Skip to content
1981
Ecologies
  • ISSN: 2045-6298
  • E-ISSN: 2045-6301

Abstract

This article considers the value of the leftist filmmaking collective Ogawa Productions’ interdisciplinary practice, which combined filmmaking and farming as an activist project of advocacy for social and environmental justice in 1980s Japan. It argues that Ogawa Pro, as the collective was known, integrated agriculture and film culture to construct a radically inclusive ecosystemic understanding of humans, plants, animals and the climate. Viewed today, their approach exemplifies an early model of ecological thinking that speaks to the recent multispecies turn in the arts, humanities and social sciences. But Ogawa Pro’s turn to the land is also riddled with ambivalence: the films harbour agrarian romanticism bordering on a politics of nostalgia and ethnic environmentalism. Torn between what we might today call progressive and reactionary traditionalist politics, Ogawa Pro’s enmeshed filming and farming practices constitute an important example of what I call Land Cinema – that is, film entangled in territorial, ecological and aesthetic aspects of land. Though the collective’s earlier and more militant films have received critical acclaim in recent years, its later land-based work merits further attention for the way it exposes political tensions over how to cultivate, represent and share space responsibly.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/miraj_00063_1
2021-09-01
2024-12-11
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Andrews, W.. ( 2015), Dissenting Japan: A History of Japanese Radicalism and Counterculture from 1945 to Fukushima, London:: Hurst;.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Apter, D. E., and Sawa, N.. ( 1984), Against the State: Politics and Social Protest in Japan, Cambridge, MA:: Harvard University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Bellacasa, M. P. de la., ( 2017), Matters of Care: Speculative Ethics in More than Human Worlds, Minneapolis, MN:: University of Minnesota Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Bellamy Foster, J.. ( 2000), Marx’s Ecology: Materialism and Nature, New York:: Monthly Review Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Bellamy Foster, J., with Clark, B., and York, R.. ( 2010), The Ecological Rift: Capitalism’s War on the Earth, New York:: Monthly Review Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Bennett, J.. ( 2010), Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things, Durham, NC:: Duke University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Cazdyn, E. M.. ( 2002), The Flash of Capital: Film and Geopolitics in Japan, Durham, NC:: Duke University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Debuysere, S.,, Grootaers, E., and Matos Cabo, R.. ( 2019), Of Sea and Soil: The Cinema of Tsuchimoto Noriaki and Ogawa Shinsuke, Ghent:: Sabzian, Courtisane and Cinematek;.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Furuhata, Y.. ( 2013), Cinema of Actuality: Japanese Avant-Garde Filmmaking in the Season of Image Politics, Durham, NC:: Duke University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Gavin, M.. ( 2000;), ‘ Nihon fūkeiron (Japanese landscape): Nationalistic or imperialistic?. ’, Japan Forum, 12:2, pp. 21931.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Goodman, D. G.. ( 1999), Angura: Posters of the Japanese Avant-Garde, New York:: Princeton Architectural Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Gordon, A.. ( 2019), A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present, New York:: Oxford University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Haraway, D.. ( 2016), Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene, Durham, NC:: Duke University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Harvey, D.. ( 1996), Justice, Nature and the Geography of Difference, Malden, MA:: Blackwell;.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Hofstadter, R.. ( 1956;), ‘ The myth of the happy Yeoman. ’, American Heritage, 7:3, pp. 4353.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Iijima, N.. (ed.) ( 1979), Pollution Japan: Historical Chronology, Elmsford, NY:: Pergamon Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Iizuka, T.. ( 2019;), e-mail correspondence with B. Voelcker. , 25 October.
