Abe Masanao Film Database

Introduction

Kei Osawa (UMUT)

As he recalls in his memoirs Tsurushigumo (Suspended Clouds), Abe Masanao was motivated by an insatiable passion for the film medium, ever since attending as a child one of the first projections of the cinematograph with his father in a Japanese restaurant in the Ryõgoku district of Tōkyō. In his teens he built his own cameras, and upon graduating from University he proposed some ameliorations on Edison’s projection devices.

Afterwards, he bought numerous leading-edge cameras, both of domestic and foreign production, and developed his own filming devices. Abe Masanao began applying film techniques to the research on clouds in 1926, when he filmed in Ninooka (Shizuoka Prefecture). Conducting regular observations of clouds from the Abe Cloud and Air Current Research Observatory privately established in 1928, he photographed and filmed clouds at the same time. In parallel, he experimentally reproduced clouds in his wind tunnel device from his home in Hongō, filming them. The present database collects all the extant films from the Abe Masanao Collection.

The films described in this database can be divided into four categories:

1) Cloud Observation Films
The cloud observation films taken along with photographs upon the observation of clouds from the Abe Cloud and Air Current Research Observatory only last a few seconds, and capture a given cloud or phenomenon. They are indexed by the CLOUD PHOTO datasheet and share the same ID number, allowing for the identification of the filming date and the object of the record. Cloud observation films were contained in tin cans, with ID numbers on each film roll ranging from 1 to 250.

2) Cloud Observation Loop Films
In order to continually view some of his selected observation films, Abe Masanao produced a loop version. These now have a value of their own, beyond their initial status as a reproduction: some of the observation films are now missing, and these loop films are the only extant version of some films. Initially, these films were not categorized, and were contained in a big tin can.

3) Pedagogic Films
Abe Masanao also produced minutely edited pedagogic films, the most famous being Cloud and Air Currents (1946). Until now, three films were identified; five more (including uncomplete versions) were found. These films were contained in tin cans, with handwritten titles on labels.

4) Unedited Films
It is not excessive to say that Abe Masanao was constantly filming. A trove of unedited films, not only of clouds but also of his research environment and his private life, remain. Most of them not having any ID number or description, it is difficult to identify their object or filming date. We digitized all of them, categorizing them and describing them as much as possible.

In identifying cloud observation films and cloud observation loop films, we compared the ID numbers handwritten on each film with the information recorded on CLOUD PHOTO datasheet and other documents. The CLOUD PHOTO datasheet are also collected in the present database. There are also two types of information notebooks recording the details of each film.

Notes on the database

- For edited films, official titles are indicated with double brackets (for example: 『Cloud and Air Current』). Titles inferred from information written on films or on labels are indicated without brackets (for example: Movement of Cumulonimbus).

- Almost all films are silent. When there are talkies, it is indicated in the “Film Type” section.

- When the film ID or title is indicated on the film itself, it is indicated without brackets in the database (for example: 57a). When the title is not written on the film, the title inferred from the film’s contents is indicated with single brackets (for example: [37b]).

Film Research and Database Editing

Kei Osawa

Additional Database Editing and Image Processing

Hanae Nakazawa

Note

The present database was made with a Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B) (KAKEN 17K13364).