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Chronology of Japanese Cinema
1909

Local film production finally takes off this year. Komatsu Hiroshi estimates that almost 200 films were made compared to less than 50 produced the previous year (Komatsu, 1992 : 249). According to him, Yoshizawa Shoten produced 31 of those 200 while Yokota and M Pathe 25 and 39 respectively. Another 12 were made by unknown movie producers and the remaining cannot be confirmed whether they were Japanese or foreign works. Similarly, it cannot be confirmed how Komatsu arrives at these figures as, a common trait in Japanese "scholarship", he doesn't provide any sources. Meanwhile, the publication Nihon Gekieiga Somokuroku - Meiji 32-nen kara Showa 20-nen made lists 186 films for this year (53 by Yoshizawa, 30 by Yokota and 77 by M Pathe) (Shitsu and Nagata, 2008 : 906) while the Japanese Movie Database adds an extra 10 to that list and attributes 34 to Yoshizawa, 31 to Yokota and 59 to M Pathe (accessed on 7 March 2023)

Among these films it is worth mentioning a few works. First, Asagao Nikki (The Diary of a Morning Glory, 8 minutes, released on June 15), produced by M Pathe, and Sakurada Chizome no Yuki (Snow Stained with Blood at the Sakurada Gate, 3'12", released on July 13) produced by Yoshizawa Shoten (more about them later). These are to my knowledge the only films, rather fragments of the original films, from 1909 that have survived to our day, both preserved at Waseda University Theatre Museum. Also significant are Kageboshi, released on August 8 by M Pathe, a 2,500 feet long production when most films didn't exceed one reel in length (Komatsu : 250). Yamato Zakura, translated in Komatsu's as Nihon Sakura, was released by Pathe on May 23 and was also over 2000 feet long and an early attempt to break a scene into several shots (Komatsu : 253) (Shitsu and Nagata : 906). Shin Hototogisu, released on June 25 again by M Pathe, is said to be the first Japanese movie experimenting with flashbacks (Komatsu : 254). Yakino no Kigisu, released on May 27, or May 2 (Shitsu and Nagata : 1188), by Yoshizawa Shoten was composed of eight scenes showing the kidnapping of a child and featuring an outdoor climatic chase scene between the kidnapper and a policeman. Finally, we shouldn't forget the release of, either on December 1st or 2nd, Goban Tadanobu (Tadanobu the Fox) where Onoe Matsunosuke, considered the first star in Japanese cinema history, makes his first screen appearance. Half a year earlier, on June 24, had also seen the publication of the first film magazine in the country, Katsudo Shashinkai.

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.
Shitsu, Akio and Nagata, Tetsuro, Nihon Gekieiga Somokuroku - Meiji 32-nen kara Showa 20-nen made, Nichigai Association, 2008.

7 January

Goban Tadanobu Yoshinoyama Setchu no Kakuto, or simply Goban Tadanobu Yoshinoyama, was screened on this day at Asakusa's Taishokan accompanied by narimono (1) and kageserifu (2). It was theater star Nakamura Kasen and her all-female troupe's fourth film work of the many they performed for M Pathe Shokai between 1908 and 1912. Although shot by Ozawa Kaku, M Pathe's owner Umeya Shokichi is believed to have also operated the camera (Shitsu and Nagata 2008: 498). The film was based on a popular episode, later inspiring ukiyo prints and kabuki plays, involving Heian period samurai Sato Tadanobu who is attacked while playing a game of go and uses the board to fend off his enemies. This story would also be the basis for the first film collaboration between director Makino Shozo and Japan's first movie star Onoe Matsunosuke released later in December.

Also on this day the first film version of the best-seller Hototogisu (The Cuckoo, 1899)(3) written by Tokutomi Kenjiro (pen name Roka) was released by Yoshizawa Shoten at Asakusa's Denkikan. Months later a new version featuring arguably the first use of flashbacks in Japanese cinema history would also be made, this time, by M Pathe Shokai. Hototogisu was the first example (4) of katei shosetsu (domestic novels), a subgenre of Meiji literature which presented family tragedies, in particular, women fighting against the injustices of the still Japanese feudal system.

1. Musical accompaniment and sound effects usually used in kabuki performances.
2. A rensageki, literally "linked theatre" it was a hybrid performance genre that mixed film and live performance, practice in which actors speak lines of dialogue behind the screen.
3. Serialized in the kokumin shimbun (newspaper) between November 1898 and May 1899, Hototogisu was republished as a book by Minyusha Press in 1900.
4. It was also arguably the first modern Japanese novel to be translated into multiple languages, fifteen from 1904 to 1918.

