After Great Pain: The Uses of Religious Folklore in Kenji Mizoguchi's Sansho the Bailiff (JP 1954) and Kaneto Shindo's Oniba (JP 1964)
This article studies the adaptations and applications of religious folklore in two masterworks of Japanese cinema: Kenji Mizoguchi's Sansho Dayu (Sansho the Bailiff, JP 1954) and Kaneto Shindo's Oniba (JP 1964). While academic approaches will often draw a strict line between narrative genr...
| Subtitles: | "Here Be Dragons. East Asian Film and Religion" |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Institut f. Fundamentaltheologie
2023
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| In: |
Journal for religion, film and media
Year: 2023, Volume: 9, Issue: 2, Pages: 15-39 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Sanshō Dayū
/ Onibaba
/ Japan
/ Post-war period (motif) (Motif)
/ Saga (motif) (Motif)
/ Buddhism (Motif)
/ Tales
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| IxTheo Classification: | BL Buddhism BN Shinto KBM Asia TK Recent history ZG Media studies; Digital media; Communication studies |
| Further subjects: | B
Buddhism and Film
B Japanese Cinema B Religious Folklore B Oniba B Kaneto Shindo B Kenji Mizoguchi B Sansho the Bailiff |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | This article studies the adaptations and applications of religious folklore in two masterworks of Japanese cinema: Kenji Mizoguchi's Sansho Dayu (Sansho the Bailiff, JP 1954) and Kaneto Shindo's Oniba (JP 1964). While academic approaches will often draw a strict line between narrative genres and discursive forms, these films, I argue, draw creatively from Japanese tradition for both critical and constructive purposes in the postwar context. Besides mounting trenchant criticisms of Japan's erstwhile militaristic violence and imperial ambitions, both filmmakers present their respective female protagonists as models for spiritual and sociocultural transformation in the face of anomie. Embodying humanistic compassion on the one hand and ontogenetic eros on the other, the two women compose complementary poles for reconstruction amidst the painful aftermath of war. |
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| ISSN: | 2617-3697 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal for religion, film and media
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.25364/05.9:2023.2.2 |