Mako Idemitsu

Mako Idemitsu (出光 真子) is a pioneer Japanese media artist, known for her experimental video art and film works.

Mako Idemitsu was born in Ōta-ku, Japan and is the daughter of Japanese businessman and art collector Sazō Idemitsu, founder of Idemitsu Kōsan.

Idemitsu had strained relationships with both her father and mother, and was disinherited and disowned by her father after she chose to live in California.

Idemitsu said that he had a Confucian attitude towards women, and embraced a patriarchal view of the role of men and women that led to the belittling of his wife and daughters.

She also said that he acted to deny them their individuality and independence.

Idemitsu has two sisters; one of them, Takako was a painter once married to prominent art critic, Yoshiaki Tōno.

Idemitsu has two sons from her marriage with Francis, Osamu and Shingo.

Idemitsu attended Waseda University in Tokyo from 1958 to 1962, where she studied Japanese history in the Faculty of Letters.

Idemitsu found her undergraduate education anything but stimulating, often frustrated with misogynistic comments made by her professors.

She participated in many extra-curricular events, such as the University's Contemporary Literature Society, and was highly politically-engaged, joining in student demonstrations against the US-Japan Security Treaty of 1960.

She found that even among the hippies and the liberated counterculture of the 1960s in California, male chauvinism was inescapable, different in nature from that of her homeland, but chauvinism nonetheless.

While searching for a role outside that of wife and mother which she had fallen into, she by impulse bought a Super 8 film camera and began her career as a film artist.

Idemitsu attended Columbia University in New York from 1963 to 1964.

Idemitsu had hoped to live in New York City, and had to convince her father to support her graduate studies.

She enjoyed the multi-cultural environment of New York and the freedom she had, attending different art events by herself, without the legacy and baggage of her family's ties with the Japanese art scene.

She did not manage to stay in New York beyond her graduate studies, and left for Europe soon after her student visa expired.

Idemitsu lived in Santa Monica, Los Angeles from 1965 to 1972.

Idemitsu was introduced to Sam Francis, through her father's acquisition of his work, and she married him in 1966.

(Shingo Francis, born 1969, is a painter.)

In the early 1970s, Mako Idemitsu was one of the pioneers of video art.

The technical limitations of the equipment at the time had an influence on the direction of her work.

Idemitsu first started to work in the United States initially with 8 mm film and then moving onto 16 mm film.

She became interested in capturing the mood, quality and interplay of light and shadow.

When she switched to working with video, the inability of the video cameras of the time to capture the quality of light, led to the increasing use of narrative in her work.

On her return to Japan the cumbersomeness of the equipment and an inability to easily film outdoors led her to use indoor simgle-camera setups.

Idemitsu also produced a limited number of video installations.

In 1972 she filmed the Womanhouse started by Judy Chicago and others, in order to create an imagery based on this work.

Idemitsu became interested with the Women's Liberation Movement, and understood how film documentation was crucial for the awareness of their activities; her interest in 16mm film cameras ensued.

Idemitsu was very aware that her works would not be as legible to English-speaking audiences who did not know Japanese language and culture, even if they showed interest in the work's visual aesthetics.

Mako Idemitsu returned to Japan with Francis and her sons in 1973, originally planning to stay in Japan for a year.

It was only upon her return to Japan that she could properly produce her At Santa Monica (1973-5) At Any Place (1975-8) series, using and reflecting on the images she shot of the United States.

Idemitsu began to establish her practice without the label of being Francis' wife in Tokyo, getting involved with other pioneer video artists such as the members of Video Hiroba.

In particular, Idemitsu credits Nobuhiro Kawanaka and Kyōko Michishita for helping her learn the technical process of video equipment.

Michael Goldberg, a Canadian who co-organized the Video Communication/Do it Yourself Kit symposium and exhibition, became Idemitsu's consistent collaborator and is credited as a Director of Photography for many of her videos.

Idemitsu also worked extensively with Yoshimitsu Takahashi to develop her films.

In 1974, when Francis returned to the United States, Idemitsu chose to remain in Japan.

Idemitsu was also immersed in the broader Japanese arts scene, collaborating with Yoneyama Mamako after watching her pantomime Housewife's Tango to produce At Any Place 4 (1978).

Idemitsu was also involved with Japanese art historians, in particular Kaori Chino, a feminist art historian who encouraged her to write and publish her autobiography.

The couple would later divorce, with Francis marrying for a fifth time in 1985.

Although Idemizu increasingly felt repressed in Tokyo, she realized that her video practice allowed her to express a full spectrum of feelings, much more so than she felt was possible in the United States.