Proceedings of 2nd International Symposium for Color Science and Art 2020-2021

Global Diffusion of the Movie “Sasairo-beni"
Hitoshi Yajima*, Katsumi Yamada**,Takeshi Oshima*, Kazuyuki Hiraoka**, Maiko Sasaki***•Tokyo Polytechnic Univ., 1583 Iiyama, Atsugi, Kanagawa 243-0297, Japan*Faculty of arts**Faculty of Engineering***Graduate School of Engineering

ABSTRACT"First apply sumi to the lip and then apply beni on it"
there was a description as a method of sasairobeni makeup by "Miyako-fuuzoku-kewaiden" (1813). This
description was widely understood as a way to save beni.
However, there was no description about the requirementof the sumi coating, the green color like an ukiyo-e washard to reproduced with out sumi coating in our earlyexperiment. As the latest result of our experiment, it was
concluded that "sumi coating was an essential secret"rather than saving the beni. Last year, the results of theseexperiments were summarized in the video work “sasairono-beni". But unfortunately, our work hasn't been widely
released yet. The aim was to improve the namerecognition of Tokyo Polytechnic University by diffusion thevideo movie produced this time internationally.
1INTRODUCTION"A well-made beni looks green." This is a passage fromsasaki's short film "Beni"(2016). But the film didn't show
why beni looks green. At that time, no one could answer
this reason. For this reason, we started joint research withthe chemistry department.
As a mechanism of metallic luster, the structural color
was first discussed. In many cases, the structural color
has an angle dependence of the reflected color. As aresult of electron microscope observation, no fine orderedstructure was observed in the cross section of the beni.
Furthermore, after the reflection measurements withpolarizer filter, we found a reflection characteristic closer
to metal rather than that of a dielectric (insulator), andconcluded finally that the reflection of green light is related
to the bonded electrons on the very surface of the beni film.
These had already been presented at several academic
societies and papers.
2TOWARD THE GLOBAL DIFFUSION

We asked some outsiders to see the completed Japaneseversion of the video. However, they didn't point out
anything concrete, just the impression that they have only
"well done." We thought the content of this movie wasdifficult to understand, so we thought about modifying it.
However, due to the confusion caused by the COVID-19
pandemic, we abandoned the originally planned dubbing

and switched to producing a foreign language version withsubtitles.
Translation
We encountered some difficulties when translatingfrom a Japanese manuscript to English were"sasairo","sumi", and "beni". "Sasa" and "bamboo" areclosely related but belong to different genus. We searchedfor the best translation, but we couldn't find a suitable
English word because it is a plant that lives only in theOrient. We also considered the genus name, Sasa (Latinacademic name), but thought that the scientific name wasan unfamiliar word and hindered understanding, so wewrote "sasairo". Also, "sumi" and "beni" are used withJapanese pronunciation.
We also emphasized that it is a keyword of this movie
by displaying a slightly longer explanation of each word at
the beginning of the work. For other commentary, we gaveup translating faithfully to the original text due torestrictions on subtitle display, and translated it short andconcisely.
The quoted part of "Cosmetics in the Capital" in theepilogue was modified at our discretion that it would be
more interesting to Westerners to refer to Goethe'swritings.
Finally, "beni was made from safflower" was overlaid
on the beautiful safflower image.

34Title revision
The title has changed. New one is"笹色の紅 Grünen Metallglanz".
The reading is "SasaironoBeni Guryunen Metal-Gurantsu".
"Sasairo-beni makeup in pre-modern Japan" wasadded as a subtitle. We will spread this title worldwide inthe future.
The main title is Japanese and German, and the subtitle
is English, so we dared to mix several languages. At firstglance, it may seem strange, but we think that the viewer
only needs to understand the language that can be read.
Grünen Metallglanz in the title is a word drawn from
Goethe's book.

Proceedings of 2nd International Symposium for Color Science and Art 2020-2021

5

Revision of the opening sentenceThis is a short video work, it necessary to have thecontent grasped in a short time. We added a telop card athead of the video, to help understanding.
And consider further, we need to get a deeper
understanding of the content, so we revised the content of
all telop card.
The editing work associated with these revisions haschanged the overall length and the title, so we decided toannounce this movie as our new 2021 video movie.
6

Preparation of attached documents

A movie cannot be made up of works alone.
In order to make it public, leaflets and posters are required
to publicize it in advance.
We also produced a press kit outlining the work tosubmit to the festival.
7Footprints of global diffusion

The new video movie "笹色の紅 Grünen Metallglanz"
has already been submitted to these scientific film festivals.
・ 62nd Science and Technology Film/Video Festival(Japan)・Global Science Film Festival 2021
(Switzerland)
8 Future issues
When submitting to a film festival in a foreign country
other than the English-speaking bloc, of course, thejudging stage will be carried out in English at any
international film festival. However, when it is shown to thegeneral public, it may be replaced with the subtitles of eachcountry.
This translation is done at the secretariat, but there wasa mistranslation that translated "beni" into the meaning of"autumn leaves" from the past exhibition experience.
If possible, it should be translated into each language,
but it is quite difficult in terms of cost.
As our future outlook, we intend to diffuse this work
worldwide. The next step for that, we are planning to
produce a German version.

Figure 1

Images of flier.