Inicio¦ Editorial ¦ Cine Japonés ¦ Chronology¦ Cronología ¦ Cine Asiático ¦ Festivales ¦ Artículos ¦ Glosario ¦ Enlaces¦ Noticias¦ News

Chronology of Japanese Cinema
1905

1905

March

The film economic boom created by the Russo-Japanese encouraged Yokota Shokai to build a processing laboratory in the Shinsenen district of Kyoto, in the south side of Nijo Castle. Pioneer cinematographer Tsuchiya Tsuneji (real name Tsuchiya Tsunekichi ) was signed on as a production engineer to duplicate film prints imported from France and develop Yokota's own shot footage. Until then any film processing or duplication had to be outsourced to companies like Osaka's Terada Seijiro Shoten or Tokyo's Tsurubuchi Gentoten. But very soon, frictions arose between Yokota's boss, Yokota Einosuke, and Tsuchiya who left the company to be replaced by his nephew Fukui Shigekazu (1) . In a conversation with film historian Tanaka Junichiro, Fukui stated his and his uncle's dislike for their work at Yokota due to the company's common practice of economizing on film by setting the camera speed at 7 or 8 frames per second resulting in an extremely poor picture quality of the finished product (Tanaka, p. 145). After a year and half, he also left Yokota to join the recently established M Pathe. His successor at Yokota was Ogawa Makita who served as cameraman on director Makino Shozo's film Honnoji Kassen (Battle of Honno-ji Temple).

Irie Yoshiro has examined the different camera and projection speeds in the silent era. He notes how the four pioneering production companies with studio, Yoshizawa Shoten, M. Pathe, Yokota Shoten, and Fukuhodo, had established standard speeds of their own before they merged into Nikkatsu in September 1912 (2). After the consolidation of Nikkatsu, its studio in Kyoto, Yokota's former Hokkedo studio completed in January 1912, resumed Yokota's filmmaking practice of shooting their kyu-geki (classical drama) at 8 fps, which persisted until the 1920s.

  1. In Komatsu Hiroshi's article Some Characteristics of Japanese Cinema before World Wide I , the name has been translated as Fukui Shigeichi, though appears as Fukui Shigekazu in the volume Nihon Eiga Jimei Jiten: Sutaffu-hen (Complete Dictionary of Movie Staff in Japan).
  2. Yokota Shoten's productions at the Nijo castle studio in Kyoto were photographed at 8ps around 1908. When the new Hokkedo studio was built in 1912, the company set up the camera speed between 14 fps and 8 fps. Around 1911, Fukuhodo increased the camera speed from 12~13 fps to 14~15 fps. Meanwhile, Yoshizawa Shoten chief cameraman Chiba Kichizo filmed at 12~14 fps at the slowest. According to M. Pathe's camera operator Taizumi Yasunao, before 1912, the standard speed was 12~13 fps, and 8fps when it was dark (Irie: 37).

Sources:
Shinsenen, Makino Project, Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University, 2000.
Nihon Eiga Jimei Jiten: Sutaffu-hen Dai 4 Shu (Complete Dictionary of Movie Staff in Japan, Volume 4), Nihon Eigashi Kenkyukai, Kagaku Shoin, 2005, p. 2212.
Irie, Yoshiro. Silent Japanese Films: What Was the Right Speed?, Journal of Film Preservation 65 (December 2002): 36-41.
Komatsu, Hiroshi. Some Characteristics of Japanese Cinema before World War I, in Reframing Japanese Cinema, Ed. Arthur Nolletti and David Desser, Indiana UP, 1992: 246.
Tanaka, Junichiro. Nihon Eiga Hattatsushi - (1), Katsudo Shashin Jidai, Chuo Koronsha, Tokyo, 1980.

Yokota Einosuke
(1872-1943)

22 October

At a time when Japanese films composed almost entirely of single and static shots were the rule, and virtually continued to be so for approximately another decade, Yoshizawa Shoten's cameraman Chiba Kichizo (1) produced what is arguably the first moving, hand-held, camera shot in Japanese cinema history. This took place during the filming of the victory parade to celebrate the triumphal return of war hero Admiral Togo Heihachiro held in Tokyo on 22 October 1905. Film historian Sato Tadao claims that Chiba even climbed a lamp post to take an overhead shot, again possibly the first in Japanese film history, of the crowds (Sato, 119). Years later, cameraman Edamasa Yoshiro, in a conversation with film historian Tanaka Junichiro, described how Chiba, his mentor at Yoshizawa Shoten, dismounted his lightweight Gaumont camera from its tripod and placed it on his shoulder to shoot the parade. Also at the same event, Edamasa continues, Chiba, holding the camera with both hands, began filming as he made his way through the lines of people while Edamasa, walking by his side, cranked the camera (Tanaka, 132).

  1. In Komatsu Hiroshi's article Some Characteristics of Japanese Cinema before World Wide I, the name has been mistakenly translated as Chiba Yoshizo and the shooting of the reportage film has been awkwardly dated to December. The film would not seemingly be released until January 1906 with the title Giyu Katsudo Shashin (Moving Picture of Heroism), which also included Actuality of the Triumphal Return of Field Marshall Oyama in Tokyo (Oyama Gensui Ika Tokyo e Gaisen no Jikkyo) and Actuality of Commander-in-Chief of Britain's China Squadron Admiral Noel Entering the Capital (Eigoku Shina Kantai Sireichokan Noeru Taisho Nyukyo Toji no Jikkyo) (Tanikawa, 28).

Sources:
Komatsu, Hiroshi. Some Characteristics of Japanese Cinema before World War I, in Reframing Japanese Cinema, Ed. Arthur Nolletti and David Desser, Indiana UP, 1992: 242.
Sato, Tadao. Nihon Eigashi , Volume 1, Iwanami Shoten, 1995.
Tanaka, Junichiro. Nihon Eiga Hattatsushi - (1)Katsudo Shashin Jidai, Chuo Koronsha, Tokyo, 1980.
Tanikawa, Yoshio. Nenpyo Eiga 100-Nenshi, Futosha, 1993.

The Triumphal Return of Admiral Togo
Back to Chronology
©EigaNove (Joaquín da Silva)
Last update: 27/9/2015