The Revival of "Gentou" (magic lantern, filmstrips, slides) in Showa Period Japan:

Focusing on Its Developments in the Media of Post-war Social Movements

抄録

  In Japanese, "gentou" (magic lantern, slide, filmstrip) means visual media projecting still images onto screen. In Japan, gentou had first thrived during the Meiji period and revived in the Showa period from war-time to post war 1950s. In both case, gentou had been introduced as "educational media" for school, social and home education, with the recommendation of the Ministry of Education and some authorities of education for the first time. However, since the entering into force of the Treaty of Peace with Japan in 1952, gentou also flourished as grass-roots media within several social movements like labor disputes, anti-basement movements, anti-nuclear movements, and utagoe movement.

  In this article, I try to explore the possibility of the independent history of gentou, without subordinating it to the history of other media like cinema, photography, or fine arts. Especially, I would like to focus on the 1950s independent gentou production and screening within social movements. During 1950s, social activists often produced original gentou films for the purpose of documenting and propagating their activities, and tried to establish the public sphere for "the exchange of experiences" through gentou screenings. Analyzing newly found materials like films and scripts of these 1950s grass-roots gentou movements I would like to clarify how these gentou films, with their peculiar characteristics, created sense of "the exchange of experiences" among their audience.