Study Groups and Achievements

Arrangement and Systematization of the Environment and Scenery

Task 1: Timeline Research of Scenery

This subgroup focused mainly on the follow-up investigation of the Shibusawa Films owned by the Institute for the Study of Japanese Folk Culture, and the preparations for disclosing the films to the public.

The first three years were spent mainly on specifying the locations where the Shibusawa Films were shot almost 70 years ago, and on conducting interviews on various related issues. The interviews were conducted using on-site testimonies about the period the films were shot and by specifying the photographer based on relevant materials of folk history, and by asking the photographers or their surviving family members to shed as much light as possible on the situation at the time. As there are no remaining negatives of the Shibusawa Films owned by the Institute for the Study of Japanese Folk Culture, and there is some uncertainty as to the proprietary rights of the films, the subgroup investigated the history of these films by all possible means prior to their public disclosure.

Major reconnaissance areas include Kagoshima, Hiroshima and Tokyo (Niijima) in 2003, Kagoshima in 2004, and Kagawa and Kagoshima in 2006. Overseas reconnaissance targeted Gangwon-do and Gyeongsangbuk-do of South Korea in 2005. The final two years were spent mostly on organizing discussions based on the investigations and the publication of an information book.

As a result, in our final year, we were able to publish a collection of photographs taken in Kikai-cho in Oshima-gun, Kagoshima, which formed one of the two books on the Shibusawa Films initially scheduled for publication.

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