Kashiko Kawakita
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Kashiko Kawakita (March 21, 1908, Osaka- July 27, 1993) was a Japanese film curator. For decades she had a leading role in bringing Japanese film to the west and in introducing high quality western films to Japanese audiences.
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First encounters with cinema
"Kashiko Kawakita was born on March 21, 1908, in Osaka, the eldest among three sisters. She transferred primary schools no less than 10 times because of her father's business. The family settled in Yokohama when Kashiko was 12 and she entered the Ferris Girls' School, planning to study English. [...] Kashiko lost her father during the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923. Much affected by this event, she joined the Towa Trading Company in 1929 in order to support her family. The president of the company, Nagamasa Kawakita, was to later become her husband. Her first work at Towa was an encounter with cinema that would influence the rest of her life. It was a translation from Japanese to English of The Passion of a Woman Teacher directed by Kenji Mizoguchi.
Kashiko first visited Europe in 1932, combining a film acquisition trip with her honeymoon with Nagamasa. It was during this time that the film Mädchen in Uniform by Leontine Sagan fascinated her with its theme of "girls' claiming liberation under repression." She successfully persuaded a reluctant Nagamasa to distribute the film in Japan. It became an enormous hit, and its success at the box office proved Kashiko's discerning eye in selecting films. After this, Kashiko was always invited to accompany her husband to Europe to buy films. She selected and oversaw the distribution of a number of films directed by European master filmmakers, such as Jean Renoir, Rene Clair, Jacques Feyder and Julien Duvivier. By introducing these films to the Japanese public, she greatly contributed to an appreciation of European culture. The Kawakitas strongly believed that cinema is the most powerful art form to bring about mutual understanding among the peoples of the world. Therefore it was with passion that they supported the entry of Japanese films to international film festivals. For example, Rashomon directed by Akira Kurosawa, which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1951; Five Scouts, directed by Tomotaka Tasaka; and Children in the Wind directed by Hiroshi Shimizu, both were screened at the Venice Film Festival in 1938."
Donald Richie
In 1948 Kasiko Kawakita met Donald Richie. They formed a lifelong friendship. She introduced him to Yasujirō Ozu and was his sponsor when he applied for permanent residentship in Japan. She helped him with many of his retrospectives of Japanese films.
Film library
"In 1955, Kashiko moved to London for two years while her daughter, Kazuko, studied there. While researching and purchasing European films, Kashiko paid frequent visits to the Cinémathèque Française in Paris as weIl as the British Film Institute in London. As she collected prints and other film materials, Kashiko grew to appreciate films as "cultural properties" rather than as mere "commercial products".
She experienced the importance of "film libraries" for preserving and screening films that would otherwise be in danger of being lost forever. Inspired by the well-established European film archives, she became determined to establish a public film library in Japan. Around that time, Henri Langlois, founder and head of the Cinemathèque Française, proposed that they exchange retrospectives of French and Japanese cinema; presenting Japanese classic films in France, and vice-versa. In Japan, the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo barely owned any prints back then. So Kashiko asked Masaichi Nagata of the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan to call upon the Japanese filmmakers to establish The Japan Film Library Council. With the support of the film companies, the organization functioned effectively. Kashiko made possible the screening of 131 Japanese classical films at the Cinémathèque Française in 1963."
The Japan Art Theatre Guild (ATG) and the Equipe du Cinema
"In 1960 Kashiko was a leading figure in forming the Japan Art Theatre Guild which screened quality art films from foreign countries that otherwise would never be commercially released in Japan. The organization began with the screening of Jerzy Kawalerowicz's film, Mother Joan of the Angeles and continued to introduce splendid works one after another. These included such masterpieces as Jean Cocteau's The Testament of Orpheus, Ingmar Bergman's Wild Strawberries, Federico Fellini's Eight and a Half and Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali.
ATG itself gradually began to produce Japanese artistie/experimental films. Many ambitious directors, such as Nagisa Oshima, Masahiro Shinoda, Yoshishige Yoshida, Susumu Hani and Shuji Terayama, made fine films under the banner of ATG. Kashiko greatly eneouraged film directors in their film-making. At the same time, she considered it her mission to introduce little-known foreign masterpieces to Japanese audience. Etsuko Takano, head of the art-house theater, Iwanami Hall, identified closely with Kashiko's policy. The two women teamed up and formed "Equipe du Cinema". It screened brilliant but little known Japanese and foreign films and became the pioneer art-house theater in Japan. To this day Etsuko Takano continues to pursue this activity."
International Film Festivals
"Starting in Berlin in 1956, Kashiko served as a jury member at various film festivals. She served as a juror 26 times, inc1uding the Cannes (France), Chicago (USA) and Montreal (Canada) film festivals. While an international film festival jury member, she met filmmakers from around the world and discovered many new film talents. She attended some 200 film festivals during her life.
Kashiko played a significant role not only by viewing latest films but by exchanging information and taking care of guests from Japan, by arranging meetings so that international film people could become acquainted with each other."
The Japan Film Library Council and the Kawakita Memorial Film Institute
"By the early 1970's the National Film Center was routinely exhibiting c1assie films for the Japanese public. So the Japan Film Library Council switched directions, and started exhibiting Japanese films abroad. While assiduously collecting and preserving film materials, Kashiko organized film tours, mainly retrospectives of great Japanese film makers. The retrospectives inc1uded "Kenji Mizoguehi", "Japanese Young Talented Filmmakers" and "Akira Kurosawa". She made substantial efforts to perfect the events, including providing English subtitles on prints, negotiating venues in foreign countries and arranging the shipping.
After Nagamasa's death in 1982, Kashiko transformed a volunteer organization, the Japan Film Library Council, into an incorporated foundation, the Kawakita Memorial Film Institute, for the purpose of securing its activities on a solid framework, and expanding its services. The Japanese film tours grew into large-scale events through collaboration with the Japan Foundation and continued to so me nineteen series: "Twenty Contemporary Japanese Film Directors", "History through Cinema", "Women in Japanese Cinema", etc.
One of the most visible activities of the Institute is to support Japanese film selection for international film festivals. Kashiko was the key person in introducing Japanese films to foreign film festival programmers, with whom she became familiar at international film festivals. This included arranging screenings, setting up meetings at the film warehouse. in Japan, and offering information. The Institute has augmented her network and continues this activity."
