Saizo Kirigakure, a discovery in Japan

When it comes to 9.5mm’s discovery and restoration, I always recall
the Ninja character “Saizo Kirigakure”.

The original film (only three minutes) was obtained by Raiko Sakamoto,
one of the professional benshi performers in Japan, who happened to
live in FPS’ neighborhood. One day in 2007 he brought it to us, and we
decided to blow it up to 35mm as the 4th Adopt-a-Film project. My
friend at the Korean Film Archive (KOFA) introduced me to the director
of the 1st Chungmuro International Film Festival who agreed that the
festival would cover the restoration cost, and the restored version
was shown in Seoul for the first time in 2008, with Mie Yanashita’s
live piano and benshi performance by Sakamoto himself, which was his
debut outside of Japan. It was such an enjoyable and unforgettable
trip. I was amazed by the fact that such a small film in a black
bobbin took us all to Seoul.

We made two 35mm prints: one for the festival and the other for the
Museum of Kyoto. Recently the former was relocated to the KOFA. It’s a
rather lucky scenario for Japanese 9.5mm film restored onto 35mm and
stored in two different cold & dry locations I guess, especially as
KOFA’s Paju Preservation Center is a state-of-the-art facility.

However, this film is still not identified. The pathe-baby version was
released by Banno Shoten in December, 1930. The title “Saizo
Kirigakure” can be found in their catalog up until 1937, but we don’t
know when the original film was shot or who directed it. It might even
have been made originally for home use.

In October 2021, a longer (maybe over 10 minutes) version of the same
9.5mm “Saizo Kirigakure” appeared on internet auction. Thanks to the
credit titles, the main actor was revealed to be Seinosuke Hayashi. At
the time of the restoration, some people guessed it might be Hayashi,
but historians were against the idea as it looks too low-budget to be
starring someone like him. The price went up to 10 times more than the
one we restored. Sakamoto had won the auction more than 15 years ago,
but this time nobody we know was able to obtain the longer version.
Saizo disappeared again. I hope he reappears in the near future to
talk a bit more about himself.

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/722531598