The Geology of Fuji (existing portion only)
(“Fuji no chishitsu”)
1941 / B&W / 35mm / 11 min
Director: Akimoto Ken
Script: Kamei Fumio
Based on the book by Wakimizu Tetsugoro’s The Poetry of the Japanese Landscape (“Nihon Fukei-shi”)
Photography: Yagi Jinpei
Sound: Sakai Eizo
Music: Fukai Shiro
Narrator: Tokugawa Musei
Producer: Mura Haruo
Production Company: Culture Films Department, Toho
Source: National Film Center
This film uses animation to introduce how and when Mt. Fuji was created. Mt. Fuji’s shape was altered by the 70 or so large and small volcanoes around it. The film explains how Fuji’s famous Five Lakes were created by lava flows, how great amounts of snow run-off seep underground to supply springs, ponds and rivers, and that the Oshino Basin was once the bottom of a lake. We are told that springs lie beneath in parts of the lakes where water temperatures are lower. The film ends part-way through, the second half having been lost. During the prewar military era, we were taught that Mt. Fuji was divine and unchanging, but in this film Mt. Fuji is described scientifically, subject to radical change according to the laws of nature. Kamei’s scenario was titled “Mt. Fuji” but the film’s title was changed to The Geology of Fuji for screening. It is unfortunate that part of the film has been lost, but we screen the surviving fragment as an important demonstration of Kamei’s posture as a filmmaker.