Documentary Educational Resources - Geography / Asia / Japan / All Films

The Buddha Mummies of North Japan

Fri, 12 Apr 2019 15:49:00 GMT

The Buddha Mummies of North Japan
Buy Now: $295.00

At select temples throughout northeastern Japan, the robed bodies ofself-mummified Buddhist monks are worshipped as “Living Buddhas.” Theyare thought to heal the sick, protect the living, and continue toinspire monks with the intense dedication of their ascetic disciplinecenturies before. The Buddha Mummies of North Japan includes interviewswith the monks who attend to these “Living Buddhas,” descriptions of the dieting regime and austerities required in order to self-mummify, and a rare redressing ritual in which the robes of the mummies are cut intotalismans for devotees.

This is the first independentdocumentary to capture these mummified monks on film, to observe key ceremoniesof their 12-year ritual cycle, and to present interviews with leading scholarson this rare form of contemporary Buddhism.

"Combining ascendant global proclivities toward nature and spirituality alongside the inherent stunning visuals, the historical layers, interwoven doctrines, and surrounding socio-demographic challenges of the subject (rural depopulation, an aging society, declining parishes) offer filmmakers—several of whom are scholars in the field—ample material to explore."
- Caleb Carter, Kyushu University, Religion and Society 2021 Reviews

"The film is particularly suitable for undergraduate and graduateclasses in Japanese studies and Cultural Anthropology, since it deals withtopics such as asceticism, Esoteric Buddhism, and folk religion in Japan,as well as anthropological themes such as materiality and devotionalpractices. Also, Religious Studies courses covering subjects such as deathand the afterlife could widely benefit from the content."
- Filippo Pedretti, Canadian Journal of Buddhist Studies

SELECTED AWARDS AND SCREENINGS

Best Cinematography, Documentary Short FilmFestival, Toronto, 2018

Best Documentary, University of Toronto FilmFestival, 2017

Society for the Anthropology of ReligionBiennial Conference, Toronto, 2019

Association of Asian Studies Annual Meeting,Washington, D. C., 2018

Visit Japan to see additional products in this category.

So Long Asleep

Tue, 9 Oct 2018 15:11:00 GMT

So Long Asleep
Buy Now: $320.00

Thanks to books and films such as Unbroken and Bridge Over the River Kwai many Americans know that Imperial Japan forced Allied military prisoners to perform heavy labor during the Asia-Pacific War. Few also know that hordes of Asian civilian men suffered the same treatment.For seven decades the governments of Japan and Korea have sparred over who is responsible for the dead souls of Empire's children.

A chance encounter between a Japanese Buddhist priest and a Korean graduate student sparked a bi-national people-power project that for 20 years has been locating and retrieving the remains of Korean laborers who died in Hokkaido, Japan's large northern island. On the 70th anniversary of the end of the war, project volunteers carried 115 sets of remains on a controversial pilgrimage through Japan's major cities en route to a contested reburial in Seoul's Municipal Cemetery.

So Long Asleep takes us to visit the excavation sites, and then we travel with the volunteers on their pilgrimage.Project co-leader Yoshihiko Tonohira, chief priest of a rural temple in western Hokkaido, was born after the war; he learned only years later that there were Korean laborers buried in his region. He began to locate them, cremate them, and provide memorial services for them.

Co-leader Byung-Ho Chung was in Japan doing fieldwork for his doctoral dissertation when he happened to visit Tonohira's temple and learned of the excavations. He promised to return with a crew of Korean students and anthropologists trained to excavate while preserving evidence of causes of death.Together they launched a series of workshops that stand on a hurtful past to build a hopeful future. Volunteers, most of them students, come to Hokkaido for a fortnight: Japanese, Koreans, zainichi offspring of Korean migrants in Japan, plus others from elsewhere.

During the day, supervised by forensic anthropologists, they clear away foliage and dig for remains. At night they meet to build a community of mutual respect that can stay the new waves of ethnic and nationalist rancor washing across East Asia. Participants speak of the life-changing power of witnessing with others the evidence of historic hatred.

