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Kumamoto Stories

2002 Japanese anthology film

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 21, 2026
Entity authorityQ101245427 ↗
Source-derived summary

Kumamoto Stories (熊本物語, Kumamoto monogatari) is a Japanese historical anthology film directed by Takashi Miike. Released on DVD on July 20, 2002, it contains three short films produced between 1998 and 2002 presenting legends about the history of Kumamoto Prefecture.

Tsuiketsu Fantasy: The Dream Legend of Tonkararin

Zuiketsu gensō: Tonkararin yume densetsu (隧穴幻想 トンカラリン夢伝説, Zuiketsu gensō: Tonkararin yume densetsu)

Runtime: 33 minutes.

Produced in 1998 by the Government of Kikusui-machi and the Government of Kumamoto-ken.

Filming took place in Kikusui, Kumamoto.

Plot

1500 years ago, samurai invaders attack a village along the Kikuchi River near a cave in the east side of the country named Tsuiketsu where the people gather in the tenth month to receive the god Tsui. The invaders kill everyone except a little girl hiding in the cave who uses her mother's magic necklace to summon the dragon god to defeat them.

Twenty years later, more samurai invaders from the Mikado invade the country. The girl's husband gives his life fighting the samurai to protect her while standing before the cave. Facing this new threat, she sacrifices herself and saves the country by stabbing herself while wearing the necklace.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Kumamoto Stories” as 2002 Japanese anthology film. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Kumamoto, Stories and Japanese.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2002, 1998, 1500—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2002. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Kumamoto, Stories and Japanese providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Kumamoto Stories”, the useful work is to connect “2002 Japanese anthology film” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q101245427. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2002, 1998 and 1500.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Kumamoto Stories”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Kumamoto Stories primary sources, Kumamoto Stories archive and Kumamoto research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Kumamoto Stories”?
  2. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Kumamoto Stories” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.