Shigehiko Hasumi

Shigehiko Hasumi (蓮實重彥, aka Hasumi Shiguéhiko; born April 29, 1936 in Tokyo) is a Japanese literary critic, film critic, French literature scholar, and novelist. He was a professor at the University of Tokyo (Cultural Studies, or the "Study of Culture and Representation"), dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and the 26th President (1997-2001).

Hasumi started his academic career as a Gustave Flaubert scholar, but also played a central role in the early introduction of the contemporary French philosophy, such as Gilles Deleuze and Michele Foucault, into Japan in the 1970s. He is also known as one of the most prolific Japanese critic and reviewer of the modern literature and film.

Since 1980s, Hasumi has been active in introducing the French New Wave filmmakers' thought and the Hollywood B-films. His method of viewing and writing films, inspired by the 1950s French film criticism appeared in Cahiers du Cinéma, played the gigantic role in the Japanese film culture in the late 20th century. His influential work includes Directed by Yasujiro Ozu (1986).

He is married to Chantal Van Melkebeke, the daughter of the Belgian painter, journalist, and writer Jacques Van Melkebeke, who is known for having been the first chief editor of Tintin magazine. They had one son, Shigeomi Hasumi.

Life and work
Shigehiko Hasumi was born in Tokyo in 1936 as the son of Shigeyasu Hasumi, an art historian known for his study on Japanese traditional art of Sesshu Toyo.

He studied at the University of Tokyo and the University of Paris, where he particularly focused on Flaubert, while at the same time he energetically translating the French post-structuralism to Japan.

As a French literature scholar, his main works include *Portrait of a mediocre artist: Maxime du Camp (Bonyō na Geijutsuka no Shōzō)(1988) and *A Study of Madame Bovary (Bovary Fujin-ron) (2014). His introductory works of contemporary French philosophy include: *Criticism, or the Celebration of Temporal Death (Hihyō Aruiwa Kashi no Saiten) (1974) and Foucault, Deleuze and Derrida (1978).

What made Hasumi widely popular in Japan is his vast amount of literary and film criticism outside of academia. In his literary criticism, he published his views on Soseki Natsume, Kenzaburo Oe, and other Japanese contemporary novelist.

As a film critic, Hasumi used the way of viewing the details of films of Cahiers du Cinéma and re-evaluate the Hollywood films, such as Howard Hawks, John Ford, Don Siegel, Nicholas Ray, Richard Fleicher and other directors. Since traditional Japanese film criticism heavily focused on the viewers' impression and meaning of the narrative, Hasumi's new film writings of the screen detail shocked the Japanese film culture in the 1980s, and created many followers. His Directed by Yasujiro Ozu (1986) is known as a landmark of his film criticism, and believed as one of the most influential work in film writings in the late 20th century Japan.

Hasumi is known for his wide network among the international filmmakers, including Wim Wenders or Daniel Schmid. He presided over the committee of the Lion of the Year competition in the Venice Film Festival (2001). Hasumi's film lectures in his early days in Tokyo attracted the young Japanese filmmakers, such as Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Masayuki Suo, and Shinji Aoyama.

Hasumi is also known as a novelist and published two fictional work: *A Collapsed Land (Kanbotsu Chitai)(1986) and *A Countess (Hakushaku Fujin).(2016). His wife Chantal Van Melkebeke is a teacher from Belgium.

His name
His personal name has been spelt variously as Shigehiko, the standard Hepburn romanization, Shiguehiko and Shiguéhiko on his publications. For example, his biography of Yasujirō Ozu features the name Shiguéhiko on both the original Japanese and the French translation, whereas many translations of his books feature the form Shigehiko.

Selected bibliography

 * Directed by Yasujiro Ozu, tr. by Ryan Cook, U. Of California Press, 2024. ISBN 978-0-520-39672-2 (Kantoku Ozu Yasujirō, 1983)

Article


 * "Signification du mouvement bercant de l'eau dans le roman de Gustave Flaubert: Madame Bovary," Etudes de langue et litterature francaises, Volume 10, 1967.
 * "The eloquence of the taciturn: an essay on Hou Hsiao-Hsien," Inter-Asia cultural studies, Volume 9, Issue 2, 2008.
 * "Fiction and the 'Unrepresentable'," Theory, culture & society, Volume 26, Issue 2-3, 2009.
 * "Absence d'Emma Bovary : 'Réalité textuelle' de la fiction," MLN, Volume 125, Issue 4, 2010.
 * "For the Liberation of a Pluralist Thinking," Cultural politics, Volume 11, Issue 3, 2015, p. 301
 * "Identiques et différentes – à propos des répétitions dans Madame Bovary," Flaubert, Issue 20, 2018.
 * "Le cinéma comme institution," Ebisu : etudes japonaises, Volume 59, Issue 59, 2022.

Books in Japanese

 * Hihyō Aruiwa Kashi no Saiten (1974)
 * Han Nihongo Ron (1977)
 * Natsume Sōseki Ron (1978)
 * Eiga no Shinwagaku (1979)
 * Eizō no Shigaku (1979)
 * Hyōsō Hihyō Sengen (1979)
 * Cinema no Kioku Sōchi (1979)
 * Eiga: Yūwaku no Ekurichūru (1983)
 * Kantoku Ozu Yasujirō (1983)
 * Monogatari Hihan Josetsu (1985)
 * Kanbotsu Chitai (1986)
 * Bonyō na Geijutsuka no Shōzō (1988)
 * Shōsetsu Kara Tōku Hanarete (1989)
 * Teikoku no Inbō (1991)
 * Hollywood Eigashi Kōgi (1993)
 * Zettai Bungei Jihyō Sengen (1994)
 * Tamashii no Yuibutsuronteki na Yōgo no Tame ni (1994)
 * Opera Opérationnelle (1994)
 * Watakushi ga Daigaku ni Tsuite Shitteiru Ni San no Kotogara (2001)
 * Supōtsu Hihyō Sengen (2004)
 * Eiga e no Fujitsunaru Sasoi (2004)
 * Miserarete: Sakka Ronshū (2005)
 * Godāru Kakumei (2005)
 * Hyōshō no Naraku (2006)
 * Aka no Yūwaku (2007)
 * Eiga Hōkai Zenya (2008)
 * Eigaron Kōgi (2008)
 * Godāru Mane Fūkō (2008)
 * Zuisō (2010)
 * Eiga Jihyō 2009-2011 (2012)