Lauri KITSNIK

EDUCATION

2016, PhD, Japanese Studies, University of Cambridge

2007, MA, Language and Information Sciences, University of Tokyo

2004, BA, Asian Studies, Estonian Institute of Humanities

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

2023-present, Assistant Professor, Department of Asian and North African Studies, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice

2021-2023, Visiting Professor, Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University

2019-2023, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Hiroshima University

2017-2019, JSPS Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University

2016-2017, Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Fellow, Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures

2015-2016, Adjunct Lecturer, School of Humanities, Tallinn University

2014-2015, Japan Foundation Fellow, Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University

2007-2009, Adjunct Lecturer, Institute of Humanities, Tallinn University

2004-2005, Visiting Researcher, Department of Language and Information Sciences, University of Tokyo

AWARDS AND FUNDING 

2021-2024, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientist (JSPS KAKENHI 21K12900)

2017-2020, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (JSPS KAKENHI 17F17738)

2017-2019, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Research Fellowship

2016-2017, Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Fellowship, Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures

2016, Miller Center for Historical Studies Twentieth-Century Japan Research Award, University of Maryland

2014-2015, Japan Foundation Dissertation Research Fellowship

2013, Rouse Ball & Eddington Travel Grant, Trinity College, University of Cambridge

2012, Japan Foundation Endowment Committee Research Grant, British Association for Japanese Studies

2011, Tallinn University Literary Award for Translation

2011-2014, Kristjan Jaak Scholarship for Doctoral Studies, Archimedes Foundation

2010, Japan Foundation Research Fellowship (Short-Term)

2004-2007, Japanese Government (MEXT) Scholarship 

1999-2000, Japanese Government (MEXT) Scholarship

1999, First Prize at the Inaugural Japanese Speech Contest in Estonia

PUBLICATIONS

Monograph

Tangible Images: Reading and Writing Classical Japanese Cinema, Venice: Edizioni Ca’ Foscari, Venice University Press, 2024.

Journal Articles (peer-reviewed)

“Rocking Under Orion’s Belt: The Rise and Fall of Seibu Kōdō as International Concert Venue,” Japanese Studies 44(3), 2024, 325-337.

“Scouting for scripts: Mizuki Yōko and social issue film in post-war Japan,” Journal of Screenwriting 11(3), 2020, 265-285.

“Record. Reenact. Recycle. Notes on Shindō Kaneto’s Documentary Styles,” Arts 8(1) 39, 2019.

“Real and slow: The poetics and politics of The Naked Island,” Asian Cinema 29(2), 2018, 261-273.

“The Bedridden Script Doctor: Itami Mansaku’s Scenario Reviews,” Japanese Studies 38(2), 2018, 153-167.

“From Page to Screen to Page Again: Writing and Reading Japanese Film Scripts,” Proceedings of the Japan Society 154, 2017, 105-121.

“Scenario writers and scenario readers in the Golden Age of Japanese cinema,” Journal of Screenwriting 7(3), 2016, 285-297.

“Gazing at Kaoru: star image in film adaptations of The Dancing Girl of Izu,” Journal of Japanese and Korean Cinema 6(2), 2014, 118-133.

Book Reviews

“Dialectics without Synthesis: Japanese Film Theory and Realism in a Global Frame,” Screen 62(2), 2021, 278-282.

“Interpreting Anime / The Anime Ecology,” Film Studies 21(1), 2019, 119-124.

“The End of Japanese Cinema: Industrial Genres, National Times, Media Ecologies,” Japan Review 34, 2019, 224-226.

Book Chapters

“One Big Happy Family? The Social Relationships and Legacy of the Kinoshita-gumi,” in David Desser and Earl Jackson (eds.), The Cinema of Kinoshita Keisuke: Films of Joy and Sorrow, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2025, 35-48.

“A Historiography of Japanese Screenwriting,” in Rosamund Davies, Paolo Russo and Claus Tieber (eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Screenwriting Studies, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023, 315-332.

“Gosho and the Gagman: Scriptwriting at the Time of the Talkie Crisis,” in David Desser (ed.), A Companion to Japanese Cinema, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2022, 493-509.

「脚本家水木洋子と戦後社会派映画再考」坪井秀人編『戦後日本の傷跡』臨川書店 2022, 118-133.

“Record. Reenact. Recycle. Notes on Shindō Kaneto’s Documentary Styles,” in Marcos Centeno and Michael Raine (eds.), Developments in the Japanese Documentary Mode, Basel: MDPI, 2021, 95-106.

