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Pioneers of Japaneses Animation: From Tekobo to Momotaro

Saru Masamune

Yasuji MURATA

Japan1930 8min 35mm B&W

Synopsis

A courier rescues a monkey from sure death at the gun of a hunter, and receives a sword from the monkey leader as a reward. In his travels, the courier is chased by a wild boar, but manages to fight it off with the sword he was presented. The sword is actually the famous blade of the warrior Masamune, later to be called the ‘Saru Masamune’.

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).