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was the last Japanese ''benshi'' of the silent film era. Shunsui Matsuda’s love for silent films was so great he dedicated his life to finding and preserving valuable classic films from the golden era. == Biography == Born in 1925 in Tokyo, Shunsui Matsuda performed as child ''Benshi'' but it was only after the Pacific War, when the post-war shortages created a demand in films that Matsuda really began his vocation as a ''Benshi''. In 1947 he found himself part of a troupe of itinerant ''benshi'' travelling around Kyūshū, whose burgeoning coal mining industry had attracted a lot of workers to the region. The desperate shortage of any means of entertainment in the area meant that reruns of old silent films were still immensely popular. It was during his travels that he realized the need to preserve the films from the silent film era. With the 1923 Kanto earthquake and the War, a vast number of films had already been destroyed, but even worse was the complete laissez-faire attitude of the major studios to their own product. The few surviving fragments of films such as Ozu's I Graduated, But… (''Daigaku wa Detakeredo'', 1929) are pretty much entirely down to the efforts of this man, who travelled the country scouring pawn shops and old theatres for films to add to his collection. In 1948, he officially took up his name as the second Matsuda Shunsui and in the same year he was awarded the top prize in the national Film Narrator's Competition. In 1952, he founded Matsuda Film Productions and appointed President of the Friends of Silent Films Association, both which are still being thriving under the guidance of his second son, Yutaka Matsuda. He continued to give performances all the way up until his death in 1987, also directing his own silent film, ''Jigoku no Mushi'' (Maggots of Hell) in 1979 and producing ''Bantsuma - Bando Tsumasaburo no Shogai'' (Bantsuma - The Life and Times of Bando Tsumasaburo) in 1980. He can also be seen in full flow providing the narration for the silent film fragment in Kaizo Hayashi's homage to this golden age, To Sleep So As To Dream (''Yume Miruyoni Nemuritai'', 1986). In 1984, Matsuda received an invitation from the Frankfurt Museum of Cinema and he gave his first ''Benshi'' performance in Europe. A year later, he received the first Tokyo Metropolitan Culture Prize. Shunsui Matsuda died of cancer on 8 August 1987 leaving behind a great legacy. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Shunsui Matsuda」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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