“Better Off Being Bacteria: Adaptation and Allegory in Dr Akagi,” in Lindsay Coleman and David Desser (eds.), Killers, Clients and Kindred Spirits: The Taboo Cinema of Shohei Imamura, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2019, 213-227.

“Dancer, Doctor, Maiden, Mother: Tanaka Kinuyo’s Early Star Image,” in Irene González-López and Michael Smith (eds.), Tanaka Kinuyo: Nation, Stardom and Female Subjectivity, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2018, 36-56.

「女房役から作家へ　日本映画史におけるシナリオライターの地位」『アルザス日欧知的交流事業日本研究セミナー「女と男」報告書』 国際交流基金 2016, 11-19.

“Japanese women screenwriters: collaborators,” in Jill Nelmes and Jule Selbo (eds.), Women Screenwriters: An International Guide, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan 2015, 113-120.

PRESENTATIONS

Conference Papers

“Warp to Shōwa! Transtemporal Geopolitics of the Crazy Ken Band,” Textuality as Social Action: Reframing Popular Music in Shōwa Era Japan, University of Tartu, 29 September 2023.

“Rouge Without Borders: Nakajima Miyuki’s Travels in East Asia and Beyond,” The 8th AAS-in-Asia Conference, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, 25 June 2023.

“Taking Liberties: Shishi Bunroku’s School of Freedom and Its Competing Film Adaptations,” Asian Studies Conference Japan, Sophia University, Tokyo, 2 July 2022.

“More Than Two Concepts of Liberty: Labor and Leisure in the Film Adaptations of School of Freedom,” Annual Conference of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Chicago, 1 April 2022.

“Transtemporal Anxieties and Postcolonial Pleasures in the Music of Crazy Ken Band,” Annual Conference of the Association for Asian Studies, Honolulu, 26 March 2022.

“Creating a Space for Peaceful Protest: A History of Kyōdai Seibu Kōdō,” 16th Conference of the European Association for Japanese Studies, Ghent, 27 August 2021.

“Did Tora-san Die with the Times? The End of Shōwa and the Slow Demise of the It’s Tough Being a Man Franchise,” Annual Convention of the Modern Language Association, Toronto, 9 January 2021.

“Singing Under the Orion’s Belt: Notes for a History of Kyōdai Seibu Kōdō,” 15th Convention of the International Association for Japan Studies, Toyo University, Tokyo, 23 November 2019. 

“No Subjectivity for an Itinerant Filmmaker: Studio System and Labour Relations in Guys of the Sea,” 3rd European Association for Japanese Studies Conference in Japan, Tsukuba University, 15 September 2019.

“Libidinal economies in liminal spaces: Shindō Kaneto’s Onibaba and its lineages,” Annual Conference of the Association for Asian Studies, Washington, 24 March 2018.

“Beside and beyond the silver screen: film journals and scriptreaders in 1950s Japan,” Annual Conference of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Toronto, 16 March 2018.

“The Poetics of Slowness and Repetition: Depiction of Labour in Shindō Kaneto’s Cinema,” 12th Asian Cinema Studies Society Conference: The Poetics of Asian Cinemas, Lancaster University, 10 July 2017.

“Auteur for Hire: Navigating Between Independent and Studio Production in the Case of Shindō Kaneto,” Kinema Club XVI. Beyond the Canon: Reconsidering Japanese Cinema of the 1950s, Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures, Norwich, 9 June 2017.

「女房役から作家へ　日本映画史におけるシナリオライターの地位」2016 Intellectual Exchange Programme between Japan and Europe in Alsace Japanese Study Seminar, Centre Européen d'Études Japonaises d'Alsace, Kientzheim, 26 September 2016.

“Dancer, doctor, maiden, mother: Tanaka Kinuyo’s early star image,” Joint East Asian Studies Conference, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 9 September 2016.

“The bedridden script doctor: Itami Mansaku’s scenario reviews,” 1st European Association for Japanese Studies Publication Workshop, Freie Universität Berlin, 18 November 2015.

“Notes for a history of Japanese scriptwriting,” 8th Screenwriting Research Network International Conference, University of London, 12 September 2015.

“A Poetics of Repetition: Revisiting Shindō Kaneto’s The Naked Island,” Annual Conference of the British Association for Japanese Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 11 September 2015.

“Bungei eiga and shinario bungaku: The debates on the literariness of cinema in the late 1930s Japan,” Annual Conference of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Montreal, 25 March 2015.

“Lipreading and sleeptalking: The transition from silent to sound in the film scripts of Fushimi Akira,” XIV Kinema Club Conference, Meiji University, Tokyo, 22 November 2014.

