was a Japanese benshi

Benshi

were Japanese performers who provided live narration for silent films . Benshi are sometimes also called or .-Role of the benshi:...

, actor

Actor

An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

, raconteur, essayist

Essay

An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...

, and radio

Radio

Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...

 and television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 personality. Musei (as he was called) first came to prominence as a benshi, a narrator of films during the silent

Silent film

A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...

 era in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. He was celebrated for his restrained but erudite narration that was popular among intellectual film fans. He concentrated on foreign films such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a 1920 silent horror film directed by Robert Wiene from a screenplay by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer. It is one of the most influential of German Expressionist films and is often considered one of the greatest horror movies of the silent era. This movie is cited as...

at high-class theaters like the Aoikan

Aoikan

The was a movie theater located in the Tameike section of Akasaka in Tokyo, Japan. It existed from the mid-1910s as a high-class foreign film theater, featuring benshi such as Musei Tokugawa. After the Great Kanto Earthquake, it re-opened in October 1924 with a brand-new, modern design created by...

 and the Musashinokan

Shinjuku Musashinokan

The is a long-standing movie theater located on the east side of Shinjuku Station in Tokyo, Japan. Originally started as the Musashinokan in May 1920, it quickly became Tokyo's premiere independent high-class theater showing foreign films...

, but also performed Japanese works such as Teinosuke Kinugasa

Teinosuke Kinugasa

-External links:* *...

's experimental masterpiece A Page of Madness

A Page of Madness

-External links:*...

(1926). As the silent era ended, Musei switched to storytelling on stage and on radio, and also began acting and doing narrations in films. He was also famous for his essays, humorous novels, and autobiographical writings, publishing nearly fifty books in his life. With the advent of television in Japan

Television in Japan

Television broadcasting in Japan started in 1939, making the country one of the first in the world with an experimental television service. In spite of that, because of the beginning of World War II in the Pacific region, this first experimentation lasted only a few months...

, Tokugawa also became a prominent presence in that medium.

External links

• Clip of one of Musei Tokugawa's benshi performances.
• Find-A-Grave profile for Musei Tokugawa