Research Guides: National Cinemas: Japan

Finding Books in UTCat - Japan

Search with Subject Headings in the Library Catalogue

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Subject Headings

motion pictures Japan
japan in motion pictures
motion picture industry japan
motion picture producers and directors japan

national characteristics japanese in motion pictures
aesthetics japanese
modernism (aesthetics) japan
mizoguchi kenji (kurosawa akira, etc)

Other Search Strategies

Individual directors (Search as above; use last name, first name)

e.g., Ozu Yasujiro, Nagisa Oshima
If a filmmaker's name includes accents (e.g., Nagisa Ōshima), be sure to launch a search with the accents and another search without the accents.

Film titles (Search as above; use quotation marks to search for exact phrases)

e.g., "Tokyo Story", "Streets of Love and Hope"

If you have a common or generic title, launch a search for the filmmakers name and film title.

e.g., Yasujiro AND "Tokyo Story"

Your search results may include entire books on your topic or just one chapter, be sure to click through and examine the book record for mention in the table of contents or review blurbs.

Finding Journal Articles

Subject Specific Journals

Journal of Japanese and Korean Cinema
(2009)+ Be sure to check the date of the links in the catalogue.
This is a peer-reviewed journal devoted to the cinemas of Japan and Korea and the interactions and relations between them.

Interdisciplinary databases

Google Scholar
Includes substantial film content.
ProQuest
Multidisciplinary search engine of academic journals, newspapers, ebooks, and more.
Includes substantial film content.
JSTOR
Multidisciplinary full text database that allows you to search for articles from scholars across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. It also gives you access to a major collection of ebooks, primary sources, and images.
Project MUSE - Premium Collection

Film-specific databases

These resources can help you find facts about specific films, directors, production companies and occasionally actors.

American Film Institute Catalog
The AFI Catalog covers the history of American cinema comprehensively from 1893 to 1975, with full or short records for films from 1976 to present. Use the AFI Catalog to find detailed production information about specific films (incl. release dates and other production-related information), as well as citations to contemporaneous reviews from newspapers (e.g., New York Times); trade & industry publications (Variety); popular magazines (Motion Picture Herald, Photoplay); and review publications (Monthly Film Bulletin), among others.
Note: There are no direct links to online content from the AFI Catalog. See How to Find Journal Articles below, for instructions on how to use a citation to find a journal article.
Film Index International
This database is managed by the British Film Institute (BFI). Coverage: 1900 - current. The directors selected for inclusion are a) those who have made a fiction film shown theatrically that is over 50 minutes in duration, released between 1928 and 1965, and b) those who have made a fiction film over 60 minutes in duration, post-1965.
Note: There are no direct links to online content from Film Index International. See How to Find Journal Articles below, for instructions on how to use a citation to find a journal article.
International Index to Film Periodicals
Coverage: 1972+. Search by keyword, separating each word or phrase by AND.
Film & Television Literature Index
Citation information with select full-text covering a range of television and film research.

Newspaper Articles

UofT's Cheng Yu Tung East Asian Library - Japanese Newspapers
Includes Newspaper Databases and Online Newspapers

