Research Guide to Japanese Film Studies

One day in Germany, I sat down with Aaron Gerow for coffee and proposed that we write a research guide for all the resources for studying Japanese cinema. He looked uncomfortable, then admitted he had already started writing one. But he easily agreed to switch to a collaboration and this is the result.

The Research Guide to Japanese Film Studies provides a snapshot of all the archival and bibliographic resources available to students and scholars of Japanese cinema. Among the nations of the world, Japan has enjoyed an impressively lively print culture related to cinema. The first film books and periodicals appeared shortly after the birth of cinema, proliferating wildly in the 1910s with only the slightest pause in the dark days of World War II. The numbers of publications match the enormous scale of film production, but with the lack of support for film studies in Japan, much of it remains as uncharted territory, with few maps to negotiate the maze of material.

This book is the first comprehensive guide ever published for approaching the complex archive for Japanese cinema. It lists all the libraries and film archives in the world with significant collections of film prints, still photographs, archival records, books, and periodicals. It provides a full annotated bibliography of the core books and magazines for the field. And it supplies hints for how to find and access materials for any research project. Our Research Guide to Japanese Film Studies constitutes a comprehensive overview of the impressive dimensions and depth of the print culture surrounding Japanese film, and a guideline for future research in the field. The searchable ebook is a handy resource to keep on your phone or computer.

In 2016 Dogase Masato, a fine scholar of political cinema, undertook a translation of the book for Yumani. Dogase and Yumani helped us update the book, make important corrections, and add books and archival collections that had appeared since the publication of the first edition.

A Research Guide to Japanese Film Studies, with A. A. Gerow (Ann Arbor, MI: UM Center for Japanese Studies Publications Program, 2009).

『日本映画研究へのガイドブック』東京：ゆまに書房 2016.