Momotaro the Undefeated (日本一桃太郎 Nihon-ichi Momotarō) [Sanae Yamamoto, 1928]

Momotaro the Undefeated (日本一桃太郎 Nihon-ichi Momotarō) is an early Japanese animated film from 1928 directed by Sanae Yamamoto.

Tairiki Taro no Mucha Shugyo (Mighty Taro's Reckless Training) - [Yoshitaro Kataoka] - [1928]

Mighty Taro's Reckless Training (大力太郎の無茶修行 Tairiki Tarō no Mucha Shugyō^?) is an early Japanese animated film from 1928 that was directed by Yoshitaro Kataoka.

Tairiki Taro no Mucha Shugyo Mighty Taro's Reckless Training

1928 Original Soundtrack

Kobu-Tori - The Stolen Lump (Yasuji Murata) - [1929]

In Kobu-Tori, an old man with a lump growing on his face takes refuge in a hollow tree during a thunderstorm.  When he awakens, he finds the forest populated by mythic creatures.  He dances with the sprites and as a reward, the creatures remove his deformity.  Back in the village, he tells another man who has a similar growth on his face?  Will the creatures bestow the same boon upon this other man? 

Kobu-tori The Stolen Lump

1929 Original Soundtrack Production Company: Yokohama Cinema Drawings: Yasuji Murata Script & original story: Chuzo Aochi Cinematograher: Yukikiyo Ueno

Oira no Yaku - Our Baseball Match (Yasuji Murata) - [1931]

Oira no Yaku (“La nostra partita di baseball”) è del 1931 e mostra dei conigli giocare contro dei tanuki (creature del folklore giapponese simili a procioni). Il corto è una commedia intrisa di umorismo slapstick raccontata in modo elegante, con semplici linee pulite. Come per la maggior parte dei film muti giapponesi, nei pressi dello schermo era posizionato un narratore (detto benshi) che raccontava ciò che veniva proiettato. Tra l’altro, questo ruolo era stato ricoperto anche dal fratello di Akira Kurosawa, che in seguito si suicidò quando, con l’avvento del sonoro, la narrazione dal vivo non fu più necessaria.

Oira no Yakyu Our Baseball Match

1931 Benshi narration: Midori Sawato Production Company: Yokohama Cinema Director and drawings: Yasuji Murata Script & original story: Chuzo Aochi

Yasuji Murata (村田安司 Murata Yasuji, 24 January 1896 – 2 November 1966) was a pioneering animator who helped develop the art of anime in Japan. Studying the animation techniques of Sanae Yamamoto,^[1] Murata produced dozens of mostly educational films at the Yokohama Cinema studio featuring such characters as Momotarō and Norakuro. Along with Noburō Ōfuji, he was renowned as a master of cutout animation.^[2] Among his students were such animators as Yoshitarō Kataoka.

Selected filmography

• Dōbutsu Orinpikku taikai, 1928 [Animal Olympics]
• Tarō-san no kisha, 1929 [Taro's Train]
• Saru Masamune, 1930 [The Monkey Masamune]
• Oira no yakyū, 1930
• Sora no Momotarō, 1931
• Norakuro gochō, 1934

External links

• Yasuji Murata at the Internet Movie Database
• Murata Yasuji at the Japanese Movie Database (Japanese)

Katsudō Shashin (Matsumoto fragment), the oldest work of animation in Japan [between 1907 and 1911]

Katsudō Shashin (活動写真, Moving Picture) or the Matsumoto fragment refer to a Japanese animated film speculated to be the oldest work of animation in Japan. Its creator is unknown; evidence suggests it was made sometime between 1907 and 1911, possibly predating the earliest displays of Western animation in Japan. It was discovered in a home projector in Kyoto in 2005.

The three-second film depicts a boy who writes "活動写真" (katsudō shashin, or "moving picture"), removes his hat, and waves. The frames were stencilledin red and black using a device for making magic lantern slides, and the filmstrip was fastened in a loop for continuous play.

The film consists of a series of cartoon images on fifty frames of a celluloid strip and lasts three seconds at sixteen frames per second. It depicts a young boy in a sailor suit who writes the kanji characters "活動写真" (katsudō shashin, or "moving picture"), then turns towards the viewer, removes his hat, and offers a salute.

Unlike in traditional animation, the frames were not produced by photographing the images, but rather were impressed directly onto film using a stencil. This was done with a kappa-ban, a device designed for stencilling magic lantern slides. The images were in red and black on a strip of 35 mm film whose ends were fastened in a loop for continuous viewing.

UGOKIE-KO-RI-NO-TATEHIKI [1933] - Ikuo Oishi

UGOKIE-KO-RI-NO-TATEHIKI(1933)

(Moving picture -Fox and Asian racoon's cheats each other)

Director: Ikuo Oishi

In the temple that became ruins, the fox that disguises as the samurai does the fight of magic with Asian racoon's parent and child.

