Midori Sawato
Encyclopedia
is a benshi
, one of the few silent film
narrators still active in Japan
.
, Midori Sawato graduated from the Department of Philosophy, Hosei University
. She first decided she wanted to become a benshi in 1972, when she saw the silent film The Water Magician
. She was particularly impressed with the performance as benshi of the man who would become her teacher, Shunsui Matsuda
. After studying under Matsuda, Sawato made her debut in 1973. She is an active benshi
who has garnered high praise through her wide variety of activities and performances both in Japan and overseas.
Her repertoire of over 500 films includes genres as varied as contemporary cinema, historical movies and western films, for which she provides well-formed interpretations of the work. She has received a number of awards, includes the Award for Excellence in the field of Dramatic Performance at the Agency for Cultural Affairs
Arts Festival, for her contributions toward promoting katsuben as modern entertainment, in addition to being a valuable presence carrying on the tradition of katsuben as a Japanese storytelling art.
As is traditional for benshi, she often gives an introduction before a film starts to explain the historical and cultural differences of the old films as well as provide background on the actors and directors. She does not use any modern vocabulary for narrating films that have old titles.
Besides katsuben, she is also involved in activities such as film critiques and essay writing. She is the author of Katsudo Benshi: Sekai o Kakeru (Film Benshi Across the World).
She was the recipient of the Japan Film Critics Golden Glory Award. In the same year in October, she received wide acclaim for her katsuben performance for Ito Daisuke’s Chuji Tabi Nikki (Chuji’s Travel Diary). In December 1998, a katsuben recital was organized to commemorate the 25th year of her career. In November 2000, she received the Special Award of the Yamaji Fumiko Culture Institute. Films with her narration are regularly aired on CS and NHK
.
Benshi
were Japanese performers who provided live narration for silent films . Benshi are sometimes also called or .-Role of the benshi:...
, one of the few silent film
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
narrators still active in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
.
Life
Originally from TokyoTokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, Midori Sawato graduated from the Department of Philosophy, Hosei University
Hosei University
is a private university based in Tokyo, Japan.The university originated in a school of law, Tōkyō Hōgakusha , established in 1880, and the following year renamed Tōkyō Hōgakkō . This was from 1883 headed by Dr. Gustave Emile Boissonade, and was heavily influenced by the French legal tradition...
. She first decided she wanted to become a benshi in 1972, when she saw the silent film The Water Magician
The Water Magician
is a 1933 black and white Japanese silent film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi and based on a story by Kyōka Izumi. It is one of the most popular titles from the silent film work of Mizoguchi and tells a tragic love story which realistically depicts the beauty and strength of the women of the Meiji...
. She was particularly impressed with the performance as benshi of the man who would become her teacher, Shunsui Matsuda
Shunsui Matsuda
was the last Japanese benshi of the silent film era. Shunsui Matsuda’s love for silent films was so great he dedicated his life to finding and preserving valuable classic films from the golden era.- Biography :...
. After studying under Matsuda, Sawato made her debut in 1973. She is an active benshi
Benshi
were Japanese performers who provided live narration for silent films . Benshi are sometimes also called or .-Role of the benshi:...
who has garnered high praise through her wide variety of activities and performances both in Japan and overseas.
Her repertoire of over 500 films includes genres as varied as contemporary cinema, historical movies and western films, for which she provides well-formed interpretations of the work. She has received a number of awards, includes the Award for Excellence in the field of Dramatic Performance at the Agency for Cultural Affairs
Agency for Cultural Affairs
The is a special body of the Japanese Ministry of Education . It was set up in 1968 to promote Japanese arts and culture. As of April 2007, it is led by the Commissioner for Cultural Affairs, Tamotsu Aoki....
Arts Festival, for her contributions toward promoting katsuben as modern entertainment, in addition to being a valuable presence carrying on the tradition of katsuben as a Japanese storytelling art.
As is traditional for benshi, she often gives an introduction before a film starts to explain the historical and cultural differences of the old films as well as provide background on the actors and directors. She does not use any modern vocabulary for narrating films that have old titles.
Besides katsuben, she is also involved in activities such as film critiques and essay writing. She is the author of Katsudo Benshi: Sekai o Kakeru (Film Benshi Across the World).
