29 1896 26 1893 30 1897 30 10 32 1899 6 1 65
32 32 7 13 6 6 13 176 20 7 5 7 7 14 31 2 1940 1955 NACSA NEWS 66
30 1032 6 1 8 I1975 pp.72 73 32 11 3 1940 1 1 702 4 I 67
1939 1940 6 68
3 I 1 1954 1958 1 1942 11 A B 69
1940 1 A B 70
A 1939 1940 2 32 7 13 2 702 1940 1 1 p.148 1 1954 p.7 I1957 p.65 I1975 1980 1958 p.16 25 1980 1 1 p.20 71
1912 44 1911 1940 1 1 702 5 1 1942 11 1948 1 1954 p.7 I 1957 p.66 I 1975 1980 1958 p.16 1976 p.23 25 1980 1 1 p.20 1985 p.69 72
8 1994 34 p.117 1 1954 p.7 1958 p.16 8 7 73
6 1962 10 1 1954 1 3 1 7 3 191 1968 7 74
3 B 1 2 32 8 11 25 32 8 12 1974 4 p.343 1980 p.64 31 1976 p.5 1995 p.97 75
14 1962 10 2 1 1 1942 11 1947 5 1 1977 p.23 1954 p.6 1958 p.18 Gion Geisha, 1898. TheJapaneseFilm:ArtandIndustryby Joseph L. Anderson and Donald Richie,CharlesE.Tuttle Company, 1959, p.105. 1962 p.72 76
C 2 33 1900 4 7 7 56 46 1932 2933 1974 2 32 9 309 27 p.312 7 56 1900 4 7 1 5 1965 10 1973 p.94 1997 p.153 77
7 7 56 1900 4 7 1973 p.94 NACSA NEWS 6 6 1955 11 78
2 1942 12 p.325 5 12 32 6 27 6 20 7 5 7 9 p.303 7 56 1900 4 7 79
9 14 7 56 1900 4 7 15 7 56 1900 4 7 1 5 1965 10 1997 p.153 80
32 7 8 p.303 7 14 15 32 9 30 9 27 10 3 pp.312 313 7 56 1900 4 7 81
D 2 I 1975 p.75 p.76 1942 8397 1965 8 p.42 1933 1940 1954 7 96 p.76 1 1942 11 82
8 1965 8 397 2 30 11970 12 220 32 7 6 6 6 27 p.327 5 32 7 14 31 4 8 8 1 p.309 83
8 11 25 8 12p.343 8 924 9 10 p.310 9 9 p.343 9 30 9 27 p.312 10 3 p.313 10 3 17 1988 84
1933 E 702 1940 1 1 1962 10 1953 702 1940 1 1 85
NACSA NEWS 6 6 1955 11 702 1940 1 1 702 1940 1 1 702 1940 1 1 32 10 1962 10 86
1962 10 1927 p.328 87
32 9 11 33 4 7 33 7 37 3 32 10 30 10 2 33 1900 4 7 56 34 2 28 8 61 34 4 20 8 63 34 33 4 6 32 32 6 1 8 p.42 41 1908 6 88
36 40 2008 7 1 8 3 2 p.27 2 3 8 2 89
32 p.2522 9 32 7 13 11 16 1 32 6 6 20 7 5 I6 13 17 6 15 1974 p.301 2 6 7 1974 p.306 90
3 31 1898 4 1995 No.19 241 1972 9 4 1 702 1940 1 1 2 1953 1966 1 3 NACSA NEWS 6 6 1955 11 30 1955 4 4 1962 103 5 pp.326 327 6 1 M 12 91
The Earliest Japanese Movie Motion Pictures Produced by Konishi Honten Irie Yoshiro In October 1897, Konishi Honten, now Konica Minolta Holdings, Inc., announced that it had imported motion picture camera, it is believed, Baxter & Wray (U.K.). It is said that subsequently Asano Shiro, the employee entrusted with handling the equipment after it arrived, was the first Japanese person to successfully film, develop and print a movie. In addition, Hiromeya, which at the time had enjoyed success with the screening show using Vitascope (U.S.), was spurred by this to show a motion pictures produced in Japan and began this screening enterprise in June 1899. However, the film materials of those movies filmed by Konishi Honten and shown by Hiromeya are lost to us now. Furthermore, even remaining documentations are limited, making it difficult to prepare an accurate list or describe the individual contents of early movies in detail. All the discourses to date concerning the beginnings of Japanese cinema are based on documents such as newspaper articles and advertisements from that time and transcriptions based on the reminiscences of Asano and other Konishi Honten employees. This paper aims to verify the early Japanese cinema by studying the photographic plates of the film said to have been made by Asano and others, and cross refferencing the aforementioned two types of written sources of information. Although photographs of subjects such as scenes of Meiji period city streets and geisha dancing can be seen frequently in earlier studies on old movies, they receive almost no attention in research on cinematic history of today. However, a fresh study reveals records showing that frames from film shot by Asano, Shibata Tsunekichi and other early cameramen were exhibited at a 1939 cinema exhibition. Therefore, it can be assumed that those plates appeared in various studies were duplicated from these frames. Furthermore, it is believed that these frames were uncovered during the course of interviews with those cinematic pioneers who were still around at the time. Photographs collected from the studies of the past show that there are actually quite a number of variations present in, for example, plates of film simply labeled geisha dancing. One sees different features in the implements held by the geisha and the background scenes, respectively. Furthermore, the background includes the name of the restaurant where the film was shot, which is greatly useful in specifying individual plates. In writing this paper, photographic plates, which had been sporadically used in past studies, were collected to the greatest extent possible. Their contents were analyzed and they were compared with film appearing in newspaper articles and testimony by the people involved at the time the film was shot, in order to verify facts such as their title, cameraman, filming location, date of showing and screening venue. 122