Noburô Ôfuji

A re-edited, feature length compilation of the two parts of Ôfuji's The Great Sage Shakyamuni Buddha - the culmination of Noburô Ôfuji's monochrome silhouette films. After a portentous dream about a white elephant, the ancient Hindu princess Maya gives birth to a prince. Reared in seclusion from the troubles of the world, Prince Siddhartha is troubled by sights of poverty and deprivation when he is 12 years old. He is married to a beautiful wife, but he is unable to bear the thought of others suffering, and leaves the palace in search of an answer. While sitting beneath a tree, he achieves enlightenment. Planned as a nine-reel life of Buddha, but exhibited in Cannes as ‘Part One’ with only 6 reels completed, this late work by Noburô Ôfuji was not completed until after his death. It was only in 1961 that it was finally exhibited as a full 72-minute film (comprising 10 reels).

In order to win the hand of a princess, a man must defeat an evil dragon and claim its treasured magic stone. Upon his return, Baghdad has been invaded and he must use the stone to defeat his new enemy.

A rare glimpse of early Japanese sound anime and prewar Japanese culture, The Roots of Japanese Anime features the masterworks of such pioneers of Japanese animation as Noburo Ofuji, Yasuji Murata, and Kenzo Masaoka, in addition to Mitsuyo Seo’s Momotaro’s Sea Eagle, the notorious war cartoon billed as Japan’s first feature anime. These movies represent the brilliance and variety of anime, ranging from beautiful Japanese paper animation to powerful multiplane cel cartoons. They also evoke the fascinating complexity of Japan, a nation that is then both marching towards war, enlisting kids in militarist nationalism, yet also delighting in a mixture of modern popular culture, ancient folk tales, irreverent comedy, and the everyday life of prewar Japanese children.

A Japanese equivalent of a Hollywood Screen Song.

In front of a girl with the traditional Japanese hairstyle, a small man on a desk says, "women descended from tobacco." The girl laughs at him and traps him under a glass. The angry man puffs on a cigarette in a pipe and blows smoke at the girl. The girl takes the cigarette from the man and puts it under her book. When the man threatens her with a gun, the girl throws the cigarette into the yard. The man becomes really angry and tries to shoot her, but the gun does not fire. In the end, the man starts telling her about the beginning of tobacco. According to the 1926 film censor record, the original one reel version had a total length of 174 meters and lasted 6 min. The second half of the film is missing from the existing version. (animation.filmarchives.jp)

An early color animation which uses the color to help tell the story. Three butterflies save a bird that falls out of it's nest during a rainstorm. The butterflies decide to ask the flowers for cover, but the red rose will only help the red butterfly since they are the same color.

Created by Noburo Ofuji, who had been cartoon making since the 1920s, often with decorative paper cutouts. The character animation looks like it was done 15 years before, but a lot of the elements are highly original; design (those trees!), use of camera focus. Heavily musical in a manner that recalls animation's earliest use of sound. The lesson here is: "If you can't count on your friends, travel alone".

Silhouette animation about an orphan, relating to Christmas.

A short documentary on the making of Noburo Ofuji's Katsura-hime.

Early Japanese anime. A stop-motion papercraft animation set to a song sung by Kikoku Inoue

Chaos in the wild as fires break out and thread from a spider is the savior.

The story of Three Brave Frogs.

An early Noburou Oofuji film, it was artificially coloured in the senshoku (tinting) method, where the developed film was immersed in dye baths.

A film about traveling artists arriving from Mishima and Odawara.

"Chiyogami Manga: The Fate of the Dumplings" is unusual for a cartoon film in that it uses music from Kabuki.

A man has a strange adventure on a hill as he returns from the village festival.

A whale swallows women and men.

Directed by Noburô Ôfuji.

A cut-out animation adaptation of the classic novel "Journey to the West."

A somewhat historical tale about a famous Japanese businessman who made his fortune by shipping oranges from the farmlands to the capital city of Edo.