Sources:
Lavelle, Isabelle, Tokutomi Kenjiro's Hototogisu: A Worldwide Japanese Best-Seller In The Early Twentieth Century? - A Comparative Study of the English and French Translations, Transcommunication, Vol.3-1, Spring 2016, Graduate School of International Culture and Communication Studies.
Shitsu, Akio and Nagata, Tetsuro, Nihon Gekieiga Somokuroku - Meiji 32-nen kara Showa 20-nen made, Nichigai Association, 2008.
Tanaka, Junichiro, Nihon Eiga Hattatsushi - (1), Katsudo Shashin Jidai, Chuo Koronsha, Tokyo, 1980, page 160.

15 January

Hanakawado Banzuiin no Chobei was produced by Yokota Shokai and screened at Asakusa's Fujikan. It was based on the last scene of the sewamono (1) kabuki play Kiwametsuki Banzui Chobei (The Renowned Banzui Chobei) written by Kawatake Mokuami and first performed in 1881. In this play, Banzui Chobei (2), a resident of Asakusa's Hanakawado neighbourhood, is the otokodate (3) leader of a band of machi-yakko (4) which confronts the hatamoto-yakko (5) led by Mizuno Jurozaemon in seeking control of Asakusa's markets. The film depicts the final scene in which Banzui Chobei, after being invited to a banquet at Jurozaemon's mansion, is killed in the bathroom.

1. A domestic drama about ordinary people, especially of the Edo period.
2. Real name Banzuiin Chobei (1622-1657). His grave is located at Genku-ji Temple in Taito Ward, Tokyo.
3. A Robin Hood-like figure who helps the weak and fights the strong.
4. Gang members who wore flamboyant clothing and styled themselves as chivalrous men fighting against the pro-shogunate hatamoto-yakko gangs during the Edo period. They are believed to be the predecessors of the modern yakuza.
5. Gangs of samurai directly connected to the shogunate.

Sources:
Naritaya, Kiwametsuki Banzui Chobei ("The Renowned Banzui Chobei")
Shitsu, Akio and Nagata, Tetsuro, Nihon Gekieiga Somokuroku - Meiji 32-nen kara Showa 20-nen made, Nichigai Association, 2008, p. 968.

3 February

After four productions (1) the partnership between M Pathe and Nakamura Kasen and her all female kabuki troupe Musume Bidan (Group of Young Beauties) planned on making a version of the classic kabuki play Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura (Yoshitsune and the Thousand Cherry Trees) to be released during the New Year's festivities. Shooting was done at the popular Ozankaku (also known Hookaku) in Asakusa's Hanayashiki, Japan's first amusement park, wrapping up on December 28. However the film used in a snow scene was not properly exposed so the work was never released. For their next project, based on another kabuki play Tsubosaka Reigen Ki (The Miracle at Tsubosaka Temple), and to avoid any more technical difficulties, M Pathe decided to hire Tsurubuchi Gentoten's camera operator Nishikawa Genichiro (2) who shot it in three days. The film premiered at Asakusa's Taishokan and become a massive hit playing there for 40 consecutive days.

Tsubosaka Reigen Ki was originally written for the Bunraku puppet theater in the Meiji Period. If follows the story of the blind samisen musician Sawaichi and his wife Osato, played by Nakamura Kasen in the film version, who every night visits the Tsubosaka Temple (3) to pray to Kannon, goddess of mercy, for a cure to her husband's blindness. Sawaichi, believing that his wife was being unfaithful, commits suicide by throwing himself into a river. Hearing of her husband's death Osato also decides to take her one life. It is then that Kannon appears and performs a miracle bringing the faithful couple back to life.

1. These were Soga Kyodai Kariba no Akebono, Taiko-ki Judanme: Amagasaki no Dan, Sendai Hagi and Nozakimura.
2. Nishikawa Genichiro had already shot M Pathe's first production Soga Kyodai Kariba no Akebono the year before. After Tsubosaka Reigen Ki he would continue working for M Pathe on several more of its productions.
3. Tsubosaka Temple, also known as Minami Hokkeji Temple, is a temple of the Shingon sect located in Takaichi District, Nara, which is said to have been established in 711. A Juichimen Senju Kannon, an eleven-faced and thousand-armed Kannon, statue held at the temple is believed to cure eye diseases.

Sources:
Kinema Jumpo, Nihon Eiga Haiyu Zenshu: Joyu-hen, No 801, 31 December 1980, p.487.
Shitsu, Akio and Nagata, Tetsuro, Nihon Gekieiga Somokuroku - Meiji 32-nen kara Showa 20-nen made, Nichigai Association, 2008, p. 798.

