Archive

Pioneers of Japaneses Animation: From Tekobo to Momotaro

Removing the Lump

Yasuji MURATA

Japan1929 6min 16mm B&W

Synopsis

Animated version of a traditional Japanese story. Taro Bee is an honest man but has a big lump on the left side of his chin. He dances in front of the tengu’s, red-faced, big-nosed imaginary monsters, and succeeds in getting his lump removed. Jiro Bee, his neighbor, copies him and as a result, gets another lump on top of the one he already has. Notice the fresh technique of using the silhouettes of the characters in the night scenes.

Diretor

Yasuji MURATA

Creating the subtitles at the Yokohama Cinema Club, Yasuji Murata got interested in foreign animation and started studying it on his own. His Fight of Monkey and Crab was released in 1927. He improved the technique by putting a motor on a moving-camera, and his cut-out animation technique equals that of latter-day cel animation. Among his main works are Octopus Bones(1927), Saru Masamune(1930), Aerial Momotaro(1931), The Monkey Goes Fishing(1933), Corporal Norakuro, The Mooncastle Princess(1934), and A Night at the Bar(1936).