“Having another look: Functions of the published screenplay during the Golden Age of Japanese cinema,” Annual Conference of the Association for Asian Studies, San Diego, 23 March 2013.

“A Record of Repeated Gestures: Leitmotifs in Shindō Kaneto’s films,” Annual Conference of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Chicago, 9 March 2013.

“Women screenwriters and literary adaptation in 1950s Japanese cinema,” 7th Annual International Conference of the Association of Adaptation Studies, University of York, 28 September 2012.

“The many faces of a dancing girl: Literary adaptation and star image in Japanese cinema,” Annual Conference of the British Association for Japanese Studies, University of East Anglia, 6 September 2012.

“Screenwriter on the Screen: Shindō Kaneto’s The Story of a Beloved Wife,” 8th European Association for Japanese Studies PhD Workshop, Newcastle University, 1 June 2012.

“Parody’s Revenge: Transcontextualizing Classical Texts and Conventions in Japanese Film,” 12th Conference of the European Association for Japanese Studies, Lecce, 23 September 2008.

“Kojiki as a place for purity and parody in the poetry of Irisawa Yasuo and Fujii Sadakazu,” Japanese Classics in the Modern World, Tallinn University, 12 September 2008.

“Kitagawa Fuyuhiko and Prose Poem as a Missing Link in Modernist Evolution,” 11th Conference of the European Association for Japanese Studies, Vienna, 1 September 2005.

Invited Talks

“The Birth of the Golden Week: Competing Adaptations of School of Freedom and the Postwar Constitution of Japan,” Centre for Asian and Transcultural Studies, Heidelberg University, 12 June 2025.

“Tangible Images: Reading and Writing Classical Japanese Cinema,” Centre for Asian and Transcultural Studies, Heidelberg University, 11 June 2025.

“Itinerary of a Melody: Transnational Journey of Popular Music from Japan,” Centre for Asian and Transcultural Studies, Heidelberg University, 10 June 2025; Kyoto University, 14 June 2024.

“One Big Happy Family? The Social Relationships and Legacy of the Kinoshita-gumi,” 25 anni denza gioia né lacrime: ritorno al cinema di Kinoshita Keisuke, University of Milano-Bicocca, 5 December 2023.

「映像で詩と真実を追うシーシュポス」Ishiuchi Community Center, Hiroshima, 5 February 2023.

“Jaapani levimuusika suundumustest,” Academia Artium Liberalium, Tartu, 23 September 2022.

“Jaapani kino kuldajast,” Academia Artium Liberalium, Tartu, 23 September 2022.

「新藤兼人の広島・ヒロシマ　映像の『真』と『嘘』をめぐって」広島大学公開講義「広島とヒロシマ」Hiroshima University, 12 December 2021.

“I Don’t Care If I Never Go Back: Rethinking Donald Richie and Japanese Film,” Transcultural Cinema Forum, Kyoto University, 19 October 2021.

“The Birth of the Golden Week: Liberalism, Leisure and the Competing Adaptations of School of Freedom,” Symposium: Directions in Japanese Film Studies, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, 18 May 2019.

“Scenario Culture: Rethinking Authors and Audiences of Postwar Japanese Cinema,” The 228th Nichibunken Evening Seminar, International Research Center for Japanese Studies, Kyoto, 7 June 2018.

“No Film Is an Island: Transcultural Perspectives in Postwar Japanese Cinema,” HeKKSaGOn Spring School, Kyoto University, 17 April 2018.

“Japanese Literature on the Screen,” Japan Orientation Summer Programme, University of East Anglia, 4 July 2017.

“From page to screen to page again: writing and reading Japanese film scripts,” Japan Society London, 24 April 2017.

“War, Work and Witnessing: Aesthetics and Ideology in Shindō Kaneto’s Cinema,” Asian Studies Seminar, University of Edinburgh, 3 April 2017; Nissan Seminar, Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies, University of Oxford, 26 January 2017; Centre for Film Studies Research Seminar, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 25 January 2017.

“In a Lively Place: Spaces of Japanese Scriptwriting,” Third Thursday Lecture, Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures, Norwich, 16 March 2017.

“Screenwriter: Director’s Wife or Film’s Author? Textuality, Space and Gender in Japanese Cinema,” Japan and the World Seminar, University of Cambridge, 6 February 2017.

“Screenwriting and scenarios in Japanese film culture,” Film, Television and Media Studies Lecture, University of East Anglia, 31 October 2016.