1 March

Makino Shozo's second film, Sugawara Tenjin-ki, an adaptation of the famous Kurumabiki scene from the kabuki play Sugawara Denju Teranai Kagami (Sugawara and the Secrets of Calligraphy), and his fourth, Akegarasu Yume no Awayuki, although both shot in fall the previous year, are released simultaneously on this date at Asakusa's Fujikan. Sugawara no Michizane was a poet/politician of the Heian Period, who fell from grace and died in exile. It was said that his vengeful ghost was the cause of subsequent plagues, natural disasters and deaths so the Kitano Tenmangu shrine, where the film Sugawara Tenjin-ki was actually shot, was erected in Kyoto to appease his angry spirit. This 400 feet movie was shot by Ogawa Makita and starred Ichikawa Takizo in the role of Matsuomaru, Ichikawa Shinshiro as Umeomaru, Otani Tomosaburo as Sugiomaru and Onoe Baikyo, arguably her first movie role, as Sakuramaru. Baikyo would later be known as Bessho Masue working again for Makino and Nikkatsu (Matsuura, 1982 : 66).

Sources:
Matsuura, Kozo, Nihon Eiga-shi Taikan: Eiga Torai kara Gendai made 86-nenkan no Kiroku, Bunka Shuppan Kyoku, 1982.
Shitsu, Akio and Nagata, Tetsuro, Nihon Gekieiga Somokuroku - Meiji 32-nen kara Showa 20-nen made, Nichigai Association, 2008, p. 38 (entry on Akegarasu Yume no Awayuki) and 662 (entry on Sugawara Tenjin-ki.
Yoshida, Chieo, Mo Hitotsu no Eiga-shi: Benshi no Jidai, Tokyo: Jiji Tsushinsha, 1978, p. 61.

1 March

Sofuren (1) is an adaptation of a popular shinpa theater play based on a novel of the same title by Watanabe Katei (1884-1926). Sofuren first appeared serialized in the Yomiuri newspaper in 1903 between June 23 to September 4. It was printed as a book a year later and adapted to the stage soon after with onnagata Kawai Takeo and Ii Yoho, leading actors of the shinpa theatre, in the roles of Masako and Iwasaki respectively. Although both the book and play were relativity popular, they didn't achieve the success of other katei shosetsu (domestic novel), and their subsequent drama adaptations, like Nakamura Shunu's Ichijiku, Kikuchi Yuho's Ono ga Tsumi or Tokutomi Roka's Hototogisu. Released at Asakusa's Sanyu-kan, this 1909 film version, arguably the first, was produced by Yoshizawa Shoten with Chiba Kichizo behind the camera and Nakano Nobuchika and Shibata Zentaro in the main roles. In tragic katei shosetsu fashion, Sofuren tells the story of Masako, a young woman from the burakumin outcast community who is adopted by Koizumi Shuzo, a relative navy officer. Hiding her origins, Masako gets engaged to Iwasaki Kazuhiko, the head of a Kyoto wealthy family but Shuzo requests money from her and her father to keep her burakumin background secret.

1. Sofuren or Soburen (yearning for her husband, missing my love) originated as Kyogen, a comic interlude usually performed between two No plays while the title is actually a famous saibara, Japanese folk songs or waka arranged in Togaku (Chinese-style) music style. It is said that originally the name was written with three Chinese characters, of which the first two meant 'grand minister' and the third, 'lotus', so named because Minister Wang Hsian in whose garden grew lotus loved music. Later the name came to be written with different characters meaning "to think of" (so), one's "husband" (bu) and "to pine for" (ren) him (Shimazaki, 1998 :113). It is also mentioned in Heike Monogatari Kogo no Tsubone chapter.


Sources:
Andersson, Rene, Burakumin and Shimazaki Toson's Hakai: Images of Discrimination in Modern Japanese Literature, Dept. of East Asian Languages, Lund University, 2000, p. 107.
Shimazaki, Chifumi, Troubled Souls: From Japanese Noh Plays of the Fourth Group: Parallel Translations with Running Commentary, Cornell East Asia Series, 95, 1998, p. 113.
Shitsu, Akio and Nagata, Tetsuro, Nihon Gekieiga Somokuroku - Meiji 32-nen kara Showa 20-nen made, Nichigai Association, 2008, p. 702.
Tojo, Shoko, Dokusha wa Deau - Katei Shosetsu [Sofuren] to Shinpageki [Sofuren] Nihon Eiga-shi Taikan: Eiga Torai kara Gendai made 86-nenkan no Kiroku, Nihon Daigaku Daigakuin Kokubungaku Senko Ronshu, 2004, Volume 1, p.173-196.

