In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

4 Development of Japanese Animation up to the End of the Second World War The various countries of the world are perhaps aware that our country is proud of her old civilization of two thousand six hundred years and is at the same time showing brilliantly swift progress in modern civilization, but it is a matter for regret that, due to the peculiar character of our language, customs, etc., the opportunities of having them made accurately known in foreign countries are lacking. With regard to the motion pictures of Japan, too, notwithstanding they can be compared with those of other countries so far as skill and efficiency of production are concerned, it is exceedingly regrettable that for the same reason the opportunities of having them presented and enjoyed in foreign countries are lacking. However, at the present time, the trend of sending them abroad has at last developed, and we believe that at no distant date in the future they will become a topic in the world market. Kokusai Eiga Kyōkai (International Cinema Association of Japan, 1937)1 It really did not take long for this country in the Far East to find its film image, which was “a topic in the world market.” While the 1937 Year Book does not place all emphasis on the medium of animation (others that were categorically discussed in detail include the fictional live-action films, documentaries, and news-report films), which was only classified as “cartoon” under the “Documentary Film” category, it shows that the medium had not been neglected at the time when the country tried to develop its motion picture industry. Today, global commercial animation producers, well-known independent animation directors, “wannabe” animation investors, and in-progress nationalistic industry builders such as those in China, Taiwan, and South Korea, may be envious and are inspired by the international awards upon which anime has been bestowed in recent years.2 It is true that the success of the Japanese story cannot be measured merely by the state’s initial financial support and Frames of Anime 60 sustainment. The private sector and the populace at large play equally significant roles in nurturing the growth of the medium as a whole. This chapter discusses and charts the development and the rise of Japanese animation in the twentieth century, and argues that the “exhibiting and performing” subject persevered despite wartime difficulties and the lack of initial technical know-how. Beginnings of Japanese Animation Early years and continuous growth G. Bendazzi notes in his monumental book, Cartoons: One Hundred Years of Cinema Animation, that soon after the introduction ofAmerican cartoons on Japanese cinema screens, “around 1910, some local artists wanted to try their own skills as animators” (1994: 103). Taiwanese filmmaker and scholar Fan Jian-you (1997: 115) also points out that, besides the American cartoons, it was France’s first animation film Fantasmagorie (1908) by Émile Cohl, with its emphasis on graphical changes, that made the Japanese realize the potential of “animating pictures on screen,” or dōga, written in kanji. However, Yamaguchi and Watanabe (1977) and Tsugata (2004) are of the view that, from a Japanese perspective, the new medium is merely an old art form and that the Japanese are already familiar with it. The medium is simply a form of “lines” (sen) and “pictures” (e) that move and in the past it had already been incorporated into utsushi-e and other native techniques of art drawing. Film Studies scholar Sano Akiko (2006: 100) writes that during that period the Japanese were exposed to different kinds of European animation, for example, the works of Oskar Fischinger, Lotte Reiniger, and Ladislas Starewich. As a result, animation was also addressed as zenei eiga (avant garde film), kyoiku eiga (education film), ongaku eiga (music film), and bunka eiga (culture film). The founding pioneers of Japanese animation were Shimokawa Oūten (1886– 1970), Kōuchi Junichi (1892–1973), and Kitayama Seitarō (1888–1945). Each personally completed his first animated film in 1917. Shimokawa was a satirist cartoonist, Kouchi was a political cartoonist, and Kitayama was an artist trained in the Western tradition. Although coincidentally they completed their first animation films around the same time, each experimented and created on his own, working according to his own artistic instincts. The contributions of the trio, including those of their future apprentices and disciples, went on to propel the development of Japanese animation. For example, Kitayama managed to persuade Nikkatsu Film Company (one of the earliest film companies in...

Share