was the last Japanese ''

benshi were Japanese performers who provided live narrator, narration for silent films (both Japanese films and Western world, Western films). ''Benshi'' are sometimes called or . Role The earliest films available for public display were produced by W ...

'' of the

silent film A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...

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

Born in 1925 in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

, Shunsui Matsuda performed as child ''benshi''. It was only after the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War or the Pacific Theatre, was the Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II fought between the Empire of Japan and the Allies of World War II, Allies in East Asia, East and Southeast As ...

, when the post-war shortages created a demand in films that Matsuda really began his vocation as a ''Benshi''. In 1947 he found himself part of a troupe of itinerant ''benshi'' travelling around

Kyūshū is the third-largest island of Japan's four main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands (i.e. excluding Okinawa and the other Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Islands). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regio ...

, whose burgeoning

coal mining Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

industry had attracted a lot of workers to the region. The desperate shortage of any means of entertainment in the area meant that reruns of old silent films were still immensely popular. It was during his travels that he realized the need to preserve the films from the silent film era. With the 1923 Kanto earthquake and the War, a vast number of films had already been destroyed, but even worse was the complete laissez-faire attitude of the major studios to their own product. The few surviving fragments of films such as Ozu's I Graduated, But... (''Daigaku wa Detakeredo'', 1929) are pretty much entirely down to the efforts of this man, who travelled the country scouring

pawn shop A pawnbroker is an individual that offers secured loans to people, with items of personal property used as collateral. A pawnbrokering business is called a pawnshop, and while many items can be pawned, pawnshops typically accept jewelry, ...

s and old theatres for films to add to his collection. In 1948, he officially took up his name as the second Matsuda Shunsui and in the same year he was awarded the top prize in the national Film Narrator's Competition. In 1952, he founded the Matsuda Film Company and was appointed President of the Friends of Silent Films Association, both which are still being thriving under the guidance of his second son, Yutaka Matsuda. Matsuda Film Company, based on Matsuda private collection, contains over 1,000 films on 6,000 reels, the largest collection of Japanese silent films. He continued to give performances all the way up until his death in 1987, also directing his own silent film, ''Jigoku no Mushi'' (Maggots of Hell) in 1979 and producing ''Bantsuma - Bando Tsumasaburo no Shogai'' (Bantsuma - The Life and Times of Bando Tsumasaburo) in 1980. He can also be seen in full flow providing the narration for the silent film fragment in

Kaizo Hayashi is a Japanese film director and screenwriter. He made his directorial debut with '' To Sleep so as to Dream'' (1986). He is best known for his neo-noir '' Maiku Hama'' trilogy, ''The Most Terrible Time in My Life'' (1994), '' Stairway to the Dist ...

's homage to this golden age, To Sleep So As To Dream (''Yume Miruyoni Nemuritai'', 1986). In 1984, Matsuda received an invitation from the Frankfurt Museum of Cinema and he gave his first ''Benshi'' performance in Europe. A year later, he received the first Tokyo Metropolitan Culture Prize. Shunsui Matsuda died of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

on 8 August 1987 leaving behind a great legacy.

Filmography

*1979, DIRECTOR, ''Jigoku no Mushi'' (Maggots of Hell) *1980, PRODUCER, ''Bantsuma - Bando Tsumasaburo no Shogai'' (Bantsuma - The Life and Times of Bando Tsumasaburo) *PRODUCER, 32 works of "Katsuben Talkie Version" (music and narration all written by himself)

Awards

*1948 Awarded top prize in the national Film Narrator's Competition *1963 Awarded Million Pearl Prize *1985 Awarded the first Tokyo Metropolitan Culture Prize

Trivia

*The story goes that Matsuda discovered one of the projectionists snipping out footage from one of these films because it "dragged the film down", and thereupon decided to dedicate his life to the act of preserving these early cinematic documents. *One of his students is

Midori Sawato is a Japanese benshi or katsuben (silent film narrator). Life Originally from Tokyo, 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 fi ...

, one of the very few existing ''Benshi'' today. *He appeared in ''Yume miru yoni nemuritai'' alongside Midori Sawato. *The films that Matsuda managed to collect from around the country constitute around 1000 films, the bulk of which are silent films, amounting to about 6000 rolls of film.

References

External links

Masterpieces of Japanese silent film, classic anime, and documentaries on DVDMidnight Eye
{{DEFAULTSORT:Matsuda, Shunsui Japanese male film actors Matsuda, Matsuda, Shunsui 1925 births 1987 deaths Deaths from cancer in Japan 20th-century Japanese male actors