The Acceptance of Two Visual Versionsof Alice in Japan

Shinichi Kinoshita
cxj03744@nifty.com
http://www.hp-alice.com/

Introduction
The Paramount film Alice in Wonderland wasreleased in Japan in 1934. Its influence madethe Japanese title of Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland established, but the film scarcely
gave influence upon Japanese visual image ofAlice. Today, the Paramount Alice is almost
forgotten. Disney’s Alice in Wonderland was not
welcomed at its first appearance in Japan in1953. Soon after Disney’s Alice completed its
showing season without any sensation, the film
itself was forgotten, too. Now, however, theanimation is widely accepted by Japanesepeople as a visual image of Alice. The poster
shows the process in which the visual images ofAlice in film have had influence in Japan,
comparing the influences of two Alice movies
Japanese way of accepting Alice’s Adventures
in Wonderland.
1Chronological Table
1865 Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
1871 Through the Looking-glass and What Alice Found There
1898 Lewis Carroll passed away.
1899 Kagami Sekai, the first Japanese translation of Through the Looking-glass（〜1900）
1908 Arisu Monogatari, the first Japanese translation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland（〜1909）
1932 Exhibition at Columbia University to Commemorate the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Birth of
Lewis Carroll
1933 Paramount Alice in Wonderland was released in the U.S.
1934 Paramount Alice in Wonderland was released in Japan
1937 Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released in the U.S.
1951 Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released in Japan.
1951 Walt Disney’s Alice in Wonderland was released in the U.S.
1953 Walt Disney’s Alice in Wonderland was released in Japan.
2

The Case of Paramount film, Alice inWonderland
Dec 1933: released in the U.S.
Directed by Norman McLeod
Screenplay by Joseph L. Mankiewicz andWilliam Cameron Menzies
Starring:
Charlotte Henry (Alice), Cary Grant (MockTurtle), W.C. Fields (Humpty-Dumpty), Gary
Cooper (White Knight), etc.

Mar 1934: released in Japan withJapanese subtitles
Japanese title: Fushigi no Kuni no Arisu

3

Articles on Magazines (1)Kinema-Junpo (The Movie Times; three times amonth) Nov 1933 to Apr 1934
News of Alice in the U.S.: three columns
Pre-release photo shots of Charlotte Henry:
twoMovie review: two columns
Advertisements: five “full-page” advertisements
Suta (Star; twice a month) Feb to Mar 1934
Pre-release photograph: one
Story on the Photo:
one story on the “opposite-page” of the photo
Movie review: one full-page article

4Articles on Magazines (2)Eiga to Engei (The Screen and Stage; monthly)
Jan to Mar 1934
Pre-release photo shot of Charlotte Henry: one
Movie review: one column
Eiga Hyoron (The Filmcrit; monthly) Apr 1934
Movie review: one (three pages)
Shin Eiga (The New Film; monthly) Mar to Apr
1934
Introduction: one by the translator of thesubtitles of Alice (six pages, with comments onthe musical play Alice in Wonderland in 1932,Broadway)
Advertisement: one “full-page”
Kyoiku Eiga (The Educational Films; monthly)
Apr 1934
Movie review: one column

5The first appearance of the Japanese title
Fushigi-no Kuni-no Arisu:
On newspapers:
May 1928, Yomiuri Shinbun
News on Sotheby’s auction of Alice’sAdventures under Ground manuscript
On books:
1930, translation by Saisuke Nagasawa
Both of them, however, were notinfluential enough to fix the Japanese title
for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
since then.

