This April, the Art of the Benshi 2024 World Tour offers audiences a rare opportunity to experience the mesmerizing artistry of three of Japan’s celebrated benshi—“movie orators” who, since the days of Thomas Edison’s Kinetoscope, have been breathing life into silent film. Joined by an ensemble of musicians from Japan, these masters of their art will transport viewers back to the golden age of silent film, when every movie screening was also a live performance.
During the heyday of the benshi, more than 7,000 of these charismatic artists narrated the action in films, and made silent actors speak. Their voices rang out in movie theaters across Japan, as well as in Korea and other Japanese colonies, and in Japanese American communities in the United States. The greatest benshi were famous enough to rival the stars on screen.
Now, thanks to a tour of unprecedented scale, audiences in New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles and Tokyo will have a chance to experience the magic of the benshi as they perform not just individually, but together. This collaborative style of performance, in which each benshi takes on the roles of different characters, has been seen only once before in the U.S. since the advent of the talkie, at the 2019 Art of the Benshi program at UCLA that paved the way for this year’s world tour. All performances will be in Japanese with live music and English subtitles.
Encompassing 12 dates at six venues from April 5–26, the Art of the Benshi 2024 World Tour features six distinct programs of classic, newly restored, and rarely-seen silent films from Japan and the United States. The diverse array of works includes cult favorite A Page of Madness (Kurutta ichipeiji, 1926); the earliest surviving Japanese animated film The Dull Sword (Namakura gatana, 1917); classic films by Ozu Yasujirō, Mizoguchi Kenji, and Charlie Chaplin; and the recently discovered and restored The Oath of the Sword, which is the earliest known Asian American film production.
The Art of the Benshi 2024 World Tour Trailer
Venues & Dates
April 12 – 14
The National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Programs I, II, III, IV
Tickets
April 20 – 21
Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles
Programs I, II, IV, V
Tickets
Films & Programs
Program I
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The Dull Sword (Namakura gatana), Japan, 19175 minPerformed by: Ichirō Kataoka
An overly-confident samurai looks for unsuspecting victims on which to try out his new sword but neither his targets nor his weapon prove willing to play along. The Dull Sword is the oldest known surviving example of moving image anime, simply drawn but highly expressive in its satirical take on period genre conventions.
DCP, silent, tinted, 5 min. Director: Junichi Kōchi. DCP courtesy of the National Film Archive of Japan. -
A Straightforward Boy (Tokkan kozō), Japan, 192921 minPerformed by: Hideyuki Yamashiro
Precocious children often take center stage in the works of Japanese master Ozu Yasujirō (I Was Born But…, Good Morning) with this fragment of a silent comedy short offering an early glimpse of his felicity with childhood. Trouble abounds for a pair of kidnappers who underestimate the energies of their young abductee who quickly challenges their patience for the job. This version includes seven more minutes than the previously known extant versions thanks to a newly-discovered print.
DCP, silent, tinted, 21 min. Director: Ozu Yasujirō. Screenwriters: Tadao Ikeda, Chuji Nozu. With: Tatsuo Saitō, Tomio Aoki, Takeshi Sakamoto. -
The Golden Flower (Kogane no hana), Japan, 192917 minPerformed by: Kumiko Ōmori
This charming example of stop-motion collage tells the story of a ceremonial dancer who encounters a demon serpent in the hills while on his way home after performing at a harvest festival. He escapes the encounter and returns with a group of villagers to destroy the creature but its spirit has the last laugh. Produced by studio Chiyogami Eiga-sha, The Golden Flower suggests the rich variety of styles being explored by early Japanese animators.
35mm, silent, 17 min. Director: Noburō Ōfuji. -
The Water Magician (Taki no shiraito), Japan, 1933102 minPerformed by: Kumiko Ōmori
The elements of director Kenji Mizoguchi’s mature style are evident everywhere in this galvanizing melodrama adapted from a novel by Kyōka Izumi. High angle shots and sweeping camera movements lend a distinctly modern dynamism to the story of a woman (Takako Irie) who sacrifices everything she has to ensure the future of a young man (Tokihiko Okada) who captures her imagination. Irie delivers a powerful, moving performance as a theater performer whose good deed leads to tragedy as Mizoguchi (Ugetsu, The Life of Oharu) interrogates the shifting strata of Japanese society. Of course, benshi played an essential role in the original release of The Water Magician in Japan but the benshi of a generation later played an equally important role in the film’s restoration in 2006.
