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| Festival Year |
Festival Section |
| 2014 |
Early Japanese Cinema |
| Film Title |
ASAGAO NIKKI [Il diario di un convolvolo / The Diary of a Morning Glory] |
| Alternative Title 1 |
[Il diario di un convolvolo] |
| Alternative Title 2 |
[The Diary of a Morning Glory] |
| Alternative Title 3 |
|
| Country |
Japan |
| Release Date |
15 June 1909 |
| Production Co. |
M. Pathe, Tokyo |
| Director |
? |
| Format |
|
Speed (fps) |
| 35mm |
|
16 |
| |
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| Footage |
|
Time |
| 477 ft. |
|
8' |
| Archive Source |
Theatre Museum, Waseda University |
| |
|
| Print Notes |
senza did./no titles |
| Cast |
| Kasen Nakamura, Utae Nakamura |
| |
| Program Notes |
The original story of Asagao Nikki was written by Shiba Shiso in the early 19th century, and was soon transformed into a Kabuki play. The Joruri (Bunraku puppet theatre) version of this was premiered in 1832 under the title Sho Utsushi Asagao Banashi. It is still in the Bunraku puppet repertory.
Miyuki, a young girl, and her fiancé Asojiro are separated by a disturbance in their hometown. Running away from home, Miyuki becomes blind with tears of sorrow. Singing a song about a morning glory that she learned from her fiancé, she wanders, ever searching for Asojiro. She at last encounters him at the inn of Shimada, but Asojiro has changed his name and she cannot rec-ognize him because she is blind. She later realizes the situation, and becoming half mad, goes after him, reaching the banks of the Ooi River.
The two most famous scenes of the play, those at the inn and the Ooi River, were adapted for the film. The decomposition of the original nitrate print was so severe that Act 2 of the film could not be salvaged at all in the early 1980s. Kasen Nakamura (1881-1942), a famous player of female Kabuki roles, appears as Miyuki, with her sister Utae Nakamura. – Hiroshi Komatsu
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