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Katsudō Shashin

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A film still of a black, white, and red drawing of a boy wearing a sailor suit and cap; he is grasping the cap
A frame of the three-secondKatsudō Shashin,date and creator unknown

Katsudō Shashin(Hoạt động tả chân,"motion picture" ),sometimes called theMatsumoto fragment,is a Japanese animatedfilmstripfrom theMeiji erathat is the oldest known work ofanimation from Japan.Its creator is unknown. Evidence suggests it was made somewhere between 1907 and 1912, so it may predate the earliest displays of Western animated films in Japan. It was discovered in a collection of films and projectors inKyotoin 2005.

The three-second filmstrip depicts a boy who writes "Hoạt động tả chân",removes his hat, and bows. The frames werestencilledin red and black using a device for makingmagic lanternslides, and the filmstrip was fastened in a loop for continuous play.

Description

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Katsudō Shashin

Katsudō Shashinconsists of a series of cartoon images on fifty frames of acelluloidstrip and lasts three seconds at sixteenframes per second.[1]It depicts a young boy in asailor suitwho writes thekanjicharacters "Hoạt động tả chân"(katsudō shashin,"moving picture" or "Activity photo" ) fromright to left,then turns to the viewer, removes his hat, and bows.[1]Katsudō Shashinis a provisional title for the film, whose actual title is unknown.[2]

Unlike intraditional animation,the frames were not produced by photographing the images, but rather were impressed onto film using astencil.[3]This was done with akappa-ban,[a]a device for stencillingmagic lanternslides. The images were in red and black on a strip of35 mm film[b][4]whose ends were fastened in a loop for continuous viewing.[5]

Background

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Imported animation projectors

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Early printed animation films for optical toys such as thezoetropepredate projected film animation. German toy manufacturerGebrüder Bingpresented acinematographat a toy festival in Nuremberg in 1898; soon other toy manufacturers sold similar devices.[6]Live-action films for these devices were expensive to make; possibly as early as 1898 animated films for these devices were on sale, and could be fastened in loops for continuous viewing.[7]Imports of these German devices appeared in Japan at least as early as 1904;[8]films for them likely included animation loops.[9]

Film frame of a cartoon samurai holding a sword
Japanese animated films such asJun'ichi Kōuchi'sHanawa Hekonai meitō no makibegan appearing in theatres in 1917.

Projected film technology arrived in Japan from the West in 1896–97.[10]The earliest display of foreign animation in Japanese theatres that can be dated with certainty is of the French animatorÉmile Cohl'sThe Nipper's Transformations[c](1911), which premièred in Tokyo on 15 April 1912. Works byŌten Shimokawa,Seitarō Kitayama,andJun'ichi Kōuchiin 1917 were the first Japanese animated films to reach theatre screens.[11]Thefilms are lost,but a few have been discovered in "toy movie"[d]versions for viewing at home on hand-cranked projectors; the oldest to survive isHanawa Hekonai meitō no maki[e](1917), titledNamakura-gatanain its home version.[12]

Rediscovery

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In December 2004, a secondhand dealer in Kyoto contacted Natsuki Matsumoto,[f][3]an expert iniconographyat theOsaka University of Arts.[13]The dealer had obtained a collection of films and projectors from an old Kyoto family, and Matsumoto arrived the next month to fetch them.[3]The collection included three projectors, eleven 35 mm films, and thirteen glass magic lantern slides.[3]

When Matsumoto foundKatsudō Shashinin the collection,[13]the filmstrip was in poor condition.[14]The collection included three Western animated filmstrips;[15]Katsudō Shashinmay have been made in imitation of such examples of German or other Western animation.[15]Based on evidence such as the likely manufacture dates of the projectors in the collection, Matsumoto and animation historianNobuyuki Tsugata[ja][g]determined the film was most likely made in the lateMeiji period,which ended in 1912;[h][16]historian Frederick S. Litten has suggestedc. 1907as a likely date,[2]and that "a production date before 1905 or after 1912 is unlikely".[9]At the time, movie theatres were rare in Japan;[5]evidence suggestsKatsudō Shashinwas mass-produced to be sold to wealthy owners of home projectors.[17]The creator of the filmstrip remains unknown;[13]to Matsumoto, the relatively poor quality and low-tech printing technique indicate it was likely from a smaller company.[9]