She was the recipient of the Japan Film Critics Golden Glory Award. In the same year in October, she received wide acclaim for her katsuben performance for Ito Daisuke’s Chuji Tabi Nikki (Chuji’s Travel Diary). In December 1998, a katsuben recital was organized to commemorate the 25th year of her career. In November 2000, she received the Special Award of the Yamaji Fumiko Culture Institute. Films with her narration are regularly aired on CS and NHK
NHK
NHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee....
.
Performances Abroad
- 1988 - Invited to the Avignon Art Festival in FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and performs as benshi for several films of Bando Tsumasaburo - 1989 - Invited to the United States by New York Japan Society, American Museum of the Moving Image, etc. and performs katsuben in New York and three other cities
- 1990 - Invited by the Japan Cultural Institute in RomeRomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
and Pordenone Silent Film Festival and performs in ItalyItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and... - 1990 - Performs at the Antwerp International Film Festival in BelgiumBelgiumBelgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
- 1991 - Performs at the Voice Festival in Holland sponsored by the RotterdamRotterdamRotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
Arts Society. - 1992 - Performs in Los AngelesLos ÁngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
- 1994 - Performs at the Oberhausen Short Film Festival in GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
- February 1995 - Invited to and performs at the Picture Drama Festival in EvreuxÉvreuxÉvreux is a commune in the Eure department, of which it is the capital, in Haute Normandie in northern France.-History:In late Antiquity, the town, attested in the fourth century CE, was named Mediolanum Aulercorum, "the central town of the Aulerci", the Gallic tribe then inhabiting the area...
, FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France... - September 1995 - Performs on Taki no Shiraito (The Water Magician) by Mizoguchi Kenji at the Museum of Contemporary Art in SydneySydneySydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, AustraliaAustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area... - December 1995 - Performs in Sao PauloSão PauloSão Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
, BrazilBrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people... - October 2001 - Performs Orochi at the Silent Film Festival in Sacile, ItalyItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
- September 2002 - Invited to the Pacific Film Archive at the University of California, BerkeleyUniversity of California, BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, where she performed Taki no Shiraito (The Water Magician), Chuji Tabinikki (The Diary of Chuji's Travels) - October 2003 - Performs Umarete wa Mita Keredo (I Was Born, But...) at the 39th Annual Chicago International Film FestivalChicago International Film FestivalThe Chicago International Film Festival is an annual film festival held every fall. Founded in 1964, it is the longest-running competitive film festival in North America....
- April 2004 - Performs Taki no Shiraito (The Water Magician) at the 6th Women's Film Festival in SeoulSeoulSeoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...
- April 2004 - Performs at four venues in Boston and Portsmouth including Boston UniversityBoston UniversityBoston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
, Tufts UniversityTufts UniversityTufts University is a private research university located in Medford/Somerville, near Boston, Massachusetts. It is organized into ten schools, including two undergraduate programs and eight graduate divisions, on four campuses in Massachusetts and on the eastern border of France...
, and Harvard Film ArchiveHarvard UniversityHarvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country... - July 2004 - Performs at the San Francisco Silent Film FestivalSan Francisco Silent Film FestivalThe San Francisco Silent Film Festival is a film festival first held in 1996 and presented annually every July at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, California, USA...
- November 2004 - Performs with the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra in Hawaii
Other activities
- Performs in Kaizo HayashiKaizo Hayashiis a Japanese film director and screenwriter. He made his directorial debut with To Sleep so as to Dream . Abroad, he is best known for his neo-noir Maiku Hama trilogy, The Most Terrible Time in My Life , Stairway to the Distant Past and The Trap .-Partial filmography:* To Sleep so as to Dream *...
's Yume miru yoni Nemuritai (I sleep as to dream) and Nijusseiki Shonen Dokuhon (Circus Boy). - Many works being shown with Sawato's katsuben on the NHK BS2 channel.
- Made regular appearances as an interviewer on the "Movies I Grew Up With" corner of the NHK show "Seikatsu Hot Morning" until March 2005.
Awards
- 2002 Received the Award for Excellence in the field of Dramatic Performance at the Agency for Cultural Affairs Arts Festival
- 2000 Received the 21st Special Award of Yamaji Fumiko Culture Institute
- 1995 Received the Japan Film Critics Golden Glory Award
- 1990 Received the Japan Film Pen Club Award