Program 9
The Mikagura Festival of Tomiyama Village
(Tomiyama-mura no mikagura matsuri)- 1985 / Color / Digital File (Original: 16mm) / 50 min
Directors: Noda Shinkichi, Otsuka Masayuki, Ogawa Katsumi
Photography: Yonekura Toru, Sugiyama Akichika, Watari Masayuki, Iwasaki Mitsutoshi, Kawazoe Masaharu
Narrator: Takashima Akira
Planning: Tomiyama Village
Image Courtesy of National Film Archive of Japan
Supervisor: Yamazaki Kazushi
Production Company: Communication
Source: National Museum of Ethnology
Located in the northeastern corner of Aichi Prefecture, Tomiyama Village has suffered from a shrinking population since the construction of Sakuma Dam left much of the village submerged (in 2005 Tomiyama was incorporated into Toyone Village). This film documents the mikagura festival, a tradition practiced in this region since the 15th century that combines the Shinto performing arts of yudate and kagura in praying for rebirth and purification.
The Procession of Weird and Wonderful Masks
(Igyoirui no menkake gyoretsu)- 1988 / Color / Digital File (Original: 16mm) / 18 min
Director, Producer: Noda Shinkichi
Image Courtesy of National Film Archive of Japan
Photography: Tanaka Shigeru, Kosaka Masataka
Sound: Inoue Yosuke, Otsuka Masayuki
Production Company: Ikazuchi Sha
Source: National Museum of Ethnology
Noda’s team shot this film for Kanagawa News Film Association in 1972 as a document of annual rites practiced at Goryo Shrine in Kamakura. The footage was ultimately withheld from public view due to concerns about problems of discrimination at the origins of the masked procession festival. Noda obtained the footage from the News Film Association and completed a version for private use in 1987.
Sarushima Island with a Fort: Ruins and Graffiti
(Hodai no atta shima: Sarushima aruiwa haikyo to rakugaki)- 1987 / Color, B&W / 16mm / 25 min
Director, Editor, Producer: Noda Shinkichi
Image Courtesy of National Film Archive of Japan
Photography: Kanazawa Shinjiro, Watari Masayuki, Iwasaki Mitsutoshi, Otsuka Masayuki
Sound: Inoue Yosuke
Music: Hasegawa Genkichi
Production Support: Mitsui Yoshiaki, Ono Koji, Iwasa Toshie
Source: National Film Archive of Japan
Sarushima Island lies off the coast of Yokosuka Port. In the late Edo Period the island was outfitted with artillery and in the Meiji period a fort was constructed by the Army. After Japan’s defeat in the war, it was opened as a sea park and young people began to make it a destination. Noda visited it to shoot in black and white in 1968, and in color in 1983. In excluding human figures from the screen and filming ruins and graffiti in their materiality, he experiments at creating a visual poem.