So Long Asleep is an uplifting report on what engaged citizens can accomplish when their governments drift away from attending to duty.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Award of Merit, Impact Docs, 2018

Bronze Award, Spotlight Documentary Film Awards, 2017

Margaret Mead Film Festival, 2017

Cinema Soup Film Festival, 2018

Ogeechee International History Film Festival, 2018

MayDay Film Festival, 2018

Visit Japan to see additional products in this category.

Fish Is Our Life

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 14:53:00 GMT

Fish Is Our Life
Buy Now: $295.00

This unusual documentary provides a fascinating profile of an important segment of the Japanese population rarely seen or studied in the West. It focuses on the small businessmen-proprietors who work the 1,100 family-owned businesses at Tsukiji Market, Tokyo's largest wholesale fish market. With its many small wholesalers and its seven large auction houses, Tsukiji is a small city in itself, with its own unique culture, work hours, and traditions. The video captures the vitality and earthy humor of a variety of people who work in the market, and examines how they, like all Japanese, are increasingly affected by the global market economy and by changes in the larger Japanese culture.

Visit Japan to see additional products in this category.

Fit Surroundings

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 14:53:00 GMT

Fit Surroundings
Buy Now: $295.00

Based on more than a decade of field research, this colorful report on the high-touch craft of shellfish diving, takes us to the coast of the Shima Peninsula in central Japan. Here most of the divers (ama) are women and many of them are older with an average age of 50. By taking you into different settings where the divers operate, the program allows you to sample a social environment in which fierce individual competition underwater is checked and balanced by a spirited colleagueship carefully nurtured among groups of divers as they relax on shore. The program is suitable for use at the secondary school level and above, for courses not only about Japan, but about gender, aging, and sustainable environments, or "fit surroundings." A study guide which includes additional information and suggested readings is available below.

Visit Japan to see additional products in this category.

The Last Kamikaze

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 06:41:00 GMT

The Last Kamikaze
Buy Now: $320.00

This film explores the minds of former suicide bombers who participated in the first well-orchestrated suicide mission in modern history, the one carried out by the air arm of the Imperial Japanese Navy during WWII. Although in the beginning, these suicide pilots were university graduates and intellectual elites in their 20s, by 1942 the Navy was aggressively recruiting a large number of boys who were only in their low teens. Fortunately, some never flew their final suicide mission because the war ended before it was their turn to fly out. The producer/director interviews several friends of his deceased father (who was also a former suicide pilot) in order to understand the mindset and motives behind such an extraordinary behavior. Now in their 70s and 80s, these individuals reflect upon their past and talk candidly about their lives, issues related to patriotism, spirituality, and on-going turmoil in the Middle East.

Visit Japan to see additional products in this category.

Macaques

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 14:49:00 GMT

Macaques
Buy Now: $320.00

This video presents an overview of the genus Macaca, beginning with a discussion of their place in the primate order and their adaptability. This potential for eating a wide variety of foods and living in both temperate and tropical environments at a variety of altitudes means they are very similar to humans in their ability to exploit a range of habitats. After the introduction by Professor Zeller, the video covers 6 species of the approximately 18 types of macaques. The groups chosen range from the only Euro/African species (Macaca sylvanus, the Barbary macaque) at the west end of their range to the Japanese macaques at the eastern edge. The common rhesus and long-tailed macaques are included who range very widely across South-east Asia and these are contrasted with 2 species endemic to the island of Sulawasi in Indonesia. One of these is a new species discovered in the 1990's on the southern Sulawasi Island of Buton, (Macaca Brunescens) and the other is the rarely seen Macaca (Cynopithecus) nigra, one of the larger forms. Material on sexual dimorphism, locomotion, male-female relations, infant care, diet, group social patterns, grooming and communication is covered for each group, pointing out the differences and similarities between the species. Footage from free ranging and captive situations is used and the impact of captivity on behaviour is mentioned. This video is useful as an introduction to the genus, as well as providing data for a more complex analysis of behavioral comparisons which might be undertaken by more senior students. One particular area of comparison is the handling of objects by a variety of species and the potential functions of stick and stone use. Commentary about conservation issues and the impact of humans on the animals is also included.