The discovery was widely covered in Japanese media.[3]Given its speculated date of creation, the film would have been contemporary to—or even have predated—early animated works by Cohl and the American animatorsJ. Stuart BlacktonandWinsor McCay.The newspaperAsahi Shimbunacknowledged the importance of the discovery of Meiji-period animation, but expressed reservations about placing the film in the genealogy of Japanese animation, writing that it is "controversial that [Katsudō Shashin] should even be called animation in the contemporary sense ".[14]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^Hợp vũ bảnkappa-ban;the printing process was calledkappa-zuri(Hợp vũ xoát り)
  2. ^The filmstrip has since shrunk to 33.5 mm.[2]
  3. ^French:Les Exploits de Feu Follet;Japanese:ニッパルの変 hìnhNipparu no Henkei
  4. ^Ngoạn cụgangu
  5. ^Xác ao nội danh đao chi quyểnHanawa Hekonai meitō no maki,"Filmreel of Hanawa Hekonai's famous sword"
  6. ^Tùng bổn hạ thụMatsumoto Natsuki,b. 1952
  7. ^Tân kiên tín chiTsugata Nobuyuki,b. 1968
  8. ^TheMeiji periodlasted from 1868 to 1912.

References

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  1. ^abAnime News Network staff 2005.
  2. ^abcLitten 2014,p. 13.
  3. ^abcdeMatsumoto 2011,p. 98.
  4. ^Matsumoto 2011,p. 116.
  5. ^abAsahi Shimbun staff 2005.
  6. ^Litten 2014,p. 9.
  7. ^Litten 2014,p. 10.
  8. ^Litten 2014,p. 14.
  9. ^abcLitten 2014,p. 15.
  10. ^Matsumoto 2011,p. 112.
  11. ^Litten 2013,p. 27.
  12. ^Matsumoto 2011,pp. 96–97.
  13. ^abcClements & McCarthy 2006,p. 169.
  14. ^abLópez 2012,p. 584.
  15. ^abLitten 2014,p. 12.
  16. ^Matsumoto & Tsugata 2006,p. 101;Matsumoto 2011,p. 115.
  17. ^Matsumoto 2011,pp. 116–117.

Works cited

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  • Anime News Network staff (7 August 2005)."Oldest Anime Found".Anime News Network.Archived fromthe originalon 2 February 2007.Retrieved12 February2014.
  • Asahi Shimbun staff (1 August 2005)."Nihon saiko? Meiji jidai no anime firumu, Kyōto de hakken"Nhật bổn tối cổ? Minh trị thời đại のアニメフィルム, kinh đô で phát kiến[Oldest in Japan? Meiji-period animated film discovered in Kyoto].China People's Daily Online(Japanese Edition)(in Japanese). Archived fromthe originalon 11 October 2007.Retrieved11 June2014.
  • Clements, Jonathan;McCarthy, Helen(2006).The Anime Encyclopedia: A Guide to Japanese Animation Since 1917.Stone Bridge Press.ISBN978-1-84576-500-2.
  • Litten, Frederick S. (2013). "Shōtai kenkyū nōto: Nihon no eigakan de jōei sareta saisho no (kaigai) animēshon eiga ni tsuite"Chiêu đãi nghiên cứu ノート: Nhật bổn の ánh họa quán で thượng ánh された tối sơ の ( hải ngoại ) アニメーション ánh họa について[On the Earliest (Foreign) Animation Shown in Japanese Cinemas].The Japanese Journal of Animation Studies(in Japanese).15(1A): 27–32.
  • Litten, Frederick S. (17 June 2014)."Japanese color animation from ca. 1907 to 1945"(PDF).litten.de.Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 14 July 2014.Retrieved18 June2014.
  • López, Antonio (2012). "A New Perspective on the First Japanese Animation".Published proceedings‚ Confia‚ (International Conference on Illustration and Animation)‚ 29–30 Nov 2012.IPCA. pp. 579–586.ISBN978-989-97567-6-2.
  • Matsumoto, Natsuki; Tsugata, Nobuyuki (2006). "Kokusan saikō to kangaerareru animēshon firumu no hakken ni tsuite"Quốc sản tối cổ と khảo えられるアニメーションフィルムの phát kiến について[The discovery of supposedly oldest Japanese animation films].Eizōgaku(in Japanese) (76): 86–105.ISSN0286-0279.
  • Matsumoto, Natsuki (2011). "Ánh họa độ lai tiền hậu の gia đình dụng ánh tượng cơ khí" [Home movie equipment from the earliest days of film in Japan]. In Iwamoto, Kenji (ed.).Nihon eiga no tanjōNhật bổn ánh họa の đản sinh[Birth of Japanese film] (in Japanese). Shinwa-sha. pp. 95–128.ISBN978-4-86405-029-6.
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