  18. Ingold, T.. ( 2011), Being Alive: Essays on Movement, Knowledge and Description, London:: Routledge;.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Ivy, M.. ( 1995), Discourses of the Vanishing: Modernity, Phantasm, Japan, Chicago, IL:: University of Chicago Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Kagawa-Fox, M.. ( 2017;), ‘ The crucial role of culture in Japanese environmental philosophy. ’, in J. B. Callicott, and J. McRae. (eds), Japanese Environmental Philosophy, New York:: Oxford University Press;, pp. 195215.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Kimura, M.. ( 2010), Yamagata no Mura ni Akai Tori ga Tonde Kita: Ogawa Purodakushon to no 25 nen, Tokyo:: Nanatsumori Shokan;.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Konig, R.. ( 1987;), ‘ Interview with Ogawa Shinsuke. ’, Informationsblatt, 9 January, n.pag.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Kovel, J.. ( 2007), The Enemy of Nature: The End of Capitalism or the End of the World, New York:: Zed Books;.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Latour, B.. ( 2005), Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network Theory, Oxford:: Oxford University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Malm, A.. ( 2018), The Progress of This Storm: On the Dialectics of Society and Nature in a Warming World, London:: Verso;.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Mao, Z.. ( 1937;), ‘ On practice: On the relation between knowledge and practice, between knowing and doing. ’, Marxists.org, July, www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-1/mswv1_16.htm. Accessed 7 April 2021.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Mao, Z.. ( 1980), Talks at the Yan-an’s Conference on Literature and Art: A Translation of the 1943 Text, Ann Arbour, MI:: Michigan University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Marran, C.. ( 2017), Ecology Without Culture: Aesthetics for a Toxic World, Minneapolis, MN:: University of Minnesota Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Marx, K.. ( 1992a), Capital, vol. I, Harmondsworth:: Penguin;.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Marx, K.. ( 1992b), Capital, vol. III, Harmondsworth:: Penguin;.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. McCarthy, E.. ( 2010), Ethics Embodied: Rethinking Selfhood through Continental, Japanese, and Feminist Philosophies, Washington, DC:: Lexington Books;.
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Morton, T.. ( 2013), Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World, Minneapolis, MN:: University of Minnesota Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Nornes, M.. ( 1997;), ‘ The theater of a thousand years. ’, Journal of the International Institute, 4:2, http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.4750978.0004.204. Accessed 1 March 2021.
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Nornes, M.. ( 2007), Forest of Pressure: Ogawa Shinsuke and Postwar Japanese Documentary, Minneapolis, MN:: University of Minnesota Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  35. Ogawa, S.. ( 1972;), ‘ Cinema giapponese degli anni ’60. ’, Quaderno informativo, 41, pp. 2930.
    [Google Scholar]
  36. Ogawa, S.. ( 1986;), ‘ The relationship between seeing and not seeing. ’, Sabzian.be, https://www.sabzian.be/article/the-relationship-between-seeing-and-not-seeing. Accessed 7 April 2021.
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Ogawa, S.. ( 1987;), ‘ Documentary’s sense of reality. ’, Gekkan Image Form, June, n.pag.
    [Google Scholar]
  38. Ogawa, S.. ( 1989;), ‘ When Serge Daney met Ogawa Shinsuke. ’, transcript of Microfilms recorded at the inaugural Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, Yamagata:: Yamagata International Documentary Film Archive;.
    [Google Scholar]
  39. Ogawa, S.. ( 1992), Ogawa Shinsuke o kataru: aru dokyumentarī kantoku no kiseki, Osaka:: Eiga Shinbun;.
    [Google Scholar]
  40. Ohnuki-Tierney, E.. ( 1994), Rice as Self: Japanese Identities through Time, Princeton, NJ:: Princeton University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  41. Packard, G. R.. ( 1966), Protest in Tokyo: The Security Treaty Crisis of 1960, Princeton, NJ:: Princeton University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  42. Robertson, J.. ( 1994), Native and Newcomer: Making and Remaking a Japanese City, Berkeley, CA:: University of California Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  43. Robertson, J.. ( 1998;), ‘ It takes a village: Internationalization and nostalgia in postwar Japan. ’, in S. Vlastos. (ed.), Mirror of Modernity: Invented Traditions of Modern Japan, Berkeley, CA:: University of California Press;, pp. 11033.