Visit Japan to see additional products in this category.

Makiko's New World

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 14:49:00 GMT

Makiko's New World
Buy Now: $320.00

Early in the 20th century, new opportunities were opened to Japanese women, thanks to modern home use goods and to the new technologies of self-awareness offered by snapshot cameras, family albums, and mass produced diary books.

Nakano Makiko and her family were on the hinge of historical change in 1910, the year that she kept a daily record of her activities as the young wife in a busy merchant household in Kyoto. Makiko's New World transports its viewers into the almost-forgotten milieu of urban Japan a century ago. The program blends historical photos and film footage with pictures from family albums and with dramatized re-enactments of events Makiko recorded in her diary.

The program is suitable for classroom use in secondary schools, colleges, and universities, and for civic study groups. For class sessions shorter than 50 minutes the program can be shown in two segments of approximately 29 minutes each. It can also be used in conjunction with Kazuko Smith's prize winning English translation, Makiko's Diary (1995), available from Stanford University press.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Selected for screening by the Asian Studies Association.

Visit Japan to see additional products in this category.

Marathon Monks of Mount Hiei

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 14:49:00 GMT

Marathon Monks of Mount Hiei
Buy Now: $320.00

The greatest athletes in the world today are neither the Olympic champions nor the stars of professional sports, but the "Marathon Monks" of Japan's sacred Mount Hiei. Over a seven year training period, these "running Buddha" figuratively circle the globe on foot. During one incredible 100-day stretch, they cover 52.5 miles daily - twice the length of an Olympic marathon. The prize they seek is not a pot of gold, but enlightenment in the here and now.

This documentary program is about one of these amazing men - Tanno Kakudo and the magic mountain where he trains. It is the philosophy of Tendai Buddhism, which inspires him in his quest for the supreme. The viewer will learn about the monk's death-defying fast, his vegetarian training diet, his handmade straw running shoes, and other feats of endurance such as the mummifying fire ceremony. Illustrated with superb cinematography and music, this film contains the first full insight into Mount Hiei and Tendai Buddhism based on the book Marathon Monks of Mount Hiei by John Steven, published by Shambala Press.

Visit Japan to see additional products in this category.

Neighborhood Tokyo

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 14:11:00 GMT

Neighborhood Tokyo
Buy Now: $295.00

Miyamoto-cho is a community of Mom-and-Pop stores and family enterprises located near the center of Tokyo. Competition from supermarkets and shopping centers threatens the livelihoods of long-term residents. High land prices tempt owners to tear down old homes and replace them with apartment buildings; this in turn is changing the composition of the population.

Against this backdrop, residents strive to maintain the close social ties, symbols of local identity, and community rituals that keep Miyamoto-cho from becoming just another mailing address.

Theodore Bestor began his research here in 1979. His prize winning book of the same name is available through Stanford University Press.

This documentary is one of a series depicting the variety of life in today's Japan in the context of human problems common to all industrial nations. A comprehensive study guide is available.

Visit Japan to see additional products in this category.

Otaiya

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 13:51:00 GMT

Otaiya
Buy Now: $295.00

In the sixteenth century Portuguese Catholic missionaries introduced Christianity to Japan. The religion flourished for about fifty years, but by 1614, the Tokugawa government issued an edict that outlawed Christianity and expelled the missionaries from Japan. About 150,000 believers went underground and continued to practice their religion in secret.

These people are known as the "Hidden Christians". Otaiya, meaning "Big Evening", is the Hidden Christian version of Christmas Eve. Through the occasion of this ceremony, the film tells the story of Japan's Hidden Christians.

Made with the cooperation of contemporary Hidden Christians on the remote island of Narushima, the film features the only two remaining priests in the Goto Islands. Both men are in their late nineties and without successors. The ceremonial and religious lives of these two men stand in stark contrast to the materialism of the younger generation.

Urban migration of the island's youth, an encroaching consumer ethic, and ironically, religious freedom are the forces that conspire to erode the traditions and solidarity of these extraordinary and persevering people.

Visit Japan to see additional products in this category.