Katsudō Shashin (1907)

Original title

活動写真

Genre

anime, silent film

Country

Japan

Runtime

3 min

Rating

6.0 of 10 from 37 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A three-second animated film from the early 1900s shows a boy writing Japanese characters, taking off his hat, and bowing. The images are hand-colored in red and black and loop to play over and over.

briefoldflickeringplayfulstatelyarchaicwhimsicalsilent

What happens

Katsudō Shashin (活動写真; 'motion picture'), sometimes called the Matsumoto fragment, is a Japanese animated filmstrip from the Meiji era that is the oldest known work of animation from Japan. Its creator is unknown. Evidence suggests it was made somewhere between 1905 and 1912, so it may predate the earliest displays of Western animated films in Japan. It was discovered in a collection of films and projectors in Kyoto in 2005. The three-second filmstrip depicts a boy who writes "活動写真", removes his hat, and bows. The frames were stencilled in red and black using a device for making magic lantern slides, and the filmstrip was fastened in a loop for continuous play. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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