DCP, silent, 102 min. Director: Kenji Mizoguchi. Screenwriters: Kennosuke Tateoka, Yasunaga Higashibōjō, Shinji Masuda. With: Takako Irie, Tokihiko Okada, Ichirō Sugai. DCP courtesy of the National Film Archive of Japan.
Program II
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The Dull Sword (Namakura gatana), Japan, 19175 minPerformed by: Kumiko Ōmori
An overly-confident samurai looks for unsuspecting victims on which to try out his new sword but neither his targets nor his weapon prove willing to play along. The Dull Sword is the oldest known surviving example of moving image anime, simply drawn but highly expressive in its satirical take on period genre conventions.
DCP, Silent, Tinted, 5 Min. Director: Kōchi Jun’ichi. DCP courtesy of the National Film Archive of Japan. -
An Unforgettable Grudge (Bakumatsu kenshi: chōkon), Japan, 192615 minPerformed by: Hideyuki Yamashiro
Only the final reel of this samurai melodrama from director Daisuke Itō survives today which is enough to suggest the enormity of the loss. An Edo-set story of samurai brothers who fall in love with the same woman, it culminates with a ferocious sword fight between the spurned brother and an army of warriors, as action-packed a film fragment as you’re ever likely to see.
DCP, silent, tinted, 15 min. Director: Daisuke Itō. Screenwriter: With: Daisuke Itō. Denjirō Ōkōchi Yayoi Kawakami, Yuzuru Kume. DCP courtesy of the National Film Archive of Japan. -
Blood Spattered Takadanobaba (Chikemuri Takadanobaba), Japan, 192812 minPerformed by: Hideyuki Yamashiro
Star Denjirō Ōkōchi and director Daisuke Itō helped remake the chambara genre in the late 1920s, infusing it with visual flash and mythic power. Sadly, the films of theirs that survive exist mostly in fragmentary form. Such is the case with Blood Spattered Takadanobaba. In this brief scene, the rōnin Yasube comes home drunk to a letter from his uncle requesting assistance fighting off a band of villainous samurai. Yasube races to his uncle’s side and joins the battle already in violent progress! So that audiences can experience more directly how a benshi’s specific style can influence a film, Blood Spattered Takadanobaba will be repeated over the course of this series with a different benshi narrating each time.
Print courtesy of the Toy Film Museum. DCP, b/w, silent, intertitles in Japanese with English subtitles, 12 min. Director/Screenwriter: Daisuke Itō. Cast: Denjirō Ōkōchi, En'ichirō Jitsukawa, Harue Ichikawa. -
Blood Spattered Takadanobaba (Chikemuri Takadanobaba), Japan, 192812 minPerformed by: Kumiko Ōmori
Star Denjirō Ōkōchi and director Daisuke Itō helped remake the chambara genre in the late 1920s, infusing it with visual flash and mythic power. Sadly, the films of theirs that survive exist mostly in fragmentary form. Such is the case with Blood Spattered Takadanobaba. In this brief scene, the rōnin Yasube comes home drunk to a letter from his uncle requesting assistance fighting off a band of villainous samurai. Yasube races to his uncle’s side and joins the battle already in violent progress! So that audiences can experience more directly how a benshi’s specific style can influence a film, Blood Spattered Takadanobaba will be repeated over the course of this series with a different benshi narrating each time.
Print courtesy of the Toy Film Museum. DCP, b/w, silent, intertitles in Japanese with English subtitles, 12 min. Director/Screenwriter: Daisuke Itō. Cast: Denjirō Ōkōchi, En'ichirō Jitsukawa, Harue Ichikawa. -
Orochi, Japan, 1925101 minPerformed by: Ichirō Kataoka
Tsumasaburō Bandō, one of Japan’s earliest screen idols, plays a masterless samurai, forced to become a gangster’s bodyguard in this dazzling jidaigeki (period drama). Japanese film critic Junichiro Tanaka praised it in the pages of Kinema Junpo in 1952, particularly its bravura, climactic chase scene, in which the “cinematic beauty of light, shadow, and movement flows into the screen along with Tsumasaburo’s sword fighting.”
