Collection ID: 7755896

Collection context

Summary

Creator:
Makino, Mamoru, 1930-, Kamei, Fumio, 1908-1987, Kishi, Matsuo, 1906-1985, Ikeda, Tadao, 1905-1964, and Kume, Masao, 1891-1952
Abstract:
Over the course of fifty years, the former documentary filmmaker Makino Mamoru (1930-) developed an extensive collection on the history of East Asian film, which covers the history of Japanese cinema spanning over a hundred years. The collection as a whole contains approximately 80,000 items, and focuses on print materials. The materials cover various film events and festivals across multiple genres of films: experimental films, educational films, documentary films, news films, amateur films, and animated films, among many others. The collection contains books, correspondences, handbills, magazines, manuscripts, newspapers, notes, photographs, postcards, posters, scripts/scenarios, slides, glass plate negatives, video cassettes, and other printed materials.
Extent:
370.11 linear feet and 743 boxes
Language:
Predominantly in Japanese, some English, Chinese and Korean.
Preferred citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); The Makino Mamoru Collection on the History of East Asian Film; series #, box # and folder #; C.V. Starr East Asian Library, Columbia University.

Background

Scope and Content:

The collector, a former documentary filmmaker and film researcher Makino Mamoru/牧野守, developed an unparalleled collection on the history of East Asian film in North America and beyond. The collection is extensive, and it covers the history of Japanese cinema that spans over a hundred years. The collection as a whole contains approximately 80,000 items, and focuses on print materials related to Japanese films that Makino collected over the course of fifty years. Makino began collecting materials related to Japanese documentary films, but later expanded his collection to cover film theory, movements, censorship, and other non-film materials.

The materials cover various film events and festivals across multiple genres of films: experimental films, educational films, documentary films, news films, amateur films, and animated films, among many others. It also contains printed material on subjects not specifically concerning film but related to film history such as theater, political movements, literature and television. The collection contains books, correspondences, handbills, magazines, manuscripts, newspapers, notes, photographs, postcards, posters, scripts/scenarios, slides, glass plate negatives, videocassettes, and other printed materials. Especially, the collection includes a number of film scripts- many of which are handwritten, film company documents, and film ephemera which date back to the early twentieth century when books, critical reviews about cinema, and film culture proliferated.

The collection holds the full runs of commercially published major film magazines and many issues of harder to obtain minor film publications. There are major pre-war film magazines, many of which were part of the collection of actor/director Kinugasa Teinosuke/衣笠貞之助, as well as harder to obtain self-published coterie magazines (dōjinshi/ 同人誌), university film research journals, amateur film and small-gauge film (kogata eiga/ 小型映画) publications. The amateur magazines covering small-gauge cameras are not found in libraries even in Japan. There are also photographs and albums once belonging to cameramen such as Miki Shigeru/三木茂 and Kikuchi Shū/菊池周, along with materials related to the films they worked on with the documentary filmmaker Kamei Fumio/亀井文夫. There are also company documents from major Japanese film production companies including Nikkatsu/日活, Shōchiku松竹, Tōei/東映, Daiei/大映, with the majority of the documents from Tōhō/東宝, which includes P.C.L. or Photo Chemical Laboratories. The collection also includes the personal collections of critic and screenwriter Kishi Matsuo/岸松雄, directors Inoue Kintaro/井上金太郎 and Ikeda Tadao/池田忠雄, playwright/novelist Kume Masao/久米正雄, film critics Tanaka Jun'ichiro/田中純一郎, Iwasaki Akira/岩崎昶, Iijima Tadashi/飯島正, and Yodogawa Nagaharu/淀川長治, amongst others.

Furthermore, the ephemera portion within the collection includes many pre-war handbills and programs from more than 70 regional movie theaters mostly located in Tokyo. In addition, it includes thousands of post-war film programs and fliers of not only Japanese film ephemera, but a great selection of materials on foreign films. The foreign film materials include items related to imported films from Poland, the Soviet Union, Sweden, West Germany, Yugoslavia, among many others; in addition to a great number of American, British, French and Italian film ephemera. Although the ephemera collection only represents a small part of the entire Makino Collection, it forms the largest of its kind outside of Japan.

Although mainly a collection of Japanese film materials, the Makino Collection also has its film sources from China, Taiwan, the former colony of Manchuria, Russia, and South Korea. There are also a myriad of materials related to Western cinema and its stars, including Charlie Chaplin, who inspired Makino's passion for cinema in the first place.

Biographical / Historical:

Makino Mamoru/牧野守 (1930-) was born in a small town on the northern island of Karafuto, Japan, where he lived until his family moved to Tokyo. He studied literature at Bunka Gakuin College in Tokyo, quitting before graduation to work in the film industry. He worked as an assistant director in an independent production company, and later became an assistant director for the documentary filmmaker Kamei Fumio/亀井文夫. In 1957, he worked for the television channel KRTV and Nihon Kyōiku Terebi (Education Television of Japan, today's TV Asahi). He worked on documentaries for both TV and film companies, and released films in the 1960s, while publishing as an independent scholar.

