Ancient Japanese anime lost, now found
By Gavin J. Blair
TOKYO (Hollywood Reporter) - Copies of two of Japan's oldest animated films, thought to have been lost forever, were found in Osaka and have been digitally restored at the National Film Center of Modern Art in Tokyo.
The two films, "Namakura Katana" (The Fine Sword) and "Urashima Taro," will be shown alongside 94 other old and rediscovered movies at a film festival titled "Hakutsu sareta Eiga tachi (Unearthed Films) -- 2008," scheduled to run at the film center in April.
"Namakura Katana," the story of a samurai duped into buying a blunt sword, was drawn by Junichi Kouchi and released in June 1917 by the Kobayashi Shokai production company.
"Urashima Taro," a version of a classic Japanese fairy tale, was illustrated by Seitaro Kitayama, first seen in February 1918 and produced by Nikkatsu.
The films were discovered in a second-hand shop in July by Natsuki Matsumoto, a lecturer at Musashino Art University. The animated Japanese film previously thought to be the oldest in existence was released in August 1918.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/filmNews/idUSN2728807920080328
Japan finds films by early "anime" pioneers
TOKYO (Reuters) - 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)
Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/filmNews/idUST23069120080328
