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28/11/1899: Geishas and Kabuki
1899 saw the emergence of a small number of men who, in the dying days of the nineteenth century, formed the nucleus of the Japanese film industry. Asano Shiro of the Konishi Camera Shop had filmed a series of geisha dances by early 1899, aided by Komada Koyo, another Konishi employee, who would soon embark upon a long and distinguished career as a Benshi (silent-film narrator), complete with evening suit and silver-topped cane, at the Kinkikan Theatre in Tokyo's Kanda district. By the middle of the year, Komada had left the camera shop and formed the Association of Japanese Motion Pictures, which sponsored a program of geisha dances, which were screened to large audiences at the Tokyo Kabuki-za.
The most important film made this year, however, was a segment of the kabuki version of the Noh drama Momijigari, (Maple Viewing) filmed by Tsunekichi Shibata on 28th November 1899 on a small stage behind the Kabuki-za. Shibata had persuaded revered kabuki performers Ichikawa Danjuro IX and Onoe Kikugoro V to appear in the film, overcoming the former's distaste for what he considered to be a vulgar amusement by persuading him that it would be a gift for posterity. Three short scenes from the film were shot, in a strong wind that tore a fan from Danjuro's hand. As the principle of film editing had not yet been invented, the shot remained in the film, which still exists today. Other films made by Shibata in 1899 include Pisutoru Goto Shimizu Sadakichi, and Ninin Dojoji.
Source: A Hundred Years of Japanese Film - Donald Ritchie
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