History of anime
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The First Japanese Animation Films in 1917
In this research note I intend to discuss some aspects of the history of the earliest Japanese animation films for the cinema. The first task is to assemble from the literature a list of all such films shown in 1917. I will then introduce a hitherto unknown contemporary source on SHIMOKAWA Ōten’s 下川凹天Imokawa Mukuzō Genkanban no maki 芋川椋三玄関番の巻 (Imokawa Mukuzō – The Janitor) which has been widely, but apparently wrongly, considered to have been the first Japanese animation film, and look into the chronological order of Shimokawa’s films in the first half of 1917. In the third part I try to establish the animation techniques used in 1917, before looking more closely at two other contemporary Japanese sources with an American background. Based on an analysis of these texts I argue that at least two of the three pioneers of Japanese animation somewhat overstated their own ingenuity and the obstacles they had to overcome in developing these techniques respectively.
I. The animation films of 1917
There is, at least, no doubt about the i
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Oten Shimokawa (1892-1973, born in Okinawa), Jun-ichi Kouuchi (1886-1970, born in Okayama), and Seitaro Kitayama (1888-1945, born in Wakayama) are regarded as the three originators of animated film in Japan, each releasing works al around the same time in 1917. Shimokawa and Kouuchi were both originally cartoonists, but were then commissioned by film companies to produce animations. Shimokawa animated his own cartoon "Imokawa Mukuzo", but only produced about 5 works. Kouuchi produced around 15 works in all, including the Japanese period drama animation "Hanawa Hekonai, Meito no Maki (Hanawa Hekonai, Famous Swords, 1917)" and government propaganda films. Kitayama, on the other hand, was originally a painter and magazine editor. He developed an interest in the French and American animations he saw at the cinema, and independently sold his works to film companies. Unlike Shimokawa and Kouuchi, his works covered a broad spectrum of fields, including films based on old Japanese tales such as "Saru Kani Gassen (The Crab Gets Its Revenge on the Monkey,1917)"
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Ōten Shimokawa
COMIC ARTIST
1892 - 1973
Ōten Shimokawa
Ōten Shimokawa (or Hekoten Shimokawa) (下川凹天, Shimokawa Ōten, May 2, 1892 – May 26, 1973) was a Japanese artist, considered to be one of the founding artists and pioneers of anime. Little is known of his early personal life, other than that his family moved to the Tokyo area when he was nine years old. Read more on Wikipedia
Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Ōten Shimokawa has received more than 102,595 page views. His biography is available in 15 different languages on Wikipedia. Ōten Shimokawa is the 127th most popular comic artist, the 1,400th most popular biography from Japan and the 46th most popular Japanese Comic Artist.
Memorability Metrics
100k
Page Views (PV)
53.27
Historical Popularity Index (HPI)
15
Languages Editions (L)
3.91
Effective Languages (L*)
1.99
Coefficient of Variation (CV)
Among COMIC ARTISTS
Among comic artists, Ōten Shimokawa ranks 127 out of 226. Before him are Larry Lieber, Rudolph Dirks, Ken Akamatsu, François Bourgeon, Iginio Straffi, a
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