In an attempt to offer a rare glimpse of what Kyoto was like months after the end of WWII, I would like to introduce a periodical article published on December 4, 1945.
Naosuke Togawa (1917–2010)1, a film critic, contributed not only to Japan’s famous film magazines including Kinema Junpo and Eiga Hyoron, but to English-language publications: The Education of the Film-maker: An International View issued by Unesco Press and International Film Guide, to name a few. In honor of his great contributions to the film industry, he was given the 13th Kawakita Award2 in 1995. (The first winner was Donald Richie, who toasted Togawa at the award ceremony.3)
Back in late 1945, Togawa made a visit to Kyoto. He recorded what he had seen and felt there, which ended up appearing in the December 4, 1945, edition of the periodical Jiji Tsushin Eiga Geino. His report, titled “Shusengo no Kyoto (Postwar Kyoto),” started as below:
“Kyoto, the only megalopolis that was free from war damage, is so fortunate that it looks like it used to be and shows no signs of fatigue — which is a totally superficial view. Indeed, its scenes of nature remain the same, but the city does nothing but show us that people there are in the terrible plight of a defeated nation.”
Togawa kept on dealing with the city’s miserable situation, referring to these two things.
- More than 500 street people rushed from Osaka and Kobe to Kyoto every day.
- There was also an influx of war evacuees, who were a few hundred times as many as the above-mentioned homeless.
According to Togawa, the downtown of Kyogoku and the vicinity of Minamiza were jammed with lethargic or absent-minded people. Regarding the Kyogoku area, the critic added an explanation:
“The theaters are fully packed, and Teikoku-kan4, which screens The Gift of the Fox5, has such long lines of moviegoers that I feel pity for them.”
In Teikoku-kan, he saw a great number of people standing on tiptoes along its passages to watch the film. However, the film was shown in such a bad environment that it made him think:
“Even a train trip without a seat can take us to any place as long as you pay the fare. That said, it is extremely unreasonable that people have to pay the same amount of fee even if a film cannot be seen or heard.”
Togawa went on to lament the extremely poor performance of singers, dancers, and theater people on stage. Furthermore, he complained about the cost of going to the theater as below, comparing it to that of buying something to eat:
“Food stalls have been made in a row on lots that were vacant due to building evacuation. They sell a dish of almost rotten vegetables cooked in soy sauce for one yen. If it costs a yen for something we can eat in 20 seconds, then can we think it less expensive to spend time at a theater for two hours even if it costs 10 yen? No, it is a wrong idea.”
Incidentally, before visiting Kyoto, Togawa wrote an article about the cruel situation in postwar Osaka6. He found heaven and hell next to each other in the Dotonbori area:
“Street children, whose parents had been killed in the war, were vending a bun for six yen, their voices getting hoarse. Inside the huge theater behind them, meanwhile, young women of the Takarazuka Revue Company were performing Pinocchio under the dazzling lighting. At the neighboring theater, The Gift of the Fox was so popular that there was a line of people.”
Yuki Yamauchi came across the 1945 articles of Naosuke Togawa while looking for articles on filmmaker Akira Nobuchi, about whom and whose film he has written articles:
Notes
- He often used the pen name Naoki Togawa, but did not for the articles regarding postwar Kyoto and Osaka. ↩︎
- An annual award given by the Kawakita Memorial Film Institute to “an individual or an organization (local or foreign) who has significantly contributed to the development of Japanese cinema and/or to the diffusion of Japanese culture over the years through films.” Reference: https://www.kawakita-film.or.jp/kmfi_english.html ↩︎
- The photograph of Richie and Togawa can be seen here: https://www.kawakita-film.or.jp/kawakita_award_3_13.html ↩︎
- Teikoku-kan opened in 1913 at Nishiki-koji Agaru, Shinkyogoku, Nakagyo-ku. It was closed in 1971. The photographs of the theater in 1935 and 1938 can be seen here: https://www.nfaj.go.jp/onlineservice/digital-
gallery/dg20140408_006/ ↩︎ - The Gift of the Fox (Kitsune no Kureta Akanbo in Japanese) is a film released on November 8, 1945. It was Tsumasaburo Bando’s first starring role after the end of WWII. ↩︎
- The article, titled “Shusengo no Osaka (Postwar Osaka),” appeared in theNovember 29, 1945, edition of Jiji Tsushin Eiga Geino. ↩︎