Animation: A World History

7Silent Asia

Japan¹

As soon as the first cartoons by Émile Cohl and John Randolph Bray were shown in Tokyo around 1914, some of the local artists tried to imitate them as animators. The Japanese animated films (which in the beginning were called senga eiga, or ‘films with designed lines’) boast three pioneers: Shimokawa Hekoten, Kitayama Seitaro, and Kouchi Sumikazu. All three of these artists made their debut in 1917 within a few months of each other and were in close contact with film production companies from the very start.

The Tenkatsu Production Company contracted the popular cartoonist Shimokawa for Imokawa Mukuzo genkanban no maki (Imokawa Mukuzo the Concierge, taken from a character from his mangas), which entered history as the ancestor ...