Kawamoto the Puppet Master: Screening Details

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    Kihachiro Kawamoto: An Overview

    Dir: Kihachiro Kawamoto, 1hr 30 mins, Subtitled

    Born in 1925, Kihachiro Kawamoto is considered a living treasure in his home country, with over thirty years spent creating some of the world’s most sublime and atmospheric stop motion animation. Having studied in Prague under Czech animator Jiri Trnka, who encouraged him to draw on his own country's rich cultural heritage, Kawamoto returned to Japan to make a series of painstakingly crafted masterpieces with their roots in Japanese legends and the theatrical forms of Kabuki, Noh and Bunraku theatre.

    This programme features some of his finest short films, such as the haunting ghost story The Demon (Oni, 1970) and foreign myths and fairytales in To Shoot Without Shooting (1988), adapted from a tale set in ancient China.

    Self Portrait

    1988, 1'30 mins

    An introduction to Kihachiro Kawamoto.

    The Demon (Oni)

    1970, 8 mins

    Inspired by a ghost story from the eleventh-century anthology of Japanese myths and legends Konjaku monogatari, The Demon tells the story of two hunters who live with their aged mother. With its plain black backdrops and minimalist designs, it draws upon the pared-down style of traditional Bunraku puppet presentations and the masked Noh theatre, to chilling effect.

    House of Flame (Kataku)

    1979, 19 mins

    Based on the Noh play Motomezuka- the Seeker’s Mound, this tells the story of a young woman named Unai-Otome who is loved by two men. Not knowing which to choose, in anguish, she chose death. But although her intentions were pure, not even the grave brought the respite she longed for from her earthly dilemma.

    To Shoot Without Shooting (Fusha no sha)

    1988, 25 mins

    Based on the story Meijin-den by Atsushi Nakajima (1909-1942), this work is set in ancient China telling the tale of a young Chinese archer’s trials to reach the pinnacle of his field. Made at the end of the Cold War, it’s not hard to detect the pacifist message in this beautifully rendered fable.

    The Trip (Tabi)

    1973, 12 mins

    Surreal cutout (kiri-gami) animation following a young girl’s spiritual journey to an anonymous Western city, a bizarre dreamscape cluttered with elements from works by Salvador Dali, René Magritte, Giorgio de Chirico and MC Escher. The citations of Chinese poet Su Tong-Po (1037-1101) hint at a deeper Buddhist allegory, in a film, which also references the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, offered as Kawamoto’s ode to his mentor, Trnka, who died in 1969.

    A Poet's Life (Shijin no shogai)

    1974, 19 mins

    A worker is fired from a factory for demanding a wage increase, while his mother, worn thin by poverty, is caught in her own spinning wheel and transformed into yarn. A neighbour takes the yarn and knits it into a jacket, which nobody will buy. Then a strange storm buries the town in snow, freezing rich and poor alike. A Kafka-esque kiri-gami animation based on a short story by Kobo Abe (1924-1993),

    Anthropo-cynical Farce (Kenju giga)

    1970, 8 mins

    A dog race is interrupted by a ringmaster, who attaches fish to the dog’s collars and makes them run in circles. The crowd is incensed, but the ringmaster insists that the audience is no better off than the dogs. In the end the ringmaster is assassinated and the race continues, but a single red rose sprouts from the ringmaster’s blood; a symbol of truth in a crazy world? An absurd circus is brought to life in one of Kawamoto’s few hand-drawn films.

    Dojoji Temple (Dojoji)

    1976, 19 mins

    One of Kawamoto’s most bewitching works, based on a famous Kabuki play, Dojoji Temple depicts a young monk on a pilgrimage tempted by a fair maiden, who transforms into a vicious sea serpent and pursues him until he seeks refuge in a distant temple. The serpent encircles the huge temple bell in which he hides, and the monk is reduced to ashes.

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