Tsunekichi Shibata was one the pioneers of Japanese cinema. He was working at the Konishi Photographic Store, the first Japanese company to import a moving image camera, when he was commissioned by the Lumière company to shoot five Tokyo street views in April 1898.
The following year, he was commissioned by Komada Koyo, an early film producer, to make a series of three films on geisha dances. These were first shown in June 1899. Later that same year, Komada commissioned Tsunekich to make two short story films, said to be the first Japanese fiction films, and then, in November, Momiji-gari (Maple Leaf Hunters) the film for which Tsunekichi is best known.
This is a short film, possibly 3 mins. long, which presents scenes from a well-known kabuki play, performed by two very famous actors. Notwithstanding Tsunekichi’s own work the previous year for Lumière, this film is often said to be the earliest surviving film by a Japanese film-maker and in 2009 was officially declared an Important Cultural Property.
The following year, 1900, Tsunekichi, by now the most experienced cinematographer in Japan, left for China with the Japanese army to film the Boxer Rebellion. Little is known of his later life, but he said to have filmed further kabuki plays.
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