Reference - Japan

The Oxford Handbook of Japanese Cinema by Daisuke Miyao (Editor)
Call Number: eBook, print available (search in catalogue)
ISBN: 9780199731664
Publication Date: 2014
The reality of transnational innovation and dissemination of new technologies, including digital media, has yet to make a dent in the deep-seated culturalism that insists on reinscribing a divide between the West and Japan, even in realms of technological activity that are quite evidently dispersed across cultures. Film and media studies are not immune to this trend. They continue to fret over the "Westernness" of film technologies vis-à-vis the apparently self-evident "Japaneseness" of other modes of cultural production.The main goal of The Oxford Handbook of Japanese Cinema is to counter this trend toward dichotomizing the West and Japan and to challenge the pervasive culturalism of today's film and media studies. This volume addresses productive debates about what Japanese cinema is, where Japanese cinema is, and where Japanese cinema is going at the period of crisis of national boundary under globalization. In order to do so, this volume attempts to foster dialogue between Japanese scholars of Japanese cinema, film scholars of Japanese cinema based in Anglo-American and European countries, film scholars of non-Japanese cinema, film archivists, film critics, and filmmakers familiar with film scholarship.
What Is Japanese Cinema? by Yomota Inuhiko; Philip Kaffen (Translator)
Call Number: eBook, print available
ISBN: 9780231191623
Publication Date: 2019
What might Godzilla and Kurosawa have in common? What, if anything, links Ozu's sparse portraits of domestic life and the colorful worlds of anime? In What Is Japanese Cinema? Yomota Inuhiko provides a concise and lively history of Japanese film that shows how cinema tells the story of Japan's modern age. Discussing popular works alongside auteurist masterpieces, Yomota considers films in light of both Japanese cultural particularities and cinema as a worldwide art form. He covers the history of Japanese film from the silent era to the rise of J-Horror in its historical, technological, and global contexts. Yomota shows how Japanese film has been shaped by traditonal art forms such as kabuki theater as well as foreign influences spanning Hollywood and Italian neorealism. Along the way, he considers the first golden age of Japanese film; colonial filmmaking in Korea, Manchuria, and Taiwan; the impact of World War II and the U.S. occupation; the Japanese film industry's rise to international prominence during the 1950s and 1960s; and the challenges and technological shifts of recent decades. Alongside a larger thematic discussion of what defines and characterizes Japanese film, Yomota provides insightful readings of canonical directors including Kurosawa, Ozu, Suzuki, and Miyazaki as well as genre movies, documentaries, indie film, and pornography. An incisive and opinionated history, What Is Japanese Cinema? is essential reading for admirers and students of Japan's contributions to the world of film.
Directory of World Cinema: Japan by John Berra (Editor)
Call Number: PN1998.3 .J3 D57 2010
ISBN: 9781841503356
Publication Date: 2010
From the revered classics of Akira Kurosawa to the modern marvels of Takeshi Kitano, the films that have emerged from Japan represent a national cinema that has gained worldwide admiration and appreciation. The Directory of World Cinema: Japan provides an insight into the cinema of Japan through reviews of significant titles and case studies of leading directors, alongside explorations of the cultural and industrial origins of key genres. As the inaugural volume of an ambitious new series from Intellect documenting world cinema, the directory aims to play a part in moving intelligent, scholarly criticism beyond the academy by building a forum for the study of film that relies on a disciplined theoretical base. It takes the form of an A-Z collection of reviews, longer essays, and research resources, accompanied by fifty full-color film stills highlighting significant films and players. The cinematic lineage of samurai warriors, yakuza enforcers, and atomic monsters take their place alongside the politically charged works of the Japanese New Wave, making this a truly comprehensive volume.
Directory of World Cinema - Japan 2 by John Berra
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 1283754649
Publication Date: 2012
Building on and bringing up to date the material presented in the first installment of Directory of World Cinema: Japan, this volume continues the exploration of the enduring classics, cult favorites, and contemporary blockbusters of Japanese cinema.
Directory of World Cinema: Japan 3 by John Berra
Call Number: PN1993.5 .J3 D574 2015Y
ISBN: 9781783204038
Publication Date: 2015
Back for a second encore following the success of the first two installments, this volume takes as its subject not the genres or movements that constitute the cinema of the Land of the Rising Sun but the filmmakers themselves. Focusing entirely on directors, the contributors here offer over forty essays on key Japanese auteurs, ranging from the Golden Age to the New Wave to the present day, including of trend-setting and taboo-breaking genre specialists who have achieved a significant cult following. Though the spotlight is on the filmmakers, this new volume continues to consider a wide range of genres associated with Japanese cinema, including animation, contemporary independent cinema, J-Horror, the New Wave, period drama, science fiction, and yakuza. Like its predecessors, Directory of World Cinema: Japan 3 endeavors to move scholarly criticism of Japanese film out of the academy and into the hands of cinephiles the world over. This volume will be warmly welcomed by those with an interest in Japanese cinema that extends beyond its established names to equally remarkable filmmakers who have yet to receive such rigorous attention.
Routledge Handbook of Japanese Culture and Society by Victoria Bestor (Editor); Theodore C. Bestor (Editor); Akiko Yamagata (Editor)
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 1136736271
Publication Date: 2011
The Routledge Handbook of Japanese Culture and Society is an interdisciplinary resource that focuses on contemporary Japan and the social and cultural trends that are important at the beginning of the twenty-first century. This Handbook provides a cutting-edge and comprehensive survey of significant phenomena, institutions, and directions in Japan today, on issues ranging from gender and family, the environment, race and ethnicity, and urban life, to popular culture and electronic media. Written by an international team of Japan experts, the chapters included in the volume form an accessible and fascinating insight into Japanese culture and society. As such, the Handbook will be an invaluable reference tool for anyone interested in all things Japanese. Students, teachers and professionals alike will benefit from the broad ranging discussions, useful links to online resources and suggested reading lists. The Handbook will be of interest across a wide range of disciplines including Japanese Studies, Cultural Studies, Anthropology, Sociology and Asian Studies in general.