DCP, b&w, silent with Japanese intertitles, 101 min. Director: Buntarō Futagawa. Screenwriter: Rokuhei Susukita. Cast: Tsumasaburō Bandō, Misao Seki, Misao Tamaki.
Program III
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Sanji Goto—The Japanese Enoch Arden (Narikin), Japan, 191835 minPerformed by: Hideyuki Yamashiro
Billed as the “the first ever Japanese production of its kind,” Sanji Goto holds a fascinating place in international film history. After training as an actor with Thomas Ince, director Kisaburō “Thomas” Kurihara returned to Japan to make films for export to the U.S. beginning with this slapstick comedy. Iwajiro Nakajima, “the Japanese Charlie Chaplin,” stars as an guileless janitor who journeys to the States on the chance of inheriting a fortune. Sadly, the film survives only as a fragment.
DCP, silent, 35 min. Director: Harry Williams, Kisaburō Kurihara. With: Iwajiro Nakajima, Goro Kino, Miyo Suzuki. DCP courtesy of the National Film Archive of Japan. -
Jiraiya the Hero (Gōketsu Jiraiya), Japan, 192121 minPerformed by: Ichirō Kataoka, Kumiko Ōmori, Hideyuki Yamashiro
The first star of the Japanese screen, Matsunosuke Onoe plays the title character, a shape-shifting ninja who battles his enemies with an arsenal of magic, which includes transforming himself into a giant toad. Based on a famous folktale, Jiraiya the Hero was one Japan’s earliest “trick films” and survives today as a fragment featuring a series of loosely connected fight scenes.
DCP, b/w, silent, intertitles in Japanese with English subtitles, 21 min. Director: Shōzo Makino. Cast: Matsunosuke Onoe, Suminojo Ichikawa, Kijaku Ōtani. DCP courtesy of the National Film Archive of Japan. -
Our Pet, U.S.A, 192411 minPerformed by: Kumiko Ōmori
Diana Serra Cary, better known by her screen name, Baby Peggy, was only 19 months old when director Fred Fishback cast her in a series of comedy shorts in 1921 alongside Brownie the Wonder Dog. By the following year, she was one of the biggest child stars in the world. In Our Pet, discovered at auction in 2016 by master benshi Ichirō Kataoka, Peggy is awakened from sleep by a series of burglars who quickly find themselves, in over their heads, Home Alone-style.
DCP, b&w, silent with Japanese intertitles, 11 min. Director: Herman C. Raymaker. Screenwriter: Herman C. Raymaker. With: Baby Peggy, Newton Hall, Winston Radom. -
A Page of Madness (Kurutta ichipeiji), Japan, 192670 minPerformed by: Ichirō Kataoka
With a scenario devised by Japanese novelist (and later Nobel Prize winner) Yasunari Kawabata with contributions from other members of the radical literary movement known as Shinkankakuha, director Teinosuke Kinugasa crafted this visionary masterpiece that was thought lost for almost 50 years. Wracked with guilt, believing his wanton cruelty drove his wife insane, a husband becomes a janitor at the asylum where she’s incarcerated so he can care for her. When he comes to fear her illness may prevent their daughter from getting married, he gradually loses his own grip on reality. Replete with fantastical images, super impositions and rapid montage, the film subverts any sense of narrative coherence even as Kinugasa builds, according to critic Chris Fujiwara “an atmosphere of astonishing intensity.”
DCP, silent, intertitles in Japanese with English subtitles, 70 min. Director: Teinosuke Kinugasa. Screenwriter: Yasunari Kawabata, Teinosuke Kinugasa, Minoru Inuzuka, Bankō Sawada. With: Masao Inoue, Yoshie Nakagawa, Ayako Iijima.
Program IV
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The Dull Sword (Namakura gatana), Japan, 19175 minPerformed by: Hideyuki Yamashiro
An overly-confident samurai looks for unsuspecting victims on which to try out his new sword but neither his targets nor his weapon prove willing to play along. The Dull Sword is the oldest known surviving example of moving image anime, simply drawn but highly expressive in its satirical take on period genre conventions.
