Japan's Oldest Anime - Found In Kyoto

I found this in the Mainichi News.


MSN-Mainichi Daily News: National News: "KYOTO -- A researcher has received a Japanese animation film made shortly after 1900, probably the oldest of its kind in the country.
Natsuki Matsumoto, an expert on iconography at the Osaka University of Arts, and animation historian Nobuyuki Tsugata of the same school believe that the film was made about 10 years before another animation in 1917, which has been deemed Japan's oldest.
The film was discovered in a Kyoto home and later handed to Matsumoto. After examining production techniques and projectors found along with the film, he concluded that the film was probably the oldest of its kind in Japan.
Tsugata said that animation films were first made around 1907 in the United States and France, suggesting that the animation film found in Kyoto was made using original techniques.
The 35-millimeter, celluloid animation film consists of 50 frames stuck together with paste. It depicts a boy in a sailor suit who writes Chinese characters, 'katsudo shashin' (moving picture), takes off his hat and gives a salute.
Pictures of the boy are printed on the celluloid frames in black and red ink.The creators of the film remain unknown.
Matsumoto and Tsugata plan to jointly publish details about the film in the bulletin of the Japan Society of Image Arts and Sciences. (Mainichi)"

Pretty cool, I thought...

Mark Alderwood
The Anime Times

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