Benshi Archive Team

Kyoko Omori

Associate Professor of Japanese
Dept of East Asian Languages and Literatures
Cinema and Media Studies Program

Kyoko Omori is an Associate Professor of Japanese at Hamilton College and a scholar of cinema and literature specializing in the evolving forms of the benshi tradition. She directs Benshi: Silent Film Narrators in Japan, a digital archive dedicated to the live performers who brought—and continue to bring—silent films to life on stage. While the archive includes materials from the early 20th century, Omori’s work focuses on the post–World War II era to the present, examining how contemporary benshi preserve and reinterpret silent cinema for today’s audiences through diverse performance styles, the restoration of older practices, and experimentation with new media. By incorporating digital tools such as VR recreations of 1920s theaters, 360° tours of contemporary venues, and recordings of live benshi, her research bridges analog traditions and modern technologies, offering fresh perspectives on storytelling, spectatorship, and interactive media. As part of her digital humanities work, she also creates video essays, using videographic criticism to explore cinema and its intersections with the performing art of benshi.