ELEGY FOR CONTESTATION MOVEMENT IN THE 'IMAGES OF THE FLOATING WORLD' (Elegia dla ruchów kontestacyjnych w 'obrazach Przeplywajacego Swiata')

This essay discusses the aesthetic correspondences of Japanese new wave cinema with the iconography of premodern Japan, 'images of the floating world' (ukiyo-e), shunga pornography and kabuki theatre. Associations between ukiyo-e and new wave cinema are exemplified on one of the most significant movies of the decade, 'Buraikan' (1970) by Masahiro Shinoda. On the bases of aesthetical and narrative conjunction Shinoda recovers the cultural continuity, which seemed to be irretrievably ruptured as a result of the World War II and the nationalistic Japanese politics.