Japanese Aesthetics and Culture by Nancy G. Hume (Editor)
Call Number: eBook, print available
ISBN: 0791423999
Publication Date: 1995
This anthology is intended to supplement courses in which Japanese aesthetics and culture are taught. The essays assume little background knowledge; they do represent seminal thought in literary, cultural, and aesthetic criticism, and are well known to scholars for their clarity and straightforward exposition, making them especially useful to the Westerner who does not speak Japanese. Some of the essays provide a general introduction to the basic theories of Japanese aesthetics, others deal with poetry and theater, and a third group discusses cultural phenomena directly related to classic Japanese literature. The text includes notes on historical periods and language, a glossary of the most significant literary and aesthetic vocabulary, and an extensive, annotated bibliography that guides the reader to primary materials, critical studies, general histories, anthologies, encyclopedias, and lists of films and audio-visual materials.
Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film by Barry Keith Grant
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 0028657918
Publication Date: 2006
This reference provides a comprehensive and accessible introduction to film and film studies, covering such aspects as production, national traditions, studios, genres, critical theory and film history. Approximately 200 entries cover specific topics, including acting, censorship, editing, lighting and others. Also included are more than 230 career profiles, placing individual achievements in the context of specific topics (for example, Robert Altman is featured in the article on Sound ). Additional features include a comprehensive index; a list of further reading sources; 350 black-and-white and 150 full color photographs; and more.
International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers by Tom Pendergast (Editor); Sara Pendergast (Editor)
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9781558624498
Publication Date: 2000
This comprehensive resource provides thorough coverage of films and filmmakers through the spring of 2000. Entrants include legendary films, actors and actresses, directors, writers and other production artists. Entries include a detailed essay written by an expert; biographies; filmographies; comprehensive credits; major awards; and updated bibliographies. This 4th edition includes more than 260 new entries and more than 200 updated entries. Includes more than 1,600 photographs. Four volumes: 1 Films, 2 Directors, 3 Actors and Actresses, 4 Writers and Production Artists.
Note: Overviews, bibliographies, filmographies on 37 Japanese directors.
Historical Dictionary of Japanese Cinema by Jasper Sharp
Call Number: PN1993.5 .J3 S45 2011
ISBN: 9780810857957
Publication Date: 2011
The cinema of Japan predates that of Russia, China, and India, and it has been able to sustain itself without outside assistance for over a century. Japanese cinema's long history of production and considerable output has seen films made in a variety of genres, including melodramas, romances, gangster movies, samurai movies, musicals, horror films, and monster films. It has also produced some of the most famous names in the history of cinema: Akira Kurosawa, Hayao Miyazaki, Beat Takeshi, Toshirô Mifune, Godzilla, The Ring, Akira, Rashomon, and Seven Samurai. The Historical Dictionary of Japanese Cinema is an introduction to and overview of the long history of Japanese cinema. It aims to provide an entry point for those with little or no familiarity with the subject, while it is organized so that scholars in the field will also be able to use it to find specific information. This is done through a detailed chronology, an introductory essay, and appendixes of films, film studios, directors, and performers. The cross-referenced dictionary entries cover key films, genres, studios, directors, performers, and other individuals. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Japanese cinema.
World Film Locations: Tokyo by Chris MaGee (Editor)
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 1841505315
Publication Date: 2011
World Film Locations: Tokyo gives readers a kaleidoscopic view of one of the world's most complex and exciting cities through the lens of world cinema. 50 scenes from classic and contemporary films explore how motion pictures have shaped the role of Tokyo in our collective consciousness, as well as how these cinematic moments reveal aspects of the life and culture of a city that are often hidden from view. Complimenting these scenes from such varied films as Tokyo Story, You Only Live Twice, Godzilla and Enter the Void are six spotlight essays that take us from the wooden streets of pre-nineteenth-century Edo to the sprawling 'what-if' megalopolis of science fiction anime. Illustrated throughout with dynamic screen captures World Film Locations: Tokyo is at once a guided tour of Japan's capital conducted by the likes of Akira Kurosawa, Samuel Fuller, Chris Marker and Sofia Coppola while also being an indispensible record of how Tokyo has fired both the imaginations of individuals working behind the camera and those of us sitting transfixed in movie theatres.
The Oxford History of World Cinema by Geoffrey Nowell-Smith (Editor)
Call Number: eBook, print available
ISBN: 0198112572
Publication Date: 1996
From its humble beginnings as a novelty in a handful of cities, cinema has risen to become a billion- dollar industry and the most spectacular and original contemporary art form. It has spread to all parts of the globe, and is enjoyed by audiences that cut across all sections of society. The Oxford History of World Cinema traces the history of this enduringly popular entertainment medium. Covering all aspects of its development, stars, studios, and cultural impact, the book celebrates and chronicles over one hundred years of diverse achievement from westerns to the New Wave, from animation to the Avant-Garde, and from Hollywood to Hong Kong. An international team of distinguished film historians tells the story of the major inventions and developments in the cinema business, its institutions, genres, and personnel; other chapters outline the evolution of national cinemas round the world - the varied and distinctive filmic traditions that have developed alongside Hollywood. A unique aspect of the book are the special inset features on the film-makers and personalities - Garbo and Godard, Keaton and Kurosawa, Bugs Bunny and Bergman - who have had an enduring impact in popular memory and cinematic lore. With over 300 illustrations, a full bibliography, and an extensive index, this is the buff's ultimate guide to cinema worldwide.
Relevant articles:

