Katsud Shashin

fty frames of a celluloid strip and lasts three seconds at

sixteen frames per second.* [1] It depicts a young boy in
a sailor suit who writes the kanji characters ""
(katsud shashin, moving picture), then turns to the
viewer, removes his hat, and salutes.* [1] Katsud Shashin
is a provisional title for the lm, whose actual title is unknown.* [2]
Unlike in traditional animation, the frames were not produced by photographing the images, but rather were impressed onto lm using a stencil.* [3] This was done with a
kappa-ban,* [lower-alpha 1] a device for stencilling magic
lantern slides. The images were in red and black on a strip
A frame of the three-second Katsud Shashin, date and creator of 35 mm lm* [lower-alpha 2]* [4] whose ends were fasunknown
tened in a loop for continuous viewing.* [5]
Katsud Shashin (,moving picture), sometimes called the Matsumoto fragment, is a Japanese
animated lmstrip that is the oldest known work of
animation from Japan. Its creator is unknown. Evidence
suggests it was made before 1912, so it may predate the
earliest displays of Western animated lms in Japan. It
was discovered in a collection of lms and projectors in
Kyoto in 2005.

2 Background

Early printed animation lms for optical toys such as the

zoetrope predated projected lm animation. German toy
manufacturer Gebrder Bing presented a cinematograph
at a toy festival in Nuremberg in 1898; soon other toy
*
The three-second lmstrip depicts a boy who writes " manufacturers sold similar devices. [6] Live-action lms
", removes his hat, and waves. The frames were for these devices were expensive to make; possibly as
stencilled in red and black using a device for making early as 1898 animated lms for these devices were on
magic lantern slides, and the lmstrip was fastened in a sale,* and could be fastened in loops for continuous viewing. [7] Imports of these German devices appeared in
loop for continuous play.
Japan at least as early as 1904;* [8] lms for them likely
included animation loops.* [9]

Description

Japanese animated lms such as Jun'ichi Kuchi's Hanawa

Hekonai meit no maki began appearing in theatres in 1917.
Katsud Shashin

Projected lm technology arrived in Japan from the West

Katsud Shashin consists of a series of cartoon images on in 189697.* [10] The earliest display of foreign anima1

tion in Japanese theatres that can be dated with certainty is of the French animator mile Cohl's The Nipper's Transformations* [lower-alpha 3] (1911), which premired in Tokyo on 15 April 1912. Works by ten
Shimokawa, Seitar Kitayama, and Jun'ichi Kuchi in
1917 were the rst Japanese animated lms to reach theatre screens.* [11] The lms are lost, but a few have been
discovered in toy movie* [lower-alpha 4] versions for
viewing at home on hand-cranked projectors; the oldest to survive is Hanawa Hekonai meit no maki* [loweralpha 5] (1917), titled Namakura-gatana in its home version.* [12]

REFERENCES

4 See also

Media related to Katsud Shashin at Wikimedia

Commons

Cinema of Japan
History of animation
History of anime
List of rediscovered lms
List of anime by release date (pre-1939)

5 Notes
3

Rediscovery

[1]
kappa-ban; the printing process was called
kappa-zuri ()
[2] The lmstrip has since shrunk to 33.5 mm.* [2]

In December 2004, a secondhand dealer in Kyoto contacted Natsuki Matsumoto,* [lower-alpha 6]* [3] an expert
in iconography at the Osaka University of Arts.* [13] The
dealer had obtained a collection of lms and projectors
from an old Kyoto family, and Matsumoto arrived the
next month to fetch them.* [3] The collection included
three projectors, eleven 35 mm lms, and thirteen glass
magic lantern slides.* [3]
Matsumoto found Katsud Shashin in the collection,* [13]
the lmstrip was in poor condition.* [14] The collection
included three Western animated lmstrips;* [15] Katsud Shashin may have been made in imitation of such
examples of German or other Western animation.* [15]
Based on evidence such as the likely manufacture dates
of the projectors in the collection, Matsumoto and animation historian Nobuyuki Tsugata* [lower-alpha 7] determined the lm was most likely made in the late Meiji
period, which ended in 1912;* [lower-alpha 8]* [16] historian Frederick S. Litten has suggested c. 1907 as a
likely date,* [2] and that a production date before 1905
or after 1912 is unlikely.* [9] At the time, movie theatres were rare in Japan;* [5] evidence suggests Katsud
Shashin was mass-produced to be sold to wealthy owners
of home projectors.* [17] To Matsumoto, the relatively
poor quality and low-tech printing technique indicate it
was likely from a smaller company.* [9] The creator of
the lmstrip remains unknown.* [13]
The discovery was widely covered in Japanese media.* [3]
Given its speculated date of creation, the lm would
have been contemporary to or even have predated
early animated works by Cohl and the American animators J. Stuart Blackton and Winsor McCay. The newspaper Asahi Shimbun acknowledged the importance of
the discovery of Meiji-period animation, but expressed
reservations about placing the lm in the genealogy of
Japanese animation, and called itcontroversial that [Katsud Shashin] should even be called animation in the contemporary sense.* [14]

[3] French: Les Exploits de Feu Follet; Japanese:

Nipparu no Henkei
[4] gangu
[5] Hanawa Hekonai meit no maki,
Filmreel of Hanawa Hekonai's famous sword
[6] Matsumoto Natsuki, b. 1952
[7] Tsugata Nobuyuki, b. 1968
[8] The Meiji period lasted from 1868 to 1912.

