Documentary Educational Resources - Filmmaker / Omori, Yasuhiro / All Films

The Sons of Eboshi

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 07:47:00 GMT

Four young men take part in traditional coming-of-age Eboshi-Gi rites in Shizuhara, a village in Japan's Kyoto province. The Shinto cermony of Samurai origin marks the young men's passage into adulthood and initiates them into the local youth association. Families prepare for the Eboshi-Gi with extravagent banqueting and the young men practice the recitation of verses and gather symbolic decorations. Once initiated under the eyes of the whole village, the new members of the youth association must help in the preparations for the annual Spring Festival, which include making elaborate rice cakes and collecting money for the decoration of a portable shrine. On May 3rd, a procession carries the shrine in a spirit of blessing and celebration. Made in 1979, the film documents the deep respect for tradition still held in this area of modern Japan. This film is also available as part of the Five Films by Yasuhiro Omori collection.

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Seven Young Gods of Fortune

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 07:46:00 GMT

Seven Young Gods of Fortune
Buy Now: $320.00

In Shimofukuzawa, Japan, the local men's youth association organizes the annual Dosojin deity festival. The festivities are characterized by paper decorations and pantomime, with sexualized symbols promoting marriage and fertility. Young men of the village play the roles of the seven lucky gods, traditional protectors embodying such blessings as health, prosperity, long life, wealth, respect for Buddhist law, and generosity. Those who have left the village to work in urban areas return every January to take part in the ritual, held for the benefit of newlyweds and for the purification of 42-year-old men, who are thought to be in especial danger from evil spirits.

This film is also available as part of the Five Films by Yasuhiro Omori collection.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Presented at the American Museum of Natural History, New York, 1987

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A Shamanic Medium of Tsugaru

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 07:46:00 GMT

A Shamanic Medium of Tsugaru
Buy Now: $320.00

Ms. Taki Kudo says she has been able to connect with deities since she was six or seven years old. Even in modern Japan, mediums like Ms. Kudo are in demand, providing such traditional services as expelling a curse and invoking spirits for health and long life.

At twice-annual rituals at Mt. Osore-Zan, she and other female spirit mediums allow the dead to speak through them, relaying insight, comfort and warnings from the deceased to their loved ones.

Another important duty is caring for the mulberry-wood Oshirasama puppets representing individual souls. Ms. Kudo dresses and stores the puppets and performs the lively rites in which spirits come down from the mountain in order to protect and purify the people of her village - the deities are cajoled by offerings of food, lights, money and candy.

This film is also available as part of the Five Films by Yasuhiro Omori collection.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

First Prize, Margaret Mead Film Festival, American Museum of Natural History, 1994

First Prize, Bilan du Film Ethnographic, Paris, 1995

Third Prize, Nuoro Festival, Nuoro, Italy, 1996

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Taki Kudo

Mon, 27 Aug 2018 08:56:00 GMT

Taki Kudo
Buy Now: $320.00

Filmed between 1991 and 1997, Taki Kudo, Shamanic Medium of Tsugaru documents the final years of the charismatic Ms. Taki Kudo, a medium, healer and fortune teller. Every year she comes to Japan's sacred Mt. Osorozan, home of the Akakura grand shrine, where the mediums draw chopsticks for the best places to set up their booths. Summoning the spirits of the dead, she answers clients' questions with reassurances and criticisms from deceased relatives, and displays the elaborate shrines that families tend on behalf of their loved ones. Back in her own village, Ms. Kudo explains the power of her Buddhist rosary for prayer and healing and talks to ethnographer about her relationship with the gods and the process of spirit possession. She performs ceremonies for health and purification, and exorcises evil spirits and grudges by sending their paper representations floating downriver on a tiny boat. This film is also available as part of the Five Films by Yasuhiro Omori collection.

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Balinese Requiem

Wed, 25 Jul 2018 12:25:00 GMT

Balinese Requiem
Buy Now: $320.00

In a Balinese village, families go to great trouble and expense for their extravagant cremation ceremony. They provide special foods to mourners and prepare a bounty of offerings for the deceased, from gifts of money to symbolic baskets. The atmosphere is almost festive as a shadow puppet show is performed for the entertainment of the deceased, inheritances are distributed, and musical processions of mourners walk the streets. Dead family members seem almost present as their bones are uncovered, washed, and arranged for cremation with accompanying prayer rites. During the cremation, the village is filled with smoke from enormous burning pyres shaped like bulls, as the souls of the dead are cleansed of impurity and then sent out to sea so that they may continue their journey to heaven. Shot in 16mm, the film documents and explains the intricacies of these funeral rites and Balinese-Hindu beliefs about death.

This film is also available as part of the Five Films by Yasuhiro Omori collection.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Parnu International Film Festival, Estonia, 1994

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