10 March

The same team (1) that brought to the screen a few days earlier Sofuren produces Chikyodai (Foster Sisters), another film adaptation, perhaps its first (screened at Asakusa's Denki-kan (2)), of a popular, considerably more so than Sofuren, katei shosetsu (3) and shinpa play. Chikyodai was written in 1903 by Kikuchi Yuko (4), who four years earlier had achieved a tremendous success with Ono ga Tsumi (My Sin), adapted countless times for the silver screen. As for Chikyodai, at least 16 film versions were made before the Second World War. Here is a synopsis for the 1932's version produced by Shokichu and directed by Nomura Hotei: "Fusae and Kimie were raised as foster sisters. The younger one, Fusae, turns out to be the marquis' real daughter. The older sister, Kimie, disguises herself as Fusae, goes to the marquis' household as their daughter, and manages to marry the heir, who actually loves Fusae. However, Kimie's former lover, with whom Kimie had once made a vow to spend their life together, destroys Kimie's marriage and life out of jealousy." (Fumiko Tsuneishi)

1. Producer Yoshizawa Shoten, cameraman Chiba Kichizo and actor Nakano Nobuchika and his troupe made during this period numerous adaptations of shinpa plays based on katei shosetsu such as Ono ga Tsumi (11 November 1908), Yurei Kagami (10 December 1908), Sofuren (1 March 1909), Chikyodai (10 March 1909) and Hototogisu (21 June 1909) among others.
2. In fact the second Denkikan, adjacent to the original one, which opened on this day. The release here of Chikyodai served to advertise this new cinema designed to resemble Western theatres, particularly in its addition of a second floor for extra seating space and a box seat area. The establishment of a second Denkikan aimed to accommodate both well-off patrons, who had until then frequented the upmarket downtown theatres, in its more expensive seating area in the second floor and a quickly emerging new type of audience found among the lower classes. For more details see here.
3. The katei shosetsu, literally home novel but also translated as domestic novel, had its heyday at the beginning of the 20th century and "was one of the first forms of mass media fiction to be explicitly directed at a female readership" (Ito, 2002 : 339).
4. Chikyodai was serialized in the Osaka Mainichi Shinbun (newspaper) from August 24 to December 26, 1903. Keiko I. McDonald writes "Chikyodai (Foster sisters) was even more popular than My Sin. It was inspired by an English novel Dora Thorn by the now - forgotten Bertha Clay. Foster Sisters used a kind of Cinderella story to argue for the superiority of Christian morality over Confucianism as it applied to family matters in Meiji Japan. " (McDonald, 2016 : 5-6).

Sources:
Bernardi, Joanne, Writing in Light: The Silent Scenario and the Japanese Pure Film Movement, Wayne State University Press, 2001, p. 51.
Ito, Ken K., Class and Gender in a Meiji Family Romance: Kikuchi Yuho's Chikyodai, The Journal of Japanese Studies, Vol. 28, No. 2 (Summer, 2002), pp. 339-378.
McDonald, Keiko I., From Book to Screen: Modern Japanese Literature in Films, Taylor & Francis, 2016.
Shimazaki, Chifumi, Troubled Souls: From Japanese Noh Plays of the Fourth Group: Parallel Translations with Running Commentary, Cornell East Asia Series, 95, 1998, p. 113.
Shitsu, Akio and Nagata, Tetsuro, Nihon Gekieiga Somokuroku - Meiji 32-nen kara Showa 20-nen made, Nichigai Association, 2008, p. 758.
Tsuneishi, Fumiko, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto 2005: "La luce dell'Oriente / Light from the East Omaggio al cinema giapponese / Celebrating Japanese Cinema Shochiku 110 - Naruse 100" (accessed 4 January 2024)

10 March

Screening of Ataka, a Noh play adapted for kabuki as Kanjincho, at Asakusa's Denkikan starring Ichikawa Kumehara and directed by Murakami Mitsumaru, a camera operator who, along with Chiba Kichizo behind the camera in Ataka, had worked for Yoshizawa Shoten since the company's first adventures in documentary filmmaking. As Tanaka notes, at the time kabuki adaptations for the cinema were usually limited to just two of the play's most climatic scenes (Tanaka, 1980 : 139).

10 March

Released along Ataka, Chikyodai and Saichie Hime at Asakusa's Denkikan, Dochu Hizakure was another Yoshizawa Shoten's production based on the comic picaresque novel (kokkeibon) Tokaidochu Hizakurige, translated as Shank's Mare, written by Jippensha Ikku. Again, it was directed by Murakami Mitsumaru with Chiba Kichizo operating the camera. Nakamura Kangoro and Ichiwaka Ennosuke played the roles of Yajirobe and Kitahachi. Although Yoshizawa Shoten had built a film studio, first in Japan, in Tokyo's Meguro the previous year, as Tanaka observes, all the actors came mainly from the theatre world and were not exclusively attached to a particular film production company. Film shooting was only done in the morning as not to interfere with their stage work starting in the afternoon (Tanaka, 1980 : 139)

Sources:

Shitsu, Akio and Nagata, Tetsuro, Nihon Gekieiga Somokuroku - Meiji 32-nen kara Showa 20-nen made, Nichigai Association, 2008, p. 836.
Tanaka, Junichiro, Nihon Eiga Hattatsushi - (1), Katsudo Shashin Jidai, Chuo Koronsha, Tokyo, 1980.