It seems that it was influenced from the style of Max Fleischer's Cartoon.

http://www.n-eigashinsha.jp/

Momotarō: Umi no Shinpei (Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors) - Mitsuyo Seo [1945]

First feature length animated film from Japan. Released in March 1945. Directed by Mitsuyo Seo.

Momotarō: Umi no Shinpei (桃太郎 海の神兵, lit. Momotarou: God Warriors of the Sea or Momotaro, Sacred Sailors) is the first Japanese feature-lengthanimated film. It was directed by Mitsuyo Seo, who was ordered to make apropaganda film for World War II by the Japanese Naval Ministry. Shochiku Moving Picture Laboratory shot the 74-minute film in 1944 and screened it on April 12, 1945. It is a sequel to Momotarō no Umiwashi, a 37-minute film released in 1943 by the same director. It is black and white.^[4]

In English, the film is known as Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors.

After completing naval training, a bear cub, a monkey, a pheasant, and a puppy say goodbye to their families. While they are preoccupied, the monkey's younger brother falls into a river while chasing the monkey's cap and is carried towards a waterfall. The dog and the monkey work together to save the child just before he is swept downstream. A time skip occurs and Japanese forces are seen clearing a forest and constructing an air base in a Pacific island with the help of the jungle animals. A plane lands in the airstrip and from inside emerges Momotaro, depicted as a General, together with the bear, monkey, dog and pheasant, who by this point have became high-ranking officials. The subsequent scenes show the jungle animals being taught the alphabet via singing, washing clothes, given military training, and loading weapons in warplanes. The animal residents of the island are shown as simple primitives who are star struck by the glamorous and advanced Japanese animals.

A narration of the story of how the island of Celebes was acquired by the Dutch East Indian Company follows and it is revealed that the Japanese are attempting to invade it. The monkey, dog and bear cub become parachute jumpers while the pheasant becomes a pilot. The paratroopers ambush a halftrack and hastily invade a British fort, causing the unprepared British soldiers to panic and flee. Momotaro, the monkey and the puppy are then shown negotiating with three British officials and after a brief argument, the British agree to surrender Celebes and the surrounding islands to Japanese rule in exchange for freedom. A brief epilogue shows children playing at parachuting onto continental America outlined on the ground. Plainly the United States is to be the target of their generation.

There are some musical scenes. Of note is The Song of AIUEO (アイウエオの歌 AIUEO no Uta), a scene where Japanese soldiers teach local animals how to speak.

The Naval Ministry previously showed Seo Fantasia, a 1940 Disney film. Inspired by this, Seo tried to give dreams to children, as well as to instill the hope for peace, just as he did in the prequel movie, Momotaro's Sea Eagles.

For a long time, the film was presumed to have been confiscated and burnt by the American occupation. However, a negative copy of the film was found in Shochiku's Ofuna warehouse in 1983 and was re-released in 1984. A reproduced movie was later screened and the VHS package is now available in Japan.

The Song of AIUEO (アイウエオの歌 AIUEO no Uta) is famous for being given a homage in the series Kimba the White Lion (ジャングル大帝 Janguru Taitei) by Osamu Tezuka. Tezuka had seen the film in April 1945. He later said that he was moved to tears by the movie's hints of dreams and hopes, hidden under the appearance of war propaganda.

• Production: Shochiku Moving Picture Laboratory
• Auspices: Naval Ministry of Japan
• Movie organization: Kiichiro Kumaki
• Script, Choreography, and Direction: Mitsuyo Seo
• Shadow play: Kenzo Masaoka
• Musical direction: Yuji Koseki
• Lyrics: Hachiro Sato
• Film Editor: Pauvre Pierrot
• Distributed by Scalera Film Coporation Inc.

Evil Mickey attacks Japan (Omocha-Bako Series, Dai-3-Wa: Ehon 1936) - A 1936 japanese animation

Nel 1936 venne prodotto questo film di propaganda anti-americana che trasforma in personaggi cattivi alcuni tipici "characters" buoni dei cartoons a stelle e strisce.

"Toy Box Series, Episode 3: Picture Book 1936" (Omocha-Bako Series, Dai-3-Wa: Ehon 1936) is a 1934 propaganda-ish film about a future (1936) conflict started by a swarm of evil, bat-riding Mickey Mouse clones that descend on a tiny island inhabited by peace-loving dolls and cats (including a Felix lookalike). Overwhelmed by the attack, the desperate island residents bang on the cover of a large picture book to enlist the help of Momotaro, Urashima Taro (the Japanese version of Rip Van Winkle), and other traditional fairy tale heroes and characters. After Urashima Taro uses his famous "mystery box" to turn the big Mickey into a decrepit old fogey, Hanasaka Jiisan makes the cherry trees bloom and the cats and dolls celebrate by dancing to "Tokyo Ondo" (an old Japanese folk song). The soundtrack also includes renditions of the Momotaro song and Gunkan March("Warship March"), a song that is nowadays typically played at pachinko parlors.