Early anime discovered

[wgardne1@swarthmore.edu]

Pardon my typo-- that should be Tanaka Giichi. Also, those interested in
the "Yasukuni" controversy and the LDP Diet members' request for a special
preview will find a big feature on it in the print edition of today's
(Japanese-language) Asahi Shinbun (3/27). Unfortunately, I couldn't turn
up a version on either the English or Japanese websites.
Will

On Thu, March 27, 2008 04:35, wgardne1 at swarthmore.edu wrote:
> More good news film news-- for those in Tokyo at least-- according to an
> article in today's Asahi Shinbun, at the end of April, the National Film
> Center will be presenting a special program of the two "anime" that Markus
> reports on, together with 94 other recently "unearthed" and restored
> films. These include a documentary from 1928 of politician Tanaka Giishi
> delivering a speech, which the article claims is the oldest surviving
> domestically-produced "talkie."
>
>
> On Thu, March 27, 2008 02:17, Mark Nornes wrote:
>>  From Reuters
>> (http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/news/va/20080327/120660518600.html
>> ), with quotes from our Film Center friend Irie Yoshiro:
>>
>>
>>
>> All Reuters Movie News
>> Japan finds films by early "anime" pioneers
>> Thursday March 27 1:06 AM ET
>>
>> Two early 20th century Japanese animated movies, crafted by pioneers
>> of the "anime" that has since swept the world, have been found in good
>> condition, a researcher at Tokyo's National Film Center said on
>> Thursday.
>>
>> U.S. and European animated cartoons were introduced in Japan around
>> 1914 and soon inspired works by Japanese cartoonists and artists,
>> including Junichi Kouchi and Seitaro Kitayama, two of whose works were
>> found in an Osaka antique store.
>>
>> "Nakamura Katana," Kouichi's two-minute silent movie that tells the
>> story of a samurai tricked into buying a dull-edged sword, was first
>> released in 1917.
>>
>> Kitayama's "Urashima Taro," based on a folk tale in which a fisherman
>> is transported to a fantastic underwater world on the back of a
>> turtle, came out the following year.
>>
>> Together with Oten Shimokawa, whose 1917 "Imokawa Mukuzo, The Janitor"
>> is thought to be the first commercial Japanese animated film, Kouichi
>> and Kitayama are considered "fathers of Japanese anime," said National
>> Film Center researcher Yoshiro Irie.
>>
>> "Now everything is digitalized, but these early animated films were
>> made on the same principles used now," Irie said.
>>
>> But while modern anime is often used to tell complex, dark stories,
>> the brief early Japanese animated films mainly surprised viewers with
>> the simple fact the pictures moved, Irie said.
>>
>> They also made people laugh.
>>
>> "It was an era when people were surprised just to see that the
>> pictures moved," he said. "The films are also full of gags."
>>
>> (Reporting by Linda Sieg)
>>
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