Hiroshi Komatsu, “Japan: Before the Great Kanto Earthquake,” Oxford History of World Cinema [eBook, available in print], pp. 177-182.
Hiroshi Komatsu, “The Classical Cinema in Japan,” Oxford History of World Cinema [eBook, available in print], pp. 413-422.
Hiroshi Komatsu, “The Modernization of Japanese Cinema,” Oxford History of World Cinema [eBook, available in print], pp. 714-721.

United States Occupation of Japan, 1945-1952 (Primary source)

SEE: Theater and Motion Pictures vol. 16, Files 1 and 2 in: History of the nonmilitary activities of the occupation of Japan / General Headquarters, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers [Tokyo : The Headquarters, 1951?] 55 v. : ill., maps.
- Overview: Prepared in 1951 by the Civil Historical Section of General Headquarters, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP), this series of 55 monographs covers the nonmilitary activities of the U.S. occupation of Japan, from the end of the war in the Pacific to the signing of the Japanese peace treaty in September 1951. They present the official version of the social, political, and economic transformation of Japan following World War II. These monographs discuss such topics as: trials of Class "B" and Class "C" war criminals; local government reform; purging of militaristic elements; constitutional revision; legal and judicial reform; freedom of the press; theater and motion pictures; treatment of foreign nationals; reparations; promotion of fair trade; religion national and local government finance; money and banking; and foreign trade.