6 References
[1] Anime News Network sta 2005.
[2] Litten 2014, p. 13.
[3] Matsumoto 2011, p. 98.
[4] Matsumoto 2011, p. 116.
[5] Asahi Shimbun sta 2005.
[6] Litten 2014, p. 9.
[7] Litten 2014, p. 10.
[8] Litten 2014, p. 14.
[9] Litten 2014, p. 15.
[10] Matsumoto 2011, p. 112.
[11] Litten 2013, p. 27.
[12] Matsumoto 2011, pp. 9697.
[13] Clements & McCarthy 2006, p. 169.
[14] Lpez 2012, p. 584.
[15] Litten 2014, p. 12.
[16] Matsumoto & Tsugata 2006, p. 101; Matsumoto 2011, p.
115.
[17] Matsumoto 2011, pp. 116117.

6.1

Works cited

Anime News Network sta (2005-08-07). Oldest

Anime Found. Anime News Network. Archived
from the original on 2007-02-02. Retrieved 201402-12.
Asahi Shimbun sta (2005-08-01). Nihon saiko?
Meiji jidai no anime rumu, Kyto de hakken

[Oldest in Japan? Meiji-period animated lm

discovered in Kyoto]. China People's Daily Online
(Japanese Edition) (in Japanese). Archived from the
original on 2007-10-11. Retrieved 2014-06-11.
Clements, Jonathan; McCarthy, Helen (2006). The
Anime Encyclopedia: A Guide to Japanese Animation Since 1917. Stone Bridge Press. ISBN 978-184576-500-2.
Litten, Frederick S. (2013). Shtai kenky nto:
Nihon no eigakan de jei sareta saisho no (kaigai)
animshon eiga ni tsuite

[On the Earliest (Foreign) Animation Shown in Japanese Cinemas]. The

Japanese Journal of Animation Studies (in Japanese)
15 (1A): 2732.
Litten, Frederick S. (2014-06-17).Japanese color
animation from ca. 1907 to 1945(PDF). Archived
from the original (PDF) on 2014-07-14. Retrieved
2014-06-18.
Lpez, Antonio (2012).A New Perspective on the
First Japanese Animation. Published proceedings
Cona (International Conference on Illustration and
Animation) 2930th Nov 2012. IPCA. pp. 579
586. ISBN 978-989-97567-6-2.
Matsumoto, Natsuki; Tsugata, Nobuyuki (2006).
Kokusan saik to kangaerareru animshon rumu
no hakken ni tsuite
[The
discovery of supposedly oldest Japanese animation
lms]. Eizgaku (in Japanese) (76): 86105. ISSN
0286-0279.
Matsumoto, Natsuki (2011). "
" [Home movie equipment from the
earliest days of lm in Japan]. In Iwamoto, Kenji.
Nihon eiga no tanj [Birth of
Japanese lm] (in Japanese). Shinwa-sha. pp. 95
128. ISBN 978-4-86405-029-6.

External links
Katsud Shashin at the Internet Movie Database

8 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

8.1

Text

Katsud Shashin Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katsud%C5%8D_Shashin?oldid=729461988 Contributors: Deb, Kaihsu,

FeanorStar7, Rsrikanth05, Crisco 1492, SmackBot, Gilliam, Cattus, Oceanh, Curly Turkey, TheFarix, Mika1h, Jac16888, Fabrictramp,
DrKay, Katharineamy, Pdcook, Hugo999, Ziglemoco, Oda Mari, Another Believer, Dank, MatthewVanitas, Addbot, Alandeus, Mps,
Legobot, Luckas-bot, Yobot, Extremepro, Knowledgekid87, Materialscientist, Ruby2010, Sock, Fortdj33, Cyn starchaser, Icarntspel, Jarodalien, KirtZJ, Mohamed CJ, AngusWOOF, Qetuth, BattyBot, ChrisGualtieri, Dexbot, Athomeinkobe, Shckwv, TFA Protector Bot, Taylor
Trescott, Monkbot, Landingdude13, Happyfacearmy, Guthix no more and Anonymous: 11

8.2

Images

File:Animation_disc.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Animation_disc.svg License: CC-BY-SA-3.0

Contributors: Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons. Original artist: Richtom80 at English Wikipedia
File:Anime_cell_1917.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/Anime_cell_1917.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: Original artist:
File:Commons-logo.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
File:Flag_of_Japan.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9e/Flag_of_Japan.svg License: PD Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
File:Katsud_Shashin.jpg
Source:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Katsud%C5%8D_Shashin.jpg
License:
Public domain Contributors:
http://pingmag.jp/jp/2007/04/02/taiji-kozaki/ Original artist:
Unknown<a
href='//www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4233718'
title='wikidata:Q4233718'><img
alt='wikidata:Q4233718'
src='https://upload.
wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Wikidata-logo.svg/20px-Wikidata-logo.svg.png'
width='20'
height='11'
srcset='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Wikidata-logo.svg/30px-Wikidata-logo.svg.png
1.5x,
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data-le-height='590' /></a>
File:Katsud_Shashin_(1907).webm Source:
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%281907%29.webm License: Public domain Contributors: YouTube Original artist: Unknown<a href='//www.wikidata.org/wiki/
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work Original artist: Convert to SVG by OsamaK from Image:Nihongo.png. based on w:Image:Nihongo Bunpou b.200x200.png.
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8.3

Content license

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