6

1920
1921
1921
1923
1925
1925
1926
1926
1927
1928
1929
1930
1930
1932
1933

Translations of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in 1920s-40s
Masao Kusuyama Fushigi-no Kuni (Part 1: Alice-no Yume Part 2: Kagami-no Ura) *Translation of both Alice books
Yaso Saijo
Kagami Koku Meguri *Translation of Through the Looking-glass
Miekichi Suzuki
Chichu-no Sekai
Kozo Mochizuki
Arisu-no Fushigi Koku Meguri
Tomoharu Washio Fushigi-na O-niwa, Mari-chan-no Yume-no Kuni Ryoko
Shigeo Masumoto Otenba Arisu-no Yume
Yoko Tamamura
Arisu-no Fushigi Koku Tanken
Kiichiro Odo
Fushigi Koku MeguriKan Kikuchi and Ryunoshuke Akutagawa
Arisu Monogatari
Saisuke Nagasawa Fushigi Koku-no Arisu
Tamihei Iwasaki
Fushigi Koku-no Arisu
Saisuke Nagasawa Fushigi-no Kuni-no Arisu (former Fushigi Koku-no Arisu)
Masao Kusuyama Arisu-no Yume (former Fushigi-no Kuni; Part 1: Fushigi-no Kuni Part 2: Kagami-no Ura)
Masao Kusuyama Fushigi-no Kuni: Arisu Monogatari
Masao Kusuyama Kagami-no Kuni: Arisu Monogatari (former Kgamai-no Ura)

1934 Paramount Alice was released in Japan under the title of Fushigi-no Kuni-no Arisu
1934
1934
1946
1946
1948
1948

Saisuke Nagasawa Fushigi-no Kuni-no Arisu
Kiichiro Odo
Fushigi-no Kuni-no Arisu (former Fushigi Koku Meguri)
Yaso Saijo
Fushigi-no Kuni (former Kagami Koku Meguri)
Jiro Osaragi
Fushigi Koku-no Arisu
Masao Kusuyama Fushigi-no Kuni-no Arisu (Former Arisu-no Yume; Part 1: Arisu-no Yume Part 2: Kagai-no Ura)
Sunao Kikuchi
Fushigi-na Kuni-no Arisu

After that, most of the translations were published under the title of Fushigi-no Kuni-no Alice or Fushigi-na Kuni-no Arisu.
7Fushigi-no Kuni-no Arisu, the Japanesesubtitle version of Paramopunt Alice inWonderland, had a decisive influence onthe title for the translations of Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland. The movie
itself, however, is now almost forgotten inJapan

8

The Case of Disney’s
Alice in Wonderland
1951: released in the U.S.
Directed by Clyde Geronimi et.al.
Screenplay by Winston Hibler et.al.
Aug 1953: first appearance in Japan withJapanese Subtitle
Japanese title: Fushigi-no Kuni-no Arisu

9

Articles in Magazines
Kinema Junpo (The Movie Times; twice amonth): two columns
Screen (monthly):
one article (three pages with movie still),
rewritten from the press-sheet
Eiga-no Tomo (Friends of Films;
monthly):
one photo story (“opposite-page”) andone movie review (two pages)→ Obviously, the number of the articles
in magazines was much less than that on
Paramount Alice10

In 1953, Disney’s Alice was notwelcomed by many people because ofthe following three reasons:-Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was
not so popular in Japan (as SnowWhite, etc)
-The story was not easy to comprehend
for Japanese children at the first sight(compared with Bambi, Pinocchio,etc)-The film was released with Japanesesubtitle, not Japanese dubbing.
Children had to read subtitles tofollow the story and word-plays.
But nowadays, the visual image ofDisney’s Alice is very popular, maybe
more popular than that by Tenniel, inJapan.
Why and how has Disney’s Alice become
so influential?
11The revival release of Disney’s Alice1973 Fushingi-no Kuni-no Arisu
1987 Fushingi-no Kuni-no Arisu
The picture was released with JapaneseDubbing→What happened in prior to the revival
release of Disney’s Alice?

12Publications in 1972:
・ Arisu no Ehon (The picture book ofAlice)・ “Ruisu Kyaroru”: Bessatsu Gendaishi
Techo (Special Issue of Modern
Poetry Pocketbook, featuring “LewisCarroll”)
Exhibition in 1972:
Exchibision of “Arisu no Ehon”
In 1972, a year before the first revival
release of Disney’s Alice, Lewis Carroll
was rediscovered in the Japanese
literary scene.