Center for Japanese Studies: Motion Pictures Reprint Series, University of Michigan Library

Prewar Proletarian Film Collection
Burch, Nöel. To the Distant Observer: Form and Meaning in the Japanese Cinema
Richie, Donald. Japanese Cinema: Film Style and National Character
Bordwell, David. Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema
Production Materials from The Effects of the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Bibliographies - Japan

UofT Libraries - just a small selection:

Japanese Cinema: Texts and Contexts by Alastair Phillips (Editor); Julian Stringer (Editor)
Call Number: eBook, print available
ISBN: 9780415328470
Publication Date: 2007
Japanese Cinema includes twenty-four chapters on key films of Japanese cinema, from the silent era to the present day, providing a comprehensive introduction to Japanese cinema history and Japanese culture and society. Studying a range of important films, from Late Spring, Seven Samurai and In the Realm of the Senses to Godzilla, Hana-Bi and Ring, the collection includes discussion of all the major directors of Japanese cinema including Ozu, Mizoguchi, Kurosawa, Oshima, Suzuki, Kitano and Miyazaki. Each chapter discusses the film in relation to aesthetic, industrial or critical issues and ends with a complete filmography for each director. The book also includes a full glossary of terms and a comprehensive bibliography of readings on Japanese cinema. Bringing together leading international scholars and showcasing pioneering new research, this book is essential reading for all students and general readers interested in one of the world's most important film industries.
Screening Enlightenment: Hollywood and the cultural reconstruction of defeated Japan by Hiroshi Kitamura
Call Number: eBook, print available
ISBN: 9780801445996
Publication Date: 2010
During the six-and-a-half-year occupation of Japan (1945-1952), U.S. film studios--in close coordination with Douglas MacArthur's Supreme Command for the Allied Powers--launched an ambitious campaign to extend their power and influence in a historically rich but challenging film market. In this far-reaching "enlightenment campaign," Hollywood studios disseminated more than six hundred films to theaters, earned significant profits, and showcased the American way of life as a political, social, and cultural model for the war-shattered Japanese population. In Screening Enlightenment, Hiroshi Kitamura shows how this expansive attempt at cultural globalization helped transform Japan into one of Hollywood's key markets. He also demonstrates the prominent role American cinema played in the "reeducation" and "reorientation" of the Japanese on behalf of the U.S. government. According to Kitamura, Hollywood achieved widespread results by turning to the support of U.S. government and military authorities, which offered privileged deals to American movies while rigorously controlling Japanese and other cinematic products. The presentation of American ideas and values as an emblem of culture, democracy, and sophistication also allowed the U.S. film industry to expand. However, the studios' efforts would not have been nearly as extensive without the Japanese intermediaries and consumers who interestingly served as the program's best publicists. Drawing on a wide range of sources, from studio memos and official documents of the occupation to publicity materials and Japanese fan magazines, Kitamura shows how many Japanese supported Hollywood and became active agents of Americanization. A truly interdisciplinary book that combines U.S. diplomatic and cultural history, film and media studies, and modern Japanese history, Screening Enlightenment offers new insights into the origins of this unique political and cultural transpacific relationship.
Word and Image in Japanese Cinema by Dennis Washburn (Editor); Carole Cavanaugh (Editor)
Call Number: eBook, print available
ISBN: 0511570295
Publication Date: 2001
Word and Image in Japanese Cinema examines the complex relationship between the temporal order of linguistic narrative and the spatiality of visual spectacle, a dynamic that has played an important role in much of Japanese film. The tension between the controlling order of words and the liberating fragmentation of images has been an important force that has shaped modern culture in Japan and that has also determined the evolution of its cinema. In exploring the rift between word and image, the essays in this volume clarify the cultural imperatives that Japanese cinema reflects, as well as the ways in which the dialectic of word and image has informed the understanding and critical reception of Japanese cinema in the West.
The Ethics of Aesthetics in Japanese Cinema and Literature by Nina Cornyetz
Call Number: eBook, print available (search in catalogue)
ISBN: 1135985138
Publication Date: 2007
