Artist

Mako Idemitsu

Born 1940 in Tokyo, Japan. Using self-taught techniques she made her first 8 mm film in 1970.
Mako Idemitsu creates video narratives that examine female identity within the contemporary Japanese family. Echoing and subverting the popular melodramas of Japanese television, her work applies a feminist critique to the strict gender roles that shape mother-child and husband-wife relationships. Her works, which have been exhibited internationally, include Hideo, It's Me Mama (1983) and the Great Mother series (1983).

Artist Code: 171

Videography

Kae, Act Like A Girl!

1997, 47:09 minutes, colour, Japanese/English

Kiyoko's Situation

1989, 25:00 minutes, colour, English / Japanese

Yoji, What's Wrong With You?

1987, 17:52 minutes, colour, English subtitles

The Marriage of Yasushi

1986, 23:20 minutes, colour, English subtitles

Great Mother (Sachiko)

1984, 18:48 minutes, colour, English subtitles

Great Mother (Yumiko)

1983, 24:30 minutes, colour, English subtitles

Great Mother (Harumi)

1983, 12:40 minutes, colour, English subtitles

Great Mother (Harumi)

1983, 12:40 minutes, colour, English subtitles

Hideo, It's Me, Mama

1983, 27:00 minutes, colour, English subtitles

Animus (Part 2): Inner Man

1982, 19:37 minutes, colour, Japanese/English

Animus (Part 1)

1982, 13:06 minutes, colour, Japanese/English

Shadows (Part 2): A Husband, A Wife, A Lover

1982, 41:43 minutes, colour, English / Japanese

Shadows (Part 1)

1980, 28:13 minutes, yes, English / Japanese

Another Day of A House Wife

1977, 09:48 minutes, English Subtitles

What A Woman Made

1973, 10:50 minutes, colour, English

Critical Writing

Community of Images: Japanese Moving Image Artists in the US 1960s...
by Collaborative Cataloging Japan. Philadelphia: Collaborative Cataloging Japan, 2024.
Modern Women: Single Channel
by Colin Perry. Moving Image Review & Art Journal (MIRAJ), 2012, v. 1, no. 1.
Myths of the Heart: The Film and Video World of Mako Idemitsu
by Norio Nishijima.
A Bright, Shiny, Fabricated Family Life: Mothers, Sons, and...
by Hiroko Hagiwara.
The Seen and The Unseen
by Akira Tochigi.
Mid-Life/Shelf-Life
by Lisa Steele. Mid-Life/Shelf-Life, 2010. Toronto: Vtape, 2010.
New Wine into Old Bottles: Some Comments on the Early Years of Art...
by Laura Cottingham. Outer & Inner Space: Pipilotti Rist, Shirin Neshat, Jane & Louise Wilson, and the History of Video Art, 2002. Richmond, Virginia: Virginia Mudeum of Fine Art/University of Washington Press, 2002.
Polar Recap
by Ann Kaneko. Afterimage, Nov. 1994, v. 22, no. 4.
Mom's The Word
by Barbara Osborn. AfterImage, Jan. 1991, v. 18, no. 6.
Local Artists stand out as east meets west in video olympics
by Elizabeth Licata. Gusto, Apr. 29, 1988.
Landscapes of Address
by Chris Hill. Infermental 7, 1988. Buffalo: Hallwalls, Inc., 1988.
Comic Horror: The Presence of Television in Video Art
by Bob Riley. The Arts for Television, 1987. Amsterdam: Stedelijk Museum, 1987.
Video at Documenta
by Coco Fusco. Afterimage, Sept. 1987, v. 15, no. 2.
Paper Screen:: Video Art in a Japanese Context
by Scott Nygren. Journal of Film and Video, Winter 1987, v. 39, no. 1.
Domestic Disharmony: Mako Idemitsu's Psychodramas
by Mickie McGee. The Independent, Apr. 1986.
Made in Japan: New Video: Japan at the Museum of Modern Art, New...
by Ann-Sargent Wooster. Afterimage, Summer 1986, v. 14, no. 1.
New Media Age In Japan
by Fujiko Nakaya. Video Guide, May 1985, v. 7, no. 3.
Manhattan Shortcuts: Recent Acquisitions at the MOMA, New York
by Ann-Sargent Wooster. Afterimage, Nov. Winter 1984, v. 12, no. 4.
Japon (cont.)
by Unknown. Video 84, 1984.
Introduction
by Bruce Ferguson. 1984 Ottawa International Festival of Video Art, 1984. Ottawa: SAW Gallery, 1984.
Video from Tokyo to Fukui and Kyoto: Kyoto/Canada Video Exchange Show
by Andrew Scott. Vanguard, Oct. 1979, v. 8, no. 8.