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Japanese Reference Materials for Studying Japanese Cinema at Yale University: Film Criticism/Kōza

Overview

The fact that publishers have not put out many collected works of directors and film critics, or film-related “kōza,” which are collections of fundamental essays that often help define a field, is an indication of the continued low cultural status of cinema in Japan. The few of these that exist are then very important in providing access to writings otherwise hard to find, even if they can be limited. The Gendai Nihon eigaron taikei is a godsend collection of postwar criticism and theory, but only covers 1945 to 1970. The essay collections for Kinema junpō and Eiga hyōron are valuable, but only a drop in the bucket, and Makino’s reprints help those access monographs that are otherwise out of print. Japan has seen the publication of several kōza-like series in recent years, which follow up on the groundbreaking Kōza Nihon eiga and are a boon to the discipline.

Collections

Kōza