Alternative viewership practices in Kyoto, Japan

Cinema attendance and domestic production is once more on the rise in East Asia. At the same time, Japanese cinema is enjoying a domestic boom. This chapter takes as a case study alternative viewership practices in the city of Kyoto from 2014 to 2017, where Shōwa era (1926–1989) classics were screened twice a day at the Kyōto Bunka Hakubutsukan (City Culture Museum), while just streets away younger audiences viewed art house and independent films at the Rissei “squatter cinema.” Combining ethnographic materials including interviews, questionnaires, and participant observation with analysis of venue spaces and programming, this chapter analyzes the attractions of alternative cinema spaces for viewers in Kyoto.