Japanese Studies Advanced Guide

Open database linked with a Renga database and Ennou database which includes a newly produced Gagaku database

Kunitachi College of Music Library, Takeuchi Michitaka Bunko Digital Archive.

It is a subject guide complied by film reference librarian Zoran Sinobad at the Library of Congress. This guide covers Library of Congress holdings of Japanese live-action fiction (narrative) films produced from the 1920s to the end of World War II, including films made in Korea, Manchuria, and China under Japanese rule. The collection also includes documentaries and newsreels, although these do not yet have a guide available. Using the Ask a Librarian link above, one can inquire about any potential holdings of documentary or newsreel films related to Mongolia and/or Manchuria.

The archive, put together by Kurosawa’s estate and Ryukoku University Digital Archives Research Center, is an amazing digital collection of over twenty thousand pages of Kurosawa’s screenplays, photos, storyboards, drawings, notes, newspaper clippings, personal scribblings and other materials.

This is an English language guide to the Akira Kurosawa Digital Archive which is currently only available in Japanese.

Includes the films by Akira Kurosawa.

This site was established to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Japanese animation, which is believed to have first been publicly shown in 1917. 64 videos of early Japanese animation from the National Film Archive of Japan are shown in this site. In the page, Noburo Ofuji Memorial Museum, you can find old documents and production materials from NFAJ's Noburo Ofuji collection and follow the artist's footsteps. Both English and Japanese version of this site is available. Click the right top to change the setting.

This database provides information on most commercial animation works since 1917.

Created and maintained by the Agency for Cultural Affiars (文化庁), this database provides the information (ex. released date, the name of film distributing agency, name of director) of Japanese films (1896~ current).

It is a database of Japanese films co-managed by the Japan Foundation and UNIJAPAN. You can find film synopses, cast & staff, and production & distribution company information.

Has many recent indie films streaming for free. English, Japanese, and Chinese version of this site is available.

Online excerpts of a number of their rare films, from jidaigeki to color home movies from the 1930s. Click the images or the titiles (in blue letters) to watch the video.

This website was set up to commemorate the 120th anniversary of the birth of Japanese cinema. As well as teh oldest existing Japanese film Momijigari (Important Cultural Property), you can stream Japanese films shot in the Meiji era and the surviving 35 mm film frames enlarged in high resolution from some of the lost "oldest Japanese films"

An online audio-visual materials collection from the National Diet Library.

Provides 20,000 abridged clips primarily broadcast by NHK since 1920s. Several filters, such as theme, year, etc. works ONLY in Japanese. (Some contents require paid subscription to watch)

Streams moving images primarily created by the U.S. armed forces during and after W.W.II.

Features home movies shot in Setagaya, Tokyo, between 1936 and 1983