art animation?

[Catherine Munroe Hotes]

As I am working on a book on Japanese art animation, I thought I should 
jump into the conversation.  In an interview with fpsmagazine Akira 
Tochigi (curator at the National Film Center) claims that the use of the 
term 'animation' instead of 'manga eiga' entered the language in the 
1950s when Norman McLaren's work was first screened in Japan.  /
/
/
"... in the late '50s, early '60s, the word "animation" was first 
introduced in Japan.
Before then, we used the word "manga" film, not animation. But the 
exhibition that introduced McLaren's work was called "animation film 
screening". [This] means that the term animation was related not to 
Disney type of animation but to experimental film and personal film... 
So this context of Canadian animation has a special [significance] in 
Japan: it is a kind of individual expression./"
http://www.fpsmagazine.com/blog/2008/03/interview-with-akira-tochigi.php

The next time I go to Japan, I am planning to trawl through the archives 
for evidence of this screening event (flyers, / posters / ticket stubs) 
to see exactly how Norman McLaren's work was promoted and reviewed.  The 
puppet animation of Karel Zeman and Jiri Trnka came to Japan in the 
late1940s and were seen by Tadanari Okamoto and Kihachiro Kawamoto 
(inspiring both to become puppet animators themselves) and it is 
possible that the term animation was used at these screenings - which 
would explain the 1948 reference that Mark Nornes found.  In /Makers of 
Animation/ (1987), John Halas claims that Trnka even came to Tokyo to 
present /The Emporer's Nightingale/ (1948).

While the term "art animation" is a Japanese construction, I personally 
find it a much more apt description for the style of animation that it 
refers to.  Terms like "experimental" / "jikken" / avant garde come with 
a lot of additional baggage --- esp. the insinuation that these films 
are somehow obscure or difficult.  As the term "art animation" 
encompasses such a wide range of styles and methods, I feel it is 
appropriate because the one thing all the animators have in common is 
that they are primarily creating "art for art's sake" rather than for 
commercial purposes.

All the best, Cathy

Catherine Munroe Hotes
PhD in Film & Visual Culture (Exeter)
http://nishikataeiga.blogspot.com/