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MasaokaYoung
MasaokaKenzou Masaoka was born on Oct. 5, 1898. He was the son of
wealthy landlord in Osaka. He learned painting and music since
he was young. In 1922, he entered the art school in Kyoto and
learned Japanese painting there, then Western painting at Aoibashi
Art Institute of Kiyoteru Kuroda. Three years later he entered
Makino Production in Kyoto. He worked as an assistant director
for Shouzou Makino and as a set maker for the location of the
movie "Nichirin" by Teinosuke Kinugasa held in Nara
park. He also appeared with Tuyako Okajima in the movie directed
by Yoshinosuke Hitomi , "Hitojichi (Hostage)", using
the name of Rurinosuke Segawa. In the same year, he became independent
and founded "Donbei production" in Kyoto. He produced
and directed the children film "Umi to Kyuden (The Palace
in the Sea)" with the aid from his family. In 1929, Masaoka
started working at Nikkatsu Uzumasa Studio in Kyoto. First he
worked as a cameraman for period dramas for a short time, then
became the chief of technical section in the Educational movie
department. Because the department was closed in the next year,
he borrowed the production cost in stead of his resignation, and
completed and released the animation film "The Monkey Island".
This was the start of his career as an animation film maker. In
1932, he established Masaoka Film Production at his house in Kitano,
Kyoto, and got down to production of animated cartoon films with
his followers, such as Mitsuyo Seo. Having got to know his work,
Shirou Kido in Shouchiku offered the cooperation with him. So
they produced the first full talking picture in Japan "Chikara
to Onna no Yononaka (The World for the Power and Women" using
Tuchihashi style talkie. For this movie, Tadao Ikeda worked as
a writer and dramatizer, Masaoka as a director, Hiromasa Nomura
as a recording director, Kakuzan Kimura as a cameraman, Seo as
an animator, and Roppa Furukawa, Akio Isono, Yoko Tsushima, and
Ranko Sawa as voice-over actors. This was the story about the
husband who became crazy about a typist and his attractive wife.
It was released at Asakusa Teikokukan Theater on Apr. 15, 1933.
In the same year, he directed "Adauchi Karasu" and "Gang
and Dancer", both of which were drafted by Yasujirou Shimazu.
He also began to show his talent on special effect movies, such
as "Kaguya Hime (Princess Kaguya)" which made him known
as Japanese Melies. In 1934 he used a lot of serges which were
still expensive and succeeded in producing beautifully smooth-moving
animation such as "Tahchan no kaitei Ryokou (Tahchan's trip
to the bottom of the sea", "Mori no Yakyuudan (The baseball
team in the forest)", and "Chagama Ondo (Dance of the
Caldron". " Mori no Yousei (A Fairy in the forest)",
especially, was said to be the best Japanese animation film at
that time. He was even called "Japanese Disney". However,
his production went bankrupt due to too much expense. So he contracted
for the production of talking pictures at J. O. Studio and let
it under subcontract of Touzou Masaki, Kakuzan Kimura, Manzou
Miyashita, Masao Kumagawa, and so on. In Nov. 1937, he again founded
the Animation Society of Japan in Kyoto, and released from Shouchiku
"Benkei and Ushiwaka", "Nyan no Urashima",
"Yume no Majutsushi (Magician in the dream)", "Tori
no Hoken Kanyuuin (the Bird which is an insurance salesman)",
et al. Since it became harder to obtain film because of the war,
he then entered Shouchiku Animation Production Department in the
headquarter of Shochiku as its chief. He released many movies
enthusiastically, starting by "Fuku-chan no Kishuu (Fuku-chan's
attack)". One of his most famous work, "Kumo to Tulip
(Spider and Tulip)", was dramatized, filmed, and directed
by him and released on Apr. 15, 1943. It incurred the military's
displeasure because it was the only animation film whose story
was not related to the war at all during wartime. In Oct. 1945,
right after the end of the war, Masaoka established New Japan
Animation Company with Sanae (Zenjirou) Yamamoto, Yasuji Murata,
et al. and then reformed it into Japanese Animated Cartoon Company.
In 1946 he directed "Sakura---Haru no Gensou (Cherry Blossoms---Fantasy
in Spring)" but could not put it on the screen because Toho
which was planning to release it considered the movie too artistic
for the public. He soon left there and established Japanese Animation
Company with Yamamoto with a capital of a million yen from Tetsuo
Mashita and others. Yamamoto worked as the president, Masaoka
as the director, and Taiji Yabushita was in charge of production
management. They placed their studio at Seijo Junior High School
and made "Suteneko Tora-chan (Tora-chan, the Abandoned Cat)"
(directed by Masaoka) in cooperation with Toho Educational Movie.
Masaoka, however, had to retire after making "Tora-chan no
Kankan Mushi (Tora-chan, the Ship Painter)" in 1949 because
his sight got very poor due to overwork. (Japanese Animation Company
changed its name into Japanese Animation Film Company in 1952,
but next year it was bought byToei. This became Toei Animation
Studio in August, 1956.) Later Masaoka recovered his eyesight
, so he devoted himself into teaching followers, writing a draft
of the essay on movies, and drawing storyboards. As you can see,
he was multi-talented. He was also familiar with Japanese traditional
performing arts, such as Kyougen.
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