Hiroshi Sugimoto

The Japanese today "are trying to make amends" for years of neglecting the now famous and greatly distinguished, Isamu Noguchi (Ernsberger). "Noguchi loved Japan, but the Japanese did not return his affection" (49). Having an American mother, a Japanese father, and an American and European educational background, Noguchi eventually found toleration and happiness in sculpture.

Before beginning his solo career, Susumu Hirasawa was the frontman for several musical groups, including MANDRAKE, SHUN, P-MODEL, and Global Trotters. P-MODEL is often credited with founding the Japanese Techno-Pop movement in the early 70s, and has since been well known for his extensive use of creative technologies in production; He modified AMEGA software, in order to explore new methods of creating music using the PC, such as modifying a program to take thousands of samples he produced and automatically compose music. He later re-used one of those machine compositions for the theme to the 1997 anime Berserk (Phonon Belt). His use of creative technologies isn't limited to studio production, however. He also makes extensive use of self-built creative technologies on stage.

Jerzy Kosinski Jerzy Kosinski was born in Poland in 1933 to Russian parents who had fled the revolution. He was separated from his family when the Nazis invaded in 1939. For six years he wandered form village to village scorned by East European gypsies who feared his hawk like face and penetrating eyes. He survived German terror by his wits and he was struck dumb from the shock that he underwent from this six-year period of wandering. He was mute from age nine to fourteen.(New Yorker) Kosinski was later reunited with his family and by the time he was twenty-four, he attained a professorship at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw.

3.     Mackerras, Colin. The Japanese Theatre in Modern Times. Amherst. University of Massachusetts Press, 1975.

During his short life, Georges-Pierre Seurat was an innovator in an age of innovators in the field of art. This french painter was a leader in a movement called neo-impressionist in the late 19th century. Unlike the broad brushstrokes of the impressionist, Seurat developed a technique called pointillism or divisionism. In this method, he used small dots or strokes of contrasting color to create the subtle changes contained within the painting. Seurat was an art scientist in that he spent much of his life, searching for how different colors and linear effects would change the look or texture of a canvas. He was painstaking in his work, the technique he chose taking much longer to produce a work of art.

Jones, G W. Black Cinema Treasures Lost and Found. Denton: University of North Texas asdfffP, 1991. 129.

Tojo Hideki lived from 1884-1948 and he was a Japanese political and military leader. The premier who ordered the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, he personified Japanese militarism.

In the history of civilization, there have been many different types of theatre. There is Greek theatre and Elizabethan theater. Some are musicals, some are comedies and some are tragedies. Some types employ realistic techniques while others are more avant-gardes. But one type stands out among the rest, and that is Kabuki theatre. This classical Japanese style of dance and drama is not just theatre. It is a beautiful form of art, which has been carefully crafted over many centuries.

Cesare Lombroso was an Italian university professor and criminologist, born in Nov. 6, 1835, in Verona, who became worldwide renowned for his studies and theories in the field of characterology, or the relation between mental and physical characteristics. Lombroso tried to relate certain physical characteristics, such as jaw size, to criminal psychopathology, or the innate tendency of individuals toward sociopathy and criminal behavior. As such, Lombroso's approach is a direct descendant of phrenology, created by the German physician Franz Joseph Gall in the beginning of the nineteenth century, and closely related to other fields of characterology, such as craniology and physiognomy. His theory has been scientically discredited, but Lombroso had the merit of bringing up the importance of the scientific studies of the criminal mind, a field which became known as criminal anthropology.

The image of Noriko and Shukishi overlooking Onomichi captures the beauty and simplicity that has come to define Ozu’s style. Aesthetically, the shot is taken from the low perspective of a person sitting on a traditional tatami mat (Random House Dictionary, “Tatami”). The audience becomes the observer to everything that unfolds from a traditional Japanese sitting position. The frame remains still as with every shot in Tokyo Story, but one. The framing is beautiful and symmetric. The composition is maximized for beauty and symmetry. Shukishi is placed in a balance between Noriko and a classical Japanese-deco pillar. Power lines lead the viewers’ eyes around the frame, allowing the audience to take in the full breadth of the imagery. Elegant framing and use of simplistic objects for a beautiful mise-en-scene is unique to Ozu.