In 1988, he began working as a special researcher for the Kawasaki City Museum/川崎市市民ミュージアム, retiring by 1999. In addition to his enormous effort to publish scholarship on Japanese film, he gathered a massive collection of mostly print materials related to the history of Japanese films over the course of fifty years. Makino began collecting materials related to Japanese documentary films, and then expanded his collection to include writings on film theory, movements, and censorship. The collection also spans across various genres of films, including experimental films, educational films, documentary films, news films, amateur films, and animated films, among many others.

Since the majority of the materials covering foreign films were written in Japanese, he recently began to gather some materials related to other East Asian cinemas in Chinese and Korean languages. As a researcher, his efforts are concentrated on censorship, left-wing film literature, early film history, and documentaries.

He has a wife and three grown children.

Acquisition information:
This collection was purchased by Columbia University in 2006. Several publications related to Makino Mamoru were added to the collection up to 2015.
Processing information:

This collection was processed by Beth Katzoff, Archivist/Public Services Librarian, C.V. Starr East Asian Library, from 2008-2014, with the assistance of Maiko Ota Cagno, Archivist, and Atsuko Oya, Archival Intern, in 2008; and by Miki Masuda, Project Archivist, C.V. Starr East Asian Library, from 2014-2016, with the assistance of Shuran Chen, GSAPP, in 2015.

Finding aid written by Beth Katzoff and Miki Masuda, edited by Miki Masuda.

Arrangement:

This collection is arranged in twenty two series and several subseries as well as sub-subseries. The physical organization reflects the original order; the finding aid reflects its intellectual arrangement by topic. Series I: Director Files, 1932-2005; Series II: Critic Files, 1929-1998; Series III: Film-related Individuals' Files, 1863-2002 [Bulk Dates: 1900s-1950s]; Series IV: Film Production Company Files (Studio Files), 1920-1995; Series V: Scenarios, 1923-1990; Series VI: Subject Files, 1908-2006; Series VII: East Asian (Pre- and Post-War), 1923-2006; Series VIII: Okinawan Cinema, 1999-2004; Series IX: Western Cinema (Pre- and Post-War), 1918-2003; Series X: Pre-War and Wartime Magazines, 1913-1981 [Bulk Dates:1930s]; Series XI: Post-War Magazines, 1945-2004; Series XII: Movie Theater Handbills/Chirashi (Meiji, Taishō and early Shōwa periods), circa 1870-1968; Series XIII: Handbills/Chirashi for Vaudeville Shows and Revues, 1915-1976; Series XIV: Post-War Ephemera, 1949-2007 [Bulk Dates: 1970s-1990s]; Series XV: Museums, Exhibitions, and Film Catalogs, 1920-2005 [Bulk Dates: 1980s-1990s]; Series XVI: Film Festival Materials, 1955-2006 [Bulk Dates:1990s-2000s]; Series XVII: Photos and Posters, 1911-1987 [Bulk Dates:1920-1940]; Series XVIII: Newspapers, 1926-1988 [Bulk Dates:1940s-1950s]; Series XIX: Silent Film Materials, 1967-2002; Series XX: Audio-Visual Materials, circa 1980s-2000s; Series XXI: Other Film Related Materials and Books, 1891-1996; Series XXII: Makino Mamoru Papers, circa 1970s-2015.

Accruals:

Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. Contact starr@library.columbia.edu for more information.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access

RESTRICTIONS:

This collection is available for use by qualified readers in the Rare Book and Special Collections Reading Room, C.V. Starr East Asian Library at Columbia University. Much of the collection is maintained in off-site storage. This may be retrieved with advance notification only; for further details, please consult the C.V. Starr East Asian Library staff.

TERMS OF ACCESS:

Columbia University is providing access to the materials in the Library's collections solely for noncommercial education and research purposes. The unauthorized use, including, but not limited to, publication of the materials without the prior written permission of Columbia University is strictly prohibited. All inquiries regarding permission to publish should be submitted in writing to the Director, C.V. Starr East Asian Library, Columbia University. In addition to permission from Columbia University, permission of the copyright owner (if not Columbia University) and/or any holder of other rights (such as publicity and/or privacy rights) may also be required for reproduction, publication, distributions, and other uses. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of any item and securing any necessary permissions rests with the persons desiring to publish the item. Columbia University makes no warranties as to the accuracies of the materials or their fitness for a particular purpose.

PREFERRED CITATION:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); The Makino Mamoru Collection on the History of East Asian Film; series #, box # and folder #; C.V. Starr East Asian Library, Columbia University.

LOCATION OF THIS COLLECTION:
300 Kent Hall 1140 Amsterdam Ave
M.C. 3901
New York, NY 10027, United States
CONTACT:
(212) 854-4318
starr@library.columbia.edu