, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound http://mediahistoryproject.org/

Modern Kyoto Research. This online resource "follows recent research on Kyoto’s modernity and explores continuity and change in Kyoto from the Bakumatsu (1853–1868) to the postwar and beyond." Founders and general editors: Daniel Milne (Kyoto University) and Ran Zwigenberg (Pennsylvania State University). Managing editor: Andrew Elliott (Doshisha Women's College) https://www.modernkyotoresearch.org/home

Texas Archive of the Moving Image: Education Kit (“Guide to Using Archival Film in the Classroom”). This site is particularly useful for K-12 teachers but has good information for everyone. http://www.texasarchive.org/education/guide.html

Toy Film Museum/おもちや映画ミュージアム (Japanese) http://toyfilm-museum.jp/

The Travel Film Archive (Stock Footage from Around the World) Includes clips of Bits of Life In Japan (Burton Holmes, 1921); Japan in Cherry Blossom Time (James A. Fitzpatrick, 1932); The Island Empire (James A. Fitzpatrick, 1932); The Farmers and Fishermen of Japan (1950s); Deane Dickason's Japan's Rising Sun (1953); and others http://www.travelfilmarchive.com/

Japan

Digital Humanities

Digital Humanities Center for Japanese Arts and Cultures (Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto) 日本文化デジタルヒューマニティーズ拠点 English: http://www.arc.ritsumei.ac.jp/lib/GCOE/e/ Japanese: http://www.arc.ritsumei.ac.jp/lib/GCOE/index.html

Japanese Association for Digital Humanities http://www.jadh.org/  

Postcards

Art of the Japanese Postcard - The Leonard A. Lauder Collection, Boston Museum of Fine Arts http://www.mfa.org/collections/asia/art-japanese-postcard

Database of the Pre-1945 East Asian Postcards (Kyoto University Area Studies Center for Integrated Information) (Japanese) http://app.cias.kyoto-u.ac.jp/infolib/meta_pub/G0000022PPC

Japan Picture Postcard Society (JPPS) (Japanese) http://www.nihon-ehagakikai.com/  

Tourism Organizations

International Tourism Center of Japan 国際観光サービスセンター English: http://www.itcj.or.jp/en/ Japanese: http://www.itcj.or.jp/

Japan Heritage Official Site https://www.japan.travel/japan-heritage/

Japan National Tourism Organization http://www.jnto.go.jp/

Japan Tourism Agency, (MLIT - Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Tourism) 国士交通省観光庁 English: http://www.mlit.go.jp/kankocho/en/ Japanese: http://www.mlit.go.jp/kankocho/

Japan Tourism Marketing Co. JTB 総合研究所 English: http://www.tourism.jp/en/ Japanese: http://www.tourism.jp/

Official Tourism Guide for Japan Travel ("Japan: Endless Discovery") Japan National Tourist Organization http://www.japantravelinfo.com/

Selected Locations and Events: Hōzugawa-kudari (Hōzu-gawa River Boatride) English/Japanese/Chinese 16 kilometer, two-hour boatride from Tanba Kameoka to Arashiyama, Kyoto dating back to 1895 as a sightseeing experience (see postcards depicting the boat ride under "Cities and Sites" - "Kyoto") http://www.hozugawakudari.jp/en  

Visual and Material Culture

Asia and the Eastern Pacific Rim in Early Prints and Photographs (The New York Public Library Digital Collections) http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/asia-and-the-eastern-pacific-rim-in-early-prints-and-photographs

"Collecting Souvenirs in Japan: A Diary" (curated by Sara Pimpaneau and Inge Daniels, The British Museum website) The focus is the "scope and variety of souvenirs in domestic travel, their role as gifts, and their place in the home,"  but the objects showcased are also relevant to the topic of inbound tourism. http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/online_tours/japan/collecting_souvenirs_in_japan/collecting_souvenirs_in_japan.aspx

