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Venue: Khalili Lecture Theatre (KLT), Main Building, SOAS University of LondonSpeakers: Marcos Centeno-Martín, Irene González-López, and Alejandra Armendáriz-Hernández
Registration: https://www.soas.ac.uk/about/event/picture-scroll-tale-yamanaka-tokiwa-haneda-sumiko-2004-film-screening-and-qa
Into the Picture Scroll: The Tale of Yamanaka Tokiwa (山中常盤ー牛若丸と常盤御前 母と子の物語ー) is an extraordinary film that presents Japanese classical scroll paintings as never before. Released in 2004, it was directed by Haneda Sumiko (b. 1926), one of Japan's most prolific documentary filmmakers.
The film brings to life the celebrated Yamanaka Tokiwa picture scrolls, a set of twelve paintings by Iwasa Matabei, created in the seventeenth century and designated an Important Cultural Property of Japan. The scrolls recount a story once popular in joruri puppet theatre: Lady Tokiwa is attacked and murdered by bandits while travelling to visit her samurai son. After her spirit reveals her fate to him, he sets out to avenge her death.
Through skilful framing, rhythmic pacing, and a newly composed joruri score (ballad singing accompanied by the shamisen), Haneda transforms these historical artworks into a captivating cinematic experience, allowing contemporary audiences to engage with Japan's cultural heritage while demonstrating the enduring power of visual storytelling across centuries.
The event will include a brief introduction, film screening (100 minutes, in Japanese with English subtitles), and Q&A with Marcos Centeno-Martín, Irene González-López, and Alejandra Armendáriz-Hernández, editors of the book The Documentary Cinema of Haneda Sumiko: Japan in Transition through Gender, Arts, Nature and Society (Routledge, 2026).
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SOAS University of London, School of Oriental & African Studies, Thornhaugh Street, London, WC1B 5, United Kingdom
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