FUJIKIHIdeaki social prominence in that period? More specifically, what characteristics was the early cinema star endowed with in his visual and discursive representations? What institutional structure and practices operated to upho]d his stardom during the time that the film industry was expanding and the film actor was becoming a marked cultural phenomenon? And, how did the particular historical context act on this formation? -In this article, I will argue that the motion picture star evolved

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... into what I call a dual persona, which features a highly visible distinction between his persena as a screen perfermer and his persona as a "great man." 8 Matsunosuke made his performativity visible by both adopting kabuki conventions and embodying the possibilities of cinematic representation. The Yokota and, later, the Nikkatsu film companies detected his marketability and exploited it, In doing this, they tended to rely on Makino Shdz6's troupe and its filmmaking (under their company supervision), rather than developing it as a visual image integral to their own planning and promotion. Yet, sin ¢ e Matsunosuke's social status, as well as that of the cinema as a who]e, was low, he needed not only popularity, but also social respectability. The elements used to construct his persona of social authority were in particular shu-yo"-shugi (the tenet of selficultivation), along with such national official JAPANSOCIETY ofImaGEARTS and SCIENCES 160 FuiiK[Hideaki