japanese
Kamei Fumio Retrospective [Pre-War Works]

The Geology of Fuji (existing portion only)

(“Fuji no chishitsu”)
- 1941 / B&W / 35mm / 11 min

Director:
Akimoto Ken
Script: Kamei Fumio
Based on the book by Wakimizu Tetsugoro’s The Poetry of the Japanese Landscape (“Nihon Fukei-shi”)
Photography: Yagi Jinpei
Sound: Sakai Eizo
Music: Fukai Shiro
Narrator: Tokugawa Musei
Producer: Mura Haruo
Production Company: Culture Films Department, Toho
Source: National Film Center

This film uses animation to introduce how and when Mt. Fuji was created. Mt. Fuji’s shape was altered by the 70 or so large and small volcanoes around it. The film explains how Fuji’s famous Five Lakes were created by lava flows, how great amounts of snow run-off seep underground to supply springs, ponds and rivers, and that the Oshino Basin was once the bottom of a lake. We are told that springs lie beneath in parts of the lakes where water temperatures are lower. The film ends part-way through, the second half having been lost. During the prewar military era, we were taught that Mt. Fuji was divine and unchanging, but in this film Mt. Fuji is described scientifically, subject to radical change according to the laws of nature. Kamei’s scenario was titled “Mt. Fuji” but the film’s title was changed to The Geology of Fuji for screening. It is unfortunate that part of the film has been lost, but we screen the surviving fragment as an important demonstration of Kamei’s posture as a filmmaker.



• Kamei Fumio Retrospective [Pre-War Works] Hiking Song | Shape without Shape | An Introduction to Radio: The Audience | School Broadcasting | The Geology of Fuji | Airspace [Pre-War Documentary Films] Shanghai | Peking | Fighting Soldiers | Kobayashi Issa [Post-War Documentary Films] A Japanese Tragedy | Children of the Base | The People of Sunagawa | Wheat Will Never Fall | Still It’s Good to Live | Record of Blood: Sunagawa | The World Is Terrified: The Reality of the “Ash of Death” | Living in a Rough Sea | Fluttering Pigeons | Voice of Hiroshima | Men Are All Brothers | Towards a World without Arms | All Must Live: People, Insects and Birds | All Living Things Are Friends—Lullabies of Birds, Insects and Fish [Feature Films] War and Peace | A Woman’s Life | Become a Mother, Become a Woman | Woman Walking Alone on the Earth [PR and Educational Films] Poem of Life | Invitation to Japanese Architecture | Penmanship | Quiet Construction Methods | Living with Ideas: A Profile of Sharp | Let’s Weave a Rainbow | Hong Kong, Taipei | Norihei Travel Manners | The Southern Cross Is Calling | Wishing for Tomorrow’s Happiness [Other Works] Underwear Makes the Woman | The Models and the Photographer | Kamei on Kamei: A Record of Yesterday’s Film Production Discussion Group | Human Conceit: The World of Director Kamei Fumio