Tsunekichi Shibata (柴ç"° å¸¸å ‰, Shibata Tsunekichi, 1850 â€" 1929)
was one of Japan's first filmmakers. He worked for the photographer
ShirÅ Asano and the Konishi Camera shop, the first in Japan to import
a motion picture camera. Along with Kanzo Shirai, he made the earliest
films in Japan, mostly of geisha, Ginza, and selections of scenes from
popular plays. His first exhibition was at the Tokyo Kabuki-za in
1899. After that he focused mainly on Kabuki plays. In 1898, before
starting his work with Shirai, he shot five documentary films of
street scenes in Tokyo for the Lumière Company, numbers 981â€"985 in
the Lumière catalogue. It appears negatives for these films still
exist and one print of #985. If this is true, it would make the
documentary work the oldest extant films by a Japanese filmmaker,
though not the first films shot in Japan.Tsunekichi Shibata at Who's
Who of Victorian Cinema
was one of Japan's first filmmakers. He worked for the photographer
ShirÅ Asano and the Konishi Camera shop, the first in Japan to import
a motion picture camera. Along with Kanzo Shirai, he made the earliest
films in Japan, mostly of geisha, Ginza, and selections of scenes from
popular plays. His first exhibition was at the Tokyo Kabuki-za in
1899. After that he focused mainly on Kabuki plays. In 1898, before
starting his work with Shirai, he shot five documentary films of
street scenes in Tokyo for the Lumière Company, numbers 981â€"985 in
the Lumière catalogue. It appears negatives for these films still
exist and one print of #985. If this is true, it would make the
documentary work the oldest extant films by a Japanese filmmaker,
though not the first films shot in Japan.Tsunekichi Shibata at Who's
Who of Victorian Cinema
Share this
SUBSCRIBE OUR NEWSLETTER
SUBSCRIBE OUR NEWSLETTER
Join us for free and get valuable content delivered right through your inbox.