DCP, silent, tinted, 5 min. Director: Junichi Kōchi. DCP courtesy of the National Film Archive of Japan. -
The Immigrant, U.S.A, 191724 minPerformed by: Kumiko Ōmori
One of seven films written and directed by Charlie Chaplin on the National Film Registry, The Immigrant follows the Tramp’s delightfully slapstick comic misadventures from the deck of a steamship sailing by the Statue of Liberty to the streets of America where penury and romance follow in short order. Working with essential onscreen collaborators Edna Purviance and Eric Campbell, Chaplin reworked the storyline and gags on the fly during production to craft this iconic comedy.
DCP, b&w, silent, 24 min. Director: Charlie Chaplin. Screenwriter: Charlie Chaplin, Vincent Bryan, Maverick Terrell. With: Charlie Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Eric Campbell. -
Not Blood Relations (Nasanu naka), Japan, 191612 minPerformed by: Ichirō Kataoka, Kumiko Ōmori, Hideyuki Yamashiro
Based on a contemporary set novel by Yanagawa Shun'yo, Not Blood Relations was adapted to the Japanese stage with multiple film versions to follow, including director Naruse Mikio’s take in 1932. Director Inoue Masao also stars in this 1916 adaption which follows the destruction of a businessman and his family as mounting scandals reawaken lingering hatreds and induce new crimes. This surviving fragment features three sequences from the original film, including its denouement.
DCP, b&w, silent with Japanese intertitles, 12 min. Director: Inoue Masao. Cast: Inoue Masao, Kinoshita Kichinosuke, Akimoto Kikuya. -
The Oath of the Sword, U.S.A., 191431 minPerformed by: Ichirō Kataoka
The rediscovery of The Oath of the Sword in 2016 and its subsequent restoration by the Japanese American National Museum and George Eastman Museum brought a lost film back to the screen and illuminated a long overlooked facet of early film history. A tragic tale of ambition and love betrayed, it was produced by a Los Angeles-based company founded by Japanese immigrants and featured Japanese actors in the lead roles, making it the earliest known Asian American film production.
DCP, tinted, silent, 31 min. Director: Frank Shaw. With: Tomi Morri, Miss Hisa Numa, Yutaka Abe. Restored by the Japanese American National Museum and George Eastman Museum. Funded by the National Film Preservation Foundation. Digital restoration from a 35mm nitrate print and 35mm safety negative from the George Eastman Museum collection was done at Eastman Museum Film Preservation Services and at Colorlab. DCP courtesy of George Eastman Museum. -
The Vindictive Snake (Shūnen no dokuja), Japan, 193271 minPerformed by: Hideyuki Yamashiro
A vengeful ghost takes center stage in this rarely seen, early Japanese horror film shot in Okinawa and Hawaii. An immigrant story gone wrong, it stars Okinawan native Seizen Toguchi, who also wrote the script, as a husband who emigrates with his wife from Okinawa to Oahu where they find work on a sugarcane plantation. When she contracts leprosy, he abandons her and flees back to Japan only to be driven mad, years later, by her spirit, transformed into the serpent of the title. A seminal genre work with roots in Okinawan folklore, The Vindictive Snake is the oldest known narrative film shot in Okinawa.
DCP, tinted, silent, 71 min. Director: Jirō Yoshino. Screenwriter: Seizen Toguchi. With: Seizen Toguchi.
Program V
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Man and Wife, U.S.A, 192350 minPerformed by: Hideyuki Yamashiro
The Perkins sisters are a study in contrasts: Dolly thrives in the rural setting of the family farm, while Dora chafes against it and restlessly dreams of a move to the big city. Following an argument with her father, Dora leaves for the beckoning metropolis, sparking a storyline replete with deception, bigamy, madness, and finally, reconciliation. Norma Shearer who plays Dolly would soon become a major star at MGM under the guidance of legendary producer Irving Thalberg. “A wild tale, wildly done on the screen,” as per Variety’s review at the time, Man and Wife is silent melodrama at its most satisfying.
DCP, tinted & toned, 54 min. Director: John L. McCutcheon. Screenwriter: Leota Morgan. With: Maurice Costello, Gladys Leslie, Norma Shearer. Restoration funded by the National Film Preservation Foundation. Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive from a 35mm tinted and toned nitrate print. Laboratory services by Roundabout Entertainment, Inc., FotoKem. Special thanks to Library of Congress. -
Dog Heaven, U.S.A., 192732 minPerformed by: Kumiko Ōmori
Pete the Pup, a.k.a. Pal, the Wonder Dog, the beloved American Staffordshire Terrier that starred in Hal Roach’s Our Gang comedies from 1924-1930, takes center stage in his own light-hearted story of love and betrayal. When his owner Joe (Joe Cobb) develops a young crush on Clarabelle (Annette De Kirby), Pete feels left out, becoming so dejected that he decides to end it all—to the delight of the local cats and kittens. Of course, Pete’s never in any real danger and a climatic race to the rescue ultimately set everything right.