13

The month and the year of publication of thepicture-books of Disney’s Alice between 1952
and 1987 (the second revival release of the film)
Nov 1952

Aug 1953

Apr 1957

Jan 1961

Nov 1961

May 1963

Unknown (1965-1974) May 1969
Jan 1970

Feb 1972

Jul 1974

Aug 1977

May 1979

May 1981

Apr 1982

1983

Nov 1984

May 1985

May 1987

Oct 1987

Various editions of picture-books of Disney’s
Alice have been continuously published andread by Japanese children.

14Records of Disney’s AliceYear

Record company

Type1963
1968
1970
1972
1972

Japan Columbia*
Japan Columbia*
Japan Columbia**
King Records
King Records

EP
EPEP
LPEP

1972

King Records

1975
1980
1980
UNK

King Records
Japan Columbia*
Japan Columbia*
Kodansha*Same audio source.

Note
Picture Record

Extracts fromthe LP
EP (45rpm)
Two songs
LPEP
Audio cassette
EP**Same audio source, but Disney’spictures are not used.

The records of Disney’s Alice have also been
continuously released, and they have been
enjoyed by Japanese children.

15

These two media, picture books and records,saved Disney’s Alice from being completelyforgotten.

Question:

Whyhavetheycontinuously

published (or released), through these twomedia, Disney’s Alice, which had not attracted
Japanese children on its first release?

16

Disney pictures after 1950s

1966

Cinderella
1970
Alice in Wonderland 1973
Peter Pan1977
Lady and the Tramp 1981
Sleeping Beauty
One Hundred and1985
One Dalmatians 1986
The Sword in theStone 1988
Winnie the Pooh1989

1967

The Jungle Book

1950
1951
1953
1855
1959
1961
1963

The Aristocats
Robin Hood
The Rescuers
The Fox and theHound
The Black Cauldron
The Great Mouse
Detective
Oliver & Company
The Little Mermaid

After the release of Alice in Wonderland, very few picturesof well-known stories (to Japanese children) had beenreleased until 1989, when Little Mermaid was released.
→ Alice had always been on the list of Disney’s picture
books.
*Paramount Alice was forgotten because nopicture-books or records have been published (orreleased) since the first release of the film.
The influence of the movies from 1930s-70s could
continue only with the aid of the recorded media, if there
were no revival releases.

17The Factors That Had Influence on theVisual Images of Disney’s Alice after
1970s
Disney’s Alice on Television (BilingualBroadcast)
4 Apr 1979 TBS*
4 Jan 1981 TBS*
27 Dec 1992 NHK***Same content as that of the revival film
released in 1973 and 1987**Same content as that of a videotape

The Release of the Videotape of Disney’s
Alice (VHS)
5 Oct 1984 - Dec 1986: Pony28 Sep 1987- Unknown Date: Bandai18

The Development of Personal Video
Recording Systemin Japan1975: The first model of Betamax (SONY) wasreleased.
1976: VHS format (Victor) was developed.
The first model of VHS recorder (Victor)
was released.
1977: The moderate-price VHS recorder,
MACLORD (Panasonic) was released.
1983: VHS Hi-Fi standard was developed.
1987: The first model of S-VHS recorder(Victor) was released.

The broadcasted Disney’s Alice could berecorded and played on personal video
recording systems in Japan.

19Conclusion
The Paramount Alice fixed the Japanese title ofAlice’s Adventures in Wonderland, but the film
did not plant any visual image of Alice intoJapanese people’s mind. The visual image ofDisney’s Alice was spread wide through literary
media.

After

therevival,

its

influence

overwhelmed traditional media. The help of TV
broadcast (with video air check) and video
software in the early 1980s can be pointed out.
Apparently, the two Alice films have had
different influence on the sensitivity of Japanesepeople, but both were equally under strong
influence of the verbal media until the early
1970s.
Visual media had influential power in the later
1970s, and its influence became definitive
through the development of personal video
recording system in Japan.
20