{"id":5959,"date":"2019-09-02T08:37:30","date_gmt":"2019-09-01T23:37:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/sgu\/?p=5959"},"modified":"2019-09-02T08:37:30","modified_gmt":"2019-09-01T23:37:30","slug":"postwar-japan-and-film-theory-haniya-yutakas-ontological-writings-on-cinema","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/sgu\/news-en\/2019\/09\/02\/5959\/","title":{"rendered":"Postwar Japan and Film Theory: Haniya Yutaka’s Ontological Writings on Cinema"},"content":{"rendered":"

Postwar Japan and Film Theory: Haniya Yutaka’s Ontological Writings on Cinema<\/h4>\n

On July 6, 2019, Naoki Yamamoto gave a lecture entitled \u201cPostwar Japan and Film Theory: Haniya Yutaka’s Ontological Writings on Cinema.\u201d Yamamoto, an assistant professor at University of California, Santa Barbara, is an up-and-coming, insightful film scholar whose research themes include a focus on the historical development of film and media theory in 20th-century Japan\u2014a subject that had been nearly completely neglected in both Japan and the US\u2014and a geopolitical critique of the wider humanities, which have been handled through an ostensibly universal discourse based solely on \u201ctheory\u201d originating from the west. From September 2018 through August 2019, Yamamoto pursued joint research with Koji Toba, a professor at Waseda University’s Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences, as a Research Fellow funded by the Hakuho Foundation. An internationally diverse audience of 30 sat in attendance at the venue for the lecture, where Yamamoto described the contents of Tenkeiki no Mediology<\/em> [Mediology in a Time of Transformation] (Shinwasha, publication pending). This book, which represents the fruits of the joint research by Yamamoto and Toba, is a collection of studies of post-war cultural and media movements by 12 researchers currently active in Japan and the US.<\/p>\n

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Following a brief introduction by Toba, Yamamoto’s lecture began with an explication of the importance of another book, Literary Film Theory<\/em> (Chuokoron-Shinsha, 1957), by Hiroshi Noma, Kiichi Sasaki, Kiyoteru Hanada, Kobo Abe, Yutaka Haniya, and Rinzo Shiina. Yamamoto focused on a piece by Haniya on film theory, An Old Film Notebook<\/em>, that forms part of the book. Yamamoto traced back through biographical details regarding Haniya, who was born in 1909 as the son of a tax official in Hsinchu, Taiwan, and explicated the man’s experiences with cinema. Quoting from two books\u2014Yami no Naka no Shis\u014d: Keijij\u014d Gakuteki Eigaron<\/em> [Thought in the Dark: Metaphysical Film Theory] (San-ichi Publishing, 1962) by Haniya and Yami no Naka no Mus\u014d: Eigagaku K\u014dgi<\/em> [Visions in the Dark: Lectures on Film Theory] (Asahi Press, 1982) by Haniya and Kunio Ogawa\u2014Yamamoto drew the audience’s attention to two key ideas of the literary study of Haniya: that a \u201cdissonance of the principle of identity\u201d arose from being born in a colony and affected how Haniya understood cinema, and that Haniya noted \u201contological self-contradiction\u201d as a principle of film. Discovering a concrete example of Haniya’s \u201creductive realism\u201d in the writer’s experimentations with the anatomy of the eye in the 1948 short story \u201cIshiki\u201d [Consciousness], Yamamoto argued that the source of Haniya’s imagination was the world of the silver screen\u2014which possesses a robustness as a very \u201cthing\u201d itself that comes into being as shadows of shadows of that which has had its physiognomy transformed by an action that could be described as \u201ccinematic reduction.\u201d Then, quoting from \u201cFurui Eiga Tech\u014d,\u201d Yamamoto described how film audiences\u2014merged with the camera\u2014can see themselves anew as \u201centities\u201d projected in the historical space that composes this world. Yamamoto uncovered the apocalyptic vision from Haniya’s essay \u201cHaikyo no Gens\u014d\u201d [An Illusion of Ruins] of us, transformed into \u201ccinematic entities,\u201d perhaps surviving beyond the destruction of the world. Describing Kiyoteru Hanada’s argument about \u201cunifying things in opposition while still opposed\u201d as a major theme in philosophy during the first half of the 20th century, and using that as source to bring in the philosophy of Kitaro Nishida, Yamamoto described Hanada and Haniya as entities with large differences in their political stances toward the Japanese Communist Party. Next, Yamamoto concluded his lecture by referencing Haniya\u2019s new left-wing criticism based on a \u201ctheory of ontological revolution\u201d that is symbolized by \u201cperpetual revolution\u201d and called for an exploration of the possibilities inherent in Haniya’s \u201contological writings on cinema.\u201d<\/p>\n

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During the question and answer session, Yamamoto gave detailed replies to a variety of questions posed about everything from the biographical details of Haniya to topics relating to film theory; it was a lively exchange.
\nThe talk ended a little past the scheduled time and yet the conference room and hallway continued to be filled with discussions in Japanese and English even afterward, showing how provocatively the lecture induced a reaction in the attendees.<\/p>\n

Event Overview:
\nPostwar Japan and Film Theory: Haniya Yutaka\u2019s Ontological Writings on Cinema<\/em>
\nLecture by: Naoki Yamamoto (Assistant Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara)
\nDate and time: July 6, 2019 (Sat.), 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm
\nVenue: Conference Room 11, 6th floor of Building 33, Toyama Campus, Waseda University
\nLecture language: Japanese
\nParticipants: Students, Faculty members, General public
\nSponsored by: \u201cHumanities Knowledge in East Asia\u201d Research Department, Waseda University Research Institute for Letters, Arts and Sciences
\nCosponsored by:
\nWaseda University Global Japanese Studies Model Unit, Top Global University Project
\nThe Ryusaku Tsunoda Center of Japanese Culture<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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