DCP, b/w, silent, 31 min. Director: Robert A. McGowan, Charles Oelze. Screenplay: H.M. Walker. With: Joe Cobb, Annette De Kirby, Jackie Condon. Restoration funded by The Louis B. Mayer Foundation. Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive from a 35mm acetate fine grain master positive. Laboratory services by Roundabout Entertainment, Inc., The PHI Stoa Film Lab. Special thanks to Screen Media. -
Sweetie, U.S.A., 192321 minPerformed by: Ichirō Kataoka
In this rags-to-riches tale, an orphaned and destitute Baby Peggy (a.k.a pioneering child star Diana Serra Cary) enlists the aid of a mischievous performing monkey to seek restitution for an elderly violinist. After an epic chase, she is adopted by a wealthy couple—then steals the spotlight at the evening social.
DCP, b/w, silent, 21 min. Director: Alfred J. Goulding. Screenplay: Alfred J. Goulding. With: Baby Peggy, Jerry Mandy, Louise Lorraine. Preservation funded by The Packard Humanities Institute and David Stenn. Preserved by UCLA Film & Television Archive in cooperation with Filmarchiv Austria, Lobster Films, and The Museum of Modern Art from a 35mm nitrate print and two 16mm prints. Laboratory services by The Stanford Theatre Film Laboratory. Special thanks to: David Shepard.
Program VI
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Not Blood Relations (Nasanu naka), Japan, 191612 minPerformed by: Ichirō Kataoka, Kumiko Ōmori, Hideyuki Yamashiro
Based on a contemporary set novel by Yanagawa Shun'yo, Not Blood Relations was adapted to the Japanese stage with multiple film versions to follow, including director Naruse Mikio’s take in 1932. Director Inoue Masao also stars in this 1916 adaption which follows the destruction of a businessman and his family as mounting scandals reawaken lingering hatreds and induce new crimes. This surviving fragment features three sequences from the original film, including its denouement.
DCP, b&w, silent with Japanese intertitles, 12 min. Director: Inoue Masao. Cast: Inoue Masao, Kinoshita Kichinosuke, Akimoto Kikuya. -
The Oath of the Sword, U.S.A., 191431 minPerformed by: Ichirō Kataoka
The rediscovery of The Oath of the Sword in 2016 and its subsequent restoration by the Japanese American National Museum and George Eastman Museum brought a lost film back to the screen and illuminated a long overlooked facet of early film history. A tragic tale of ambition and love betrayed, it was produced by a Los Angeles-based company founded by Japanese immigrants and featured Japanese actors in the lead roles, making it the earliest known Asian American film production.
Restored by the Japanese American National Museum and George Eastman Museum. Funded by the National Film Preservation Foundation. Digital restoration from a 35mm nitrate print and 35mm safety negative from the George Eastman Museum collection was done at Eastman Museum Film Preservation Services and at Colorlab. DCP courtesy of George Eastman Museum. -
Sweetie, U.S.A., 192321 minPerformed by: Kumiko Ōmori
In this rags-to-riches tale, an orphaned and destitute Baby Peggy (a.k.a pioneering child star Diana Serra Cary) enlists the aid of a mischievous performing monkey to seek restitution for an elderly violinist. After an epic chase, she is adopted by a wealthy couple—then steals the spotlight at the evening social.