East Asian Image Collection Dr. Paul C. Barclay, Founder and Curator (Lafayette University) An open‐access digital archive of over 5100 visual records that contains postcards, prints, negatives, slides, and other visual records of Japanese imperialism, the postwar American occupation, and Chinese history. http://digital.lafayette.edu/collections/eastasia

Dr. Barclay has published articles about Japanese imperial postcards and the visual history of empire and nation‐building in East Asia. See his related blog: https://sites.lafayette.edu/eastasia/

The Ephemera Society of America http://www.ephemerasociety.org/

Graphics Atlas (Image Permanence Institute, Rochester NY) - A comprehensive resource for the identification and characterization of print and photographic processes http://www.graphicsatlas.org/

Kamishibai Propaganda Plays  https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/kamishibai
Digitized versions of 52 kamishibai plays created between 1938 and 1945, from the collection of Professor Sharalyn Orbaugh of the Department of Asian Studies at UBC.

MIT Visualizing Cultures http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/home/index.html Launched in 2002 “to explore the potential of the Web for developing innovative image-driven scholarship and learning. The VC mission is to use new technology and hitherto inaccessible visual materials to reconstruct the past as people of the time visualized the world (or imagined it to be).” Of particular interest: the two-part “Globetrotters Japan: Foreigners on the Tourist Circuit in Meiji Japan” (“Places” and “People”), with essays by Allen Hockley; and the two-part “Felice Beato’s Japan: An Album by the Pioneer Foreign Photographer in Yokohama” (“Places” and “People”), with essays by Allen Hockley and Alona C. Wilson. There are several other units that explore 20th century Japan through visual culture.

The Magic Lantern Society http://www.magiclanhternsociety.org/ 

Makino Collection Blog: Archiving East Asian Film Studies at Starr Library (Columbia University) Informative blog on the extensive collection of Asian film ephemera (the collection of film scholar Mamoru Makino) at the C.V. Starr East Asia Library. https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/makino/

Meiji and Taishō Eras in Photographs (National Diet Library, Japan) 写真の中の明治・大正（国立国会図書館）国立国会図書館所蔵写真から（東京、関西、東北） Photographs of Tokyo, Kansai and Tōhoku from the collection of the National Diet Library, Japan) English: http://www.ndl.go.jp/scenery_top/e/ Japanese: http://www.ndl.go.jp/scenery_top/

Metadata Database of Japanese Old Photographs in Bakumatsu-Meiji Period (Nagasaki University Library Collection) 幕末・明治日本写真メタヂータ・ヂータベース Approximately 7000 photographs taken all over Japan from the latter half of the 19th c. through approximately the first decade of the 20th c. English: http://oldphoto.lb.nagasaki-u.ac.jp/en/ Japanese: http://oldphoto.lb.nagasaki-u.ac.jp/jp/

North American Japanese Garden Association "Japanese gardens are an international phenomenon. They are found in at least 53 countries, North America alone has more than 250. Despite their popularity and social function, there have been few regular forums for exchanging information and ideas about them, until now. In 2010, leaders in the field of Japanese gardens outside of Japan embarked on an initiative to create a network, the North American Japanese Garden Association (NAJGA). NAJGA is a not for profit organization devoted to connecting people within the network of Japanese gardens. Through public education, professional development and research NAJGA connects the Horticulture, Human Culture and Business Culture of Japanese gardens in the US and Canada." http://www.najga.org/

Our Sense of Place: Exploring Sites in Japan, the United States, and Beyond Website developed to accompany the 2015 exhibition at the Arthur Ross Gallery, University of Pennsylvania that brought together 20th century prints on the theme of "famous places" (名所). This subject was influential in the development of landscape imagery in Japan, and was associated with the courtly poetry practice that named and praised significant sites. As the website explains, by the late 18th century the exigencies of the contemporary publishing market had transformed this practice to accommodate a new set of famous locations. Modern print artists also referenced the landscape tradition established in ukiyo-e prints in their own work, often reflecting changes in the 20th century landscape. http://oursenseofplace.squarespace.com/