    [Google Scholar]
  44. Sato, I.. ( 1998), Kamikaze Biker: Parody and Anomy in Affluent Japan, Chicago, IL:: University of Chicago Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  45. Scheiner, I.. ( 1998;), ‘ The Japanese village: Imagined, real, contested. ’, in S. Vlastos. (ed.), Mirror of Modernity: Invented Traditions of Modern Japan, Berkeley, CA:: University of California Press;, pp. 6779.
    [Google Scholar]
  46. Schnell, S.. ( 2005;), ‘ The rural imaginary: Landscape, village, tradition. ’, in J. Robertson. (ed.), A Companion to the Anthropology of Japan, Walden, MA:: Blackwell;, pp. 20117.
    [Google Scholar]
  47. Smith, A.. ( 2019;), ‘ Practice. ’, in I. Franceschini,, N. Loubere, and C. Sorace. (eds), Afterlives of Chinese Communism Political Concepts from Mao to Xi, New York:: Verso;, pp. 197200.
    [Google Scholar]
  48. Standish, I.. ( 2011), Politics, Porn and Protest: Japanese Avant-Garde Cinema in the 1960s and 1970s, New York:: Continuum;.
    [Google Scholar]
  49. Steinhoff, P. G.. ( 1984;), ‘ Student conflict. ’, in E. S. Krauss,, T. P. Rohlen, and P. G. Steinhoff. (eds), Conflict in Japan, Honolulu, HI:: University of Hawaii Press;, pp. 174214.
    [Google Scholar]
  50. Steinhoff, P. G.. ( 1999;), ‘ Doing the defendant’s laundry: Support groups as social movement organizations in Japan. ’, Japanstudien, 11:1, pp. 5578.
    [Google Scholar]
  51. Tamura, M.. ( 1995;), ‘ Documentarists of Japan #8: Tamura Masaki. ’, YIDFF: Publications: DocBox, 8, https://www.yidff.jp/docbox/8/box8-3-e.html. Accessed 7 April 2021.
    [Google Scholar]
  52. Tayama, R.. ( 1991), Gendai Nihon Eiga no Kantokutachi, Tokyo:: Shakai Shisōsha;.
    [Google Scholar]
  53. Tomii, R.. ( 2016), Radicalism in the Wilderness: International Contemporaneity and 1960s Art in Japan, Cambridge, MA:: MIT;.
    [Google Scholar]
  54. Totman, C.. ( 2014), Japan: An Environmental History, London:: I. B. Tauris;.
    [Google Scholar]
  55. Tournes, A.. ( 1984;), ‘ Living like a peasant among peasants: An interview with Ogawa Shinsuke. ’, Jeune Cinema, 159, n.pag.
    [Google Scholar]
  56. Toyoda, M.. ( 2017;), ‘ Recollecting local narratives on the land ethic. ’, in J. B. Callicott, and J. McRae. (eds), Japanese Environmental Philosophy, Oxford:: Oxford University Press;, pp. 17995.
    [Google Scholar]
  57. Tronto, J. C., and Fisher, B.. ( 1990;), ‘ Toward a feminist theory of caring. ’, in E. K. Abel, and M. K. Nelson. (eds), Circles of Care: Work and Identity in Women’s Lives, Albany, NY:: State University of New York Press;, pp. 3654.
    [Google Scholar]
  58. Tsing, A. L.. ( 2015), The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins, Princeton, NJ:: Princeton University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  59. Voelcker, B.. ( 2021;), ‘ Landscape theory in post-war Japanese cinema: fūkeiron and Adachi Masao’s A. K. A. Serial Killer. ’, in L. Cortade, and G. Soulez. (eds), Penser l’espace avec le cinéma et la littérature, New York:: Peter Lang;, pp. 21938.
    [Google Scholar]
  60. Williams, R.. ( 1973), The Country and the City, London:: Chatto & Windus;.
    [Google Scholar]
  61. Yasui, Y., and Tanaka, N.. (eds) ( 2012), The Legendary Filmmaking Collective NDU and Nunokawa Tetsuro, Kobe:: Cinematrix and Kobe Documentary Film Festival Committee;.
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1386/miraj_00063_1
Loading
/content/journals/10.1386/miraj_00063_1
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): documentary; ecology; ethics; Japan; land; leftism
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error