“Dimensions of Japanese Film Scenario: Authorship, Gender, Space, Publishing, Canon,” Gordon W. Prange Collection, University of Maryland, 17 May 2016.

“Adapted, Altered and Augmented: Modern Japanese Literature on the Screen,” City University of Hong Kong, 9 March 2016.

“Like Novel, Like Film: Japanese literature on screen,” Europe Japan Research Centre Research Seminar, Oxford Brookes University, 30 October 2013.

“Dancer, Doctor, Virgin, Wife: Early star image of Kinuyo Tanaka,” Kinuyo Tanaka Workshop, 26th Leeds International Film Festival, University of Leeds, 3 November 2012.

“Fidelity, High and Low: Japanese Cinema and Literary Adaptation,” Seminar Japanese Cinema for Busy People Part III, Japan Foundation, London, 20 June 2012.

“Discursive functions of the screenplay in pre-war Japanese cinema,” Screen Media Seminar, Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Cambridge, 5 March 2012.

PROFESSIONAL TRAINING

Graduate Development Programme, University of Cambridge, 2012-2013

UNICA Master Class ‘Supervision in Doctoral Education’, University of Zagreb, Dubrovnik, 2009

EUA-CDE Workshop ‘Enhancing of Supervision: Professional Development and Assessment of Supervisors’, Imperial College, London, 2009

MEMBERSHIPS

Modern Language Association, 2020-present

Asian Cinema Studies Society, 2017-present

The Japan Society, UK, 2017-present

Society for Cinema and Media Studies, 2013-present

Association for Asian Studies, 2012-present

British Association for Japanese Studies, 2012-present

European Association for Japanese Studies, 2001-present

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

Conference Organiser

Textuality as Social Action: Reframing Popular Music in Shōwa Era Japan, University of Tartu, 28-29 September 2023.

Kinema Club XVI. Beyond the Canon: Reconsidering Japanese Cinema of the 1950s, Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures, 8-9 June 2017.

Theorizing Japanese Literature: Memories, Evocations, Ghosts, Tallinn University, 9-11 September 2010.

Classical Japanese philosophy: context, interpretation, development, Tallinn University, 21-23 May 2010.

Women of Talent in Times of Trouble: conference on outstanding women in the Heian and Kamakura periods, Tallinn University, 22-23 May 2009.

Japanese Classics in the Modern World, Tallinn University, 11-13 September 2008.

Conference Panel Organiser/Chair

“(Re-)Producing East Asian Social Imaginaries in/as Musical Practice, 1950-1991,” Annual Conference of the Association for Asian Studies, Honolulu, 26 March 2022.

“Competing Agencies and Agendas: Paths of Japanese Popular Music in the 1970s,” 16th Conference of the European Association for Japanese Studies, Ghent, 27 August 2021.

“The Popular Meets the Political in Mid-Century Japanese Genre Film,” 3rd European Association for Japanese Studies Conference in Japan, Tsukuba, 15 September 2019.

“Film as Writing in Japan: Literary-Cinematic Interplay and Adaptation,” Annual Conference of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Montreal, 25 March 2015.

Peer-reviewer

Transnational Screens, 2022-

Frames Cinema Journal, 2020-

Japan Review, 2020-

Arts, 2019-

Academic Management

Board member, Graduate School of Culture Studies and Arts, Estonia, 2009-2010.

Director, Baltic Graduate School for Social Sciences and the Humanities, Tallinn University, 2008-2010.

LANGUAGES

Estonian: Native; English, Finnish, Japanese: Near-native; Chinese (Mandarin), German, Italian, Korean, Latin, Russian, Swedish: Basic.

CREATIVE WORK

Poetry

“marmelaad”: luuletusi 2002-2006 /「マーマレード」, Tallinn: Tuum, 2010.

Ühtlasi: luuletusi, Tallinn: Koma, 2002.

Selected Translations

Ishii Shinji/Yoshida Akihito, The Screw, Kyoto: Three Books, 2023.

Tawada Yōko, Kahtlased kujud öises rongis, Tallinn: Kultuurileht, 2020.

Fujii Sadakazu, Titt maksab kätte, Tallinn: Koma, 2010.

Tanikawa Shuntarō, Sõnade asjatu flirt, Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus, 2010.

Bei Dao, Lumearmee, Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus, 2007.

Natsume Sōseki, “Mina olen kass,” Vikerkaar 1-2, Tallinn: Kultuurileht, 2003, 56-68.

Tawara Machi, “Salati aastapäev,” Looming 12, Tallinn: Kultuurileht, 2002, 1835-1841.