Promiscuous media : film and visual culture in imperial Japan, 1926-1945 / Hikari Hori.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hori, Hikari, author.

Series:

Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University.

Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Motion pictures--Japan--History--20th century.

Motion pictures.

Motion pictures--Political aspects--Japan--History--20th century.

Mass media and nationalism--Japan--History--20th century.

Mass media and nationalism.

Nationalism and the arts--Japan--History--20th century.

Nationalism and the arts.

Japan--History--1926-1945.

Japan.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (312 pages).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Ithaca, New York ; London, [England] : Cornell University Press, 2017.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

In Promiscuous Media, Hikari Hori makes a compelling case that the visual culture of Showa-era Japan articulated urgent issues of modernity rather than serving as a simple expression of nationalism. Hori makes clear that the Japanese cinema of the time was in fact almost wholly built on a foundation of Russian and British film theory as well as American film genres and techniques. Hori provides a range of examples that illustrate how maternal melodrama and animated features, akin to those popularized by Disney, were adopted wholesale by Japanese filmmakers.Emperor Hirohito's image, Hori argues, was inseparable from the development of mass media; he was the first emperor whose public appearances were covered by media ranging from postcards to radio broadcasts. Worship of the emperor through viewing his image, Hori shows, taught the Japanese people how to look at images and primed their enjoyment of early animation and documentary films alike. Promiscuous Media links the political and the cultural closely in a way that illuminates the nature of twentieth-century Japanese society.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Illustrations

Preface and Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Photography's Aura

2. Contested Motherhood and Entertainment Film

3. The Politics of Japanese Documentary Film

4. The Dream of Japanese National Animation

Epilogue

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Previously issued in print: 2018.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781501709524

1501709526

OCLC:

991536117