Teshigahara Hiroshi’s Hokusai as a Burgeoning Cinematic Quest for “Shutai (subject)”:

A Comparative Analysis with Takiguchi Shuzō’s version

Abstract

 This paper positions Teshigahara Hiroshi’s Hokusai (Seinen production, 1953) as an early work of “shutai (subject)” cinematic movement.
 From the early 1950's, Teshigahara was involved in several art movements, and interacted with members of the Kindai-bungaku which became the center of the Shutaisei-ronsou (divate about subjectivity) in the late 1940s. Against this background, Teshigahara took over the project of making a film on Katsushika Hokusai on which Takiguchi Shuzō had been working, and created his own Hokusai film, which became his directorial debut.
 By focusing on Teshigahara’s early engagement with the “shutai” discourse as the context, with compare the scenario of Hokusai left by Takiguchi with the aforementioned reworking by Teshigahara. I will also observe the influence of the works of Luciano Emmer and Alain Resnais, which “narrative” paintings.
 In conclusion, I point out that some problems regarding the problematisation of Hokusai in the context of “shutai”. Because Hokusai predates Japanese New Wave’s activity, which also concerned “shutai”, this work is positioned as burgeoning in the cinematic movement over the “shutai”.