DCP, b/w, silent, 21 min. Director: Alfred J. Goulding. Screenplay: Alfred J. Goulding. With: Baby Peggy, Jerry Mandy, Louise Lorraine. Preservation funded by The Packard Humanities Institute and David Stenn. Preserved by UCLA Film & Television Archive in cooperation with Filmarchiv Austria, Lobster Films, and The Museum of Modern Art from a 35mm nitrate print and two 16mm prints. Laboratory services by The Stanford Theatre Film Laboratory. Special thanks to: David Shepard. -
Blood Spattered Takadanobaba (Chikemuri Takadanobaba), Japan, 192812 minPerformed by: Hideyuki Yamashiro
Star Denjirō Ōkōchi and director Daisuke Itō helped remake the chambara genre in the late 1920s, infusing it with visual flash and mythic power. Sadly, the films of theirs that survive exist mostly in fragmentary form. Such is the case with Blood Spattered Takadanobaba. In this brief scene, the rōnin Yasube comes home drunk to a letter from his uncle requesting assistance fighting off a band of villainous samurai. Yasube races to his uncle’s side and joins the battle already in violent progress! So that audiences can experience more directly how a benshi’s specific style can influence a film, Blood Spattered Takadanobaba will be repeated over the course of this series with a different benshi narrating each time.
Print courtesy of the Toy Film Museum. DCP, b/w, silent, intertitles in Japanese with English subtitles, 12 min. Director/Screenwriter: Daisuke Itō. Cast: Denjirō Ōkōchi, En'ichirō Jitsukawa, Harue Ichikawa. -
A Straightforward Boy (Tokkan kozō), Japan, 192921 minPerformed by: Ichirō Kataoka
Precocious children often take center stage in the works of Japanese master Ozu Yasujirō (I Was Born But…, Good Morning) with this fragment of a silent comedy short offering an early glimpse of his felicity with childhood. Trouble abounds for a pair of kidnappers who underestimate the energies of their young abductee who quickly challenges their patience for the job. This version includes seven more minutes than the previously known extant versions thanks to a newly-discovered print.
DCP, silent, tinted, 21 min. Director: Ozu Yasujirō. Screenwriters: Tadao Ikeda, Chuji Nozu. With: Tatsuo Saitō, Tomio Aoki, Takeshi Sakamoto. -
Jiraiya the Hero (Gōketsu Jiraiya), Japan, 192121 minPerformed by: Ichirō Kataoka, Kumiko Ōmori, Hideyuki Yamashiro
The first star of the Japanese screen, Matsunosuke Onoe plays the title character, a shape-shifting ninja who battles his enemies with an arsenal of magic, which includes transforming himself into a giant toad. Based on a famous folktale, Jiraiya the Hero was one Japan’s earliest “trick films” and survives today as a fragment featuring a series of loosely connected fight scenes.
DCP, b/w, silent, intertitles in Japanese with English subtitles, 21 min. Director: Shōzo Makino. Cast: Matsunosuke Onoe, Suminojo Ichikawa, Kijaku Ōtani. DCP courtesy of the National Film Archive of Japan.
Performers
Kumiko Ōmori
Hideyuki Yamashiro
Jōichi Yuasa
Kiisa Katada
Kisayo Katada
Ryōko Kinoshita
Makia Matsumura
Makiko Suzuki
Kaname Tambara
Companion Book
Published by the Yanai Initiative in conjunction with The Art of the Benshi world tour, this lavishly produced book explores topics ranging from benshi stardom and the history of benshi performance in colonial-era Korea and the United States to the transformations that took place in movie theater architecture and accompaniment music in Japan during the age of silent film. Featuring more than 300 images from archives and private collections around the world, this beautiful, approachable volume will captivate anyone with an interest in film.
8 × 10.5 in (20.5 × 26.5 cm), Hardcover, 304 pages
Organizers
About the Yanai Initiative
The Yanai Initiative for Globalizing Japanese Humanities is a collaborative project of UCLA and Waseda University in Tokyo, established in 2014 to realize a sustainable, equitable, globally interconnected future for the Japanese humanities. Its activities include the advancement of scholarship on Japanese, literature and the arts; support for literary translation; public programs on performance, film, design, music, art, food, and architecture; and the creation of digital educational content and smartphone apps. For more information, please visit yanai-initiative.ucla.edu.
About the UCLA Film & Television Archive
A division of UCLA Library, the Archive is internationally renowned for rescuing, preserving and showcasing moving image media and is dedicated to ensuring that the visual achievements of our time are available for information, education and enjoyment. The Archive has over 500,000 film and television holdings conserved in a state-of-the-art facility at the Packard Humanities Institute Stoa in Santa Clarita, CA, that is designed to hold materials ranging from nitrate film to digital video at all preservation standards. Many of the Archive’s projects are screened at prestigious film events around the globe. For more information, please visit cinema.ucla.edu.