Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the networks established by a filmmaking collective in the early Shōwa period. Data collected in the project improves our understanding of filmmaking in Japan, while the data compiled by the collective itself demonstrates the group's focus on change within their profession.

Paper long abstract:

The “Narutaki group” (Narutaki-gumi) was a group of eight young directors and scriptwriters affiliated with different studios, thus creating an unusual creative network with the Kyoto filmmaking environment. Between 1934 and 1937, they wrote several scripts for jidaigeki (period films) that aimed at redefining the genre and making it relevant to contemporary concerns and aesthetic sensibilities. Straddling not only a threshold between two political systems but also the ground-breaking transition from silents to talkies, the group is part of a crucial piece of Japanese (film) history. Most members continued making films after 1937, influencing the development of Japanese cinema.

The Narutaki-gumi thus provided a nodal point in which the talents and idiosyncrasies of its members converged across industrial lines, interacted, and influenced each other. Furthermore, this network extended beyond the group to include directors and writers working in other genres, but also beyond the film world. In the experimentations with cinema’s potential, the group also interacted with musicians, intellectuals, theorists, and other performing artists.

Many Narutaki scripts were based on popular novels, with the authors collaborating in the scriptwriting, or written for the Zenshin-za progressive kabuki troupe. Archival material reveals their careful recording of worklogs to ensure fair pay based on the hours worked rather than seniority, as well as daily production and postproduction logs with notes for revision as they established new standards within their profession. Digital humanities tools, such as the Japanese Biographical Database, enable us to catalogue, visualize, and trace these networks and, through mutual collaboration and data sharing, also potentially discover new connections and influences. These networks, then and now, I argue, are crucial not only in order to understand the Narutaki-gumi and their films, but also the filmmaking environment of Japan in general.