Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki have inspired delight in international audiences for decades. The enchanted worlds of Princess Mononoke (1997) and Spirited Away (2001) transport us to worlds of complex ethics, captivating creatures, and a beautiful animation style.
However, the overwhelming popularity of Studio Ghibli’s films can overshadow the diversity of offerings coming from Miyazaki’s peers in independent Japanese animation. Less well known, but no less talented, are independent animators Kihachiro Kawamoto and Koji Yamamura, who both create short films in one-man operations or using small teams in an artisanal approach to animation.
Kihachiro Kawamoto
Kawamoto is a stop motion animator who learned puppet animation from renowned Czech animator Jiří Trnka. His films are highly stylized and draw heavily from traditional Japanese culture like Noh theatre (a formalized dramatic tradition dating back to the 14th century) or Bunraku (a type of puppet theatre that originated in the 17th century).
For example, his 1979 film, House of Flame, is based on a Noh play called Motomezuka (The Seeker’s Mound), which is itself a retelling of an early poem-tale. The puppets are styled after hina dolls and Bunraku puppets, and the background consists of simple glass paintings. Further, both Noh and Bunraku are known for economy of form, which Kawamoto appropriates when he choreographs his puppets.
Part of the reason why Kawamoto draws from these classical traditions is due to the urging of Jiří Trnka. According to Jasper Sharp, while Kawamoto studied under Trnka in 1963, Trnka charged the young animator with crafting “films that remain true to his country’s culture and spirit.” So, Kawamoto began studying Bunraku to unearth the “true nature” of puppets, and we see this inflected in the design of his films.
Koji Yamamura
Trained as a painter and illustrator, Yamamura has worked in a variety of modes of animation. His early films frequently employed claymation or cut-out techniques, whereas recently he’s been more interested in hand-drawn animation.
An interesting example of one of his early films is Aquatic, which combines his painterly instinct with an experimental technique called clay painting. Clay painting is a stop motion technique where the animator creates textured, moving paintings with clay. In Aquatic, the clay is spread thinly on underlit glass, creating a more delicate effect than is often seen with clay painting.
One of Yamamura’s most famous films, Mt. Head (2002), was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film the same year that Hayao Miyazaki won Best Animated Feature for Spirited Away. It’s a modernized telling of an old rakugo (a form of oral storytelling) story, and interestingly, Yamamura claims in an interview with Sight and Sound that Mt. Head is the first film where he set out to consciously include “intrinsically Japanese elements.” Previously, he says, “I never really wanted to include any specifically Japanese elements, because I’d started making animation through all these influences from Europe or Canada.”
Both Yamamura and Kawamoto craft exquisite films that demonstrate a high level of artistic skill, reminding us that independent Japanese animation takes many forms, from the classical to the enchanted to the modern. And it’s worth exploring all it has to offer.
Watch Studio Ghibli’s latest film, The Red Turtle (dir. Michael Dudok de Wit) at the IU Cinema this week as part of the CINEkids series. It’s playing Friday March 31 at 6:30 p.m. and Saturday April 1 at 3:00 p.m.
The IU Cinema has previously screened several Hayao Miyazaki films (Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, Ponyo, and Spirited Away), and featured a series on Japanese animation last year called Chimerical Cinema: The Fantastical World of Japanese Animation.
Laura Ivins loves stop motion, home movies, imperfect films, nature hikes, and Stephen Crane’s poetry. She has a PhD from Indiana University and an MFA from Boston University. In addition to watching and writing about movies, sometimes she also makes them.