Issue:
July 2024 | Exhibition
A selection of original animated drawings
Exhibition features work from the late Isao Takahata's animated masterpiece
June 29 - July 31
This month's exhibition gives us a rare insight into how Japanese anime movies are made. July's exhibition features special enlarged prints of original drawings from the classic 1981 animated masterpiece Gauche the Cellist, based on the work of the same title first published in 1934 by well-known Japanese grassroots poet and author of children's stories, Kenji Miyazawa. (Supported by EPSON)
Born in 1896, Miyazawa was a writer much in the same vein as Walt Whitman or Beatrice Potter, but with a heart like John Ruskin. In his short life of 37 years, he wrote numerous poems and anthropomorphic fairy tales, but the setting of many of his works is the fictional idealistic homeland of Ihatov, modeled on the countryside around his hometown—present-day Hanamaki city in Iwate Prefecture. Indeed, this area could be called the Japanese people's spiritual homeland. Kenji himself learned to play the cello and loved Beethoven's Symphony No.6.
The late Isao Takahata, the director who established the foundations of Japanese animation, took five years to complete the feature-length animation Gauche the Cellist in 1981, based on Kenji's work of the same title. This is a story of a young man's struggle and growth, and a poetic fantasy work set to Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony.
Movie Screening (free) & live cello performance
To enhance the movie experience, we have a special surprise. Please come to see this masterpiece animated theater version during your summer vacation, and bring your children along! Ater the movie, we will have a live cello performance by up-and-coming cellist Lynn Tsuburai, who will play the anime’s original tunes composed by Yoshio Mamiya, as well as other music from the film.
Date: Saturday, July 27, 2 p.m. reception, 2:30 p.m. screening (approximately 60 minutes),
followed by cello performance.
Music charge: Adults ¥2,000 (with one drink). Free for up to two children accompanied by adult.
Children (up to 18 years old) ¥500
For reservations: front@fccj.or.jp
Peter Lyon (Exhibition Committee Chair)