This is an innovative, scholarly and original study of the ethics of modern Japanese aesthetics from the 1930s, through the Second World War and into the post-war period. Nina Cornyetz embarks on new and unprecedented readings of some of the most significant literary and film texts of the Japanese canon, for instance works by Kawabata Yasunari, Mishima Yukio, Abe Kôbô and Shinoda Masahiro, all renowned for their texts' aesthetic and philosophic brilliance. Cornyetz uniquely opens up the field in a fresh and controversial way by showing how these authors and filmmakers' concepts of beauty and relation to others were, in fact, deeply impacted by political and social factors. Probing questions are asked such as: How did Japanese fascism and imperialism ideologically, politically and aesthetically impact on these literary/cinematic giants? How did the emperor as the 'nodal point' for Japanese national identity affect their ethics? What were the repercussions of the virtual collapse of the Marxist movement in the 1960s? What are the similarities and differences between pre-war, wartime and post-war ideals of beauty and those of fascist aesthetics in general? This ground-breaking work is truly interdisciplinary and will appeal to students and scholars of Japanese literature, film, gender, culture, history and even psychoanalytic theory.
Time Frames: Japanese Cinema and the Unfolding of History by Scott Nygren
Call Number: eBook, print available
ISBN: 9780816647071
Publication Date: 2007
Until 1951, when Kurosawa's Rashomon won the Golden Lion award for best film at the Venice Film Festival, Japanese cinema was isolated from world distribution and the international discourse on film. After this historic event, however, Japanese cinema could no longer be ignored.In Time Frames, Scott Nygren explores how Japanese film criticism and history has been written both within and beyond Japan, before and after Rashomon. He takes up the central question of which, and whose, Japan do critics and historians mean when reviewing the country's cinema--an issue complicated by assumptions about cultural purity, Japan's appropriation of Western ideas and technologies, and the very existence of a West and an Orientalist non-West.Deftly moving backward and forward from the pivotal 1951 festival, Nygren traces the invention of Japanese film history as a disciplinary mode of knowledge. His analysis includes such topics as the reconfiguration of prewar films in light of postwar recognition, the application of psychoanalytic theory to Japanese art and culture, and the intersection of kanji and cinema. He considers the historical inscription of 1950s Japan as "the golden age of the humanist film," the identification of a Japanese New Wave and the implications of categorizing Japanese film through analogy to other national cinemas. Bringing the discussion to Japan's reception of postmodernism, Nygren looks at the emergence of video art and anime and the end of Japanese film history as a meaningful concept in the rise of the Internet and globalization.Nygren highlights the creative exchange among North American, European, and Asian media, places Japanese film at the center of this discourse, and, ultimately, reveals its global role as a cultural medium, capable of transforming theory.Scott Nygren is associate professor of film and media studies at the University of Florida.
The Flash of Capital: Film and Geopolitics in Japan by Eric Cazdyn
Call Number: eBook, print available
ISBN: 0822329123
Publication Date: 2002
The Flash of Capital analyzes the links between Japan's capitalist history and its film history, illuminating what these connections reveal about film culture and everyday life in Japan. Looking at a hundred-year history of film and capitalism, Eric Cazdyn theorizes a cultural history that highlights the spaces where film and the nation transcend their customary borders--where culture and capital crisscross--and, in doing so, develops a new way of understanding historical change and transformation in modern Japan and beyond. Cazdyn focuses on three key moments of historical contradiction: colonialism, post-war reconstruction, and globalization. Considering great classics of Japanese film, documentaries, works of science fiction, animation, and pornography, he brings to light cinematic attempts to come to terms with the tensions inherent in each historical moment--tensions between the colonizer and the colonized, between the individual and the collective, and between the national and the transnational. Paying close attention to political context, Cazdyn shows how formal inventions in the realms of acting, film history and theory, thematics, documentary filmmaking, and adaptation articulate a struggle to solve implacable historical problems. This innovative work of cultural history and criticism offers explanations of historical change that challenge conventional distinctions between the aesthetic and the geopolitical.
Visions of Japanese Modernity: Articulations of Cinema, Nation, and Spectatorship (1895-1925) by Aaron Gerow
Call Number: eBook, print available
ISBN: 9780520254565
Publication Date: 2010
Japan has done marvelous things with cinema, giving the world the likes of Kurosawa, Mizoguchi, and Ozu. But cinema did not arrive in Japan fully formed at the end of the nineteenth century, nor was it simply adopted into an ages-old culture. Aaron Gerow explores the processes by which film was defined, transformed, and adapted during its first three decades in Japan. He focuses in particular on how one trend in criticism, the Pure Film Movement, changed not only the way films were made, but also how they were conceived. Looking closely at the work of critics, theorists, intellectuals, benshi artists, educators, police, and censors, Gerow finds that this trend established a way of thinking about cinema that would reign in Japan for much of the twentieth century.