Imokawa Mukuzo Genkanban no Maki
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| The Story of the Concierge Mukuzo Imokawa | |
| 芋川椋三玄関番の巻 or 芋川椋三玄関番之巻 (Imokawa Mukuzō Genkanban no Maki) | |
|---|---|
| Anime | |
| Directed by | Hekoten/Oten Shimokawa |
| Studio | Tenkatsu |
| Released | January 1917 |
The Story of the Concierge Mukuzo Imokawa (芋川椋三玄関番の巻 or 芋川椋三玄関番之巻, Imokawa Mukuzō Genkanban no Maki) is the first professional Japanese animation film ever made.[1][dead link] It was made by Ōten Shimokawa in 1917.
Backgrounds
In April 1914, French animation Fantasmagorie by Émile Cohl was screened under the title Dekobo's new sketch book (凸坊の新画帳, Dekobō no Shin-gachō). This seems to be the first drawn-animation film screened in Japan. (There were other animated films screened earlier.)
Japanese movie productions inspired by this film, and started studying animation techniques. In 1915, Nikkatsu production started studying animation with Seitaro Kitayama (北山清太郎, Kitayama Seitarō), a painter. In the next year, Tenkatsu, or Tennen-shoku Katsudō Shashin Kabushiki Gaisha ("Natural Color Moving Picture Company"), started studying with a manga artist Hekoten/Oten Shimokawa. Kobayashi Shōkai started their production with a manga artist Junichi Kouchi (幸内純一, Kōuchi Jun'ichi).
Among these three productions, Tenkatsu film The Story of the Concierge Mukuzo Imokawa, directed by Shimokawa, came out first, completed in January 1917. It was screened a few times on movie theaters by the production. However, it is said the animation quality of the film was so poor that even Shimokawa himself was disappointed.
Four months later, in May, 1917, Nikkatsu's Battle of a Monkey and a Crab (猿蟹合戦, Sarukani Gassen), directed by Kitayama, was released. In the next month, Kobayashi Shōkai's Hekonai Hanawa's Great Sword (塙凹内名刀之巻, Hanawa Hekonai Meitō no Maki), directed by Kōuchi was also screened.
Contents
Because there are no films or photographs left now, exact contents or animation techniques are unknown. Some speculate Shimokawa drew pictures with a chalk on a blackboard, and when he wanted to move a character's hand, he only redrew a hand. Another possibility is that he printed backgrounds on a white paper, and drew characters with white paints.
Mukuzo Imokawa was a manga character that Shimokawa used in his manga.
"The oldest anime" title challenged
In July 2005, an old animation film was found in Kyoto. This undated 3 seconds film, plainly titled Moving Picture (活動写真, Katsudō Shashin), has been speculated to be as much as 10 years older than Mukuzo Imokawa. This supposedly older anime is assumed to have been made for private viewing. Therefore, as a professional commercial anime, Mukuzo Imokawa still seems to hold the title of "the first".