was a Japanese
film studio
A film studio (also known as movie studio or simply studio) is a major entertainment company or motion picture company that has its own privately owned studio facility or facilities that are used to make films, which is handled by the production ...
active in the early years of cinema in
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
. Its origins can be traced back to when
Einosuke Yokota
Einosuke (written: 栄之助, 永之助 or 永之介) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include:
*, Japanese Buddhist leader
*, Japanese ophthalmologist
*, Japanese writer
*, Japanese samurai
{{given name
Japanese ...
received one of the first
Lumiere cinematograph
Cinematograph or kinematograph is an early term for several types of motion picture film mechanisms. The name was used for movie cameras as well as film projectors, or for complete systems that also provided means to print films (such as the Cin ...
machines in Japan from
Inabata Katsutarō to conduct traveling exhibitions of the device. In 1901, Yokota founded Yokota Shōkai and concentrated on film importing and exhibition. Around 1908, the company began contracting with
Shōzō Makino and his
Senbonza theater to begin creating
jidaigeki
is a genre of film, television, video game, and theatre in Japan. Literally meaning "period dramas", they are most often set during the Edo period of Japanese history, from 1603 to 1868. Some, however, are set much earlier—''Portrait of Hel ...
(called ''kyūgeki'' at the time), which eventually made a star out of
Matsunosuke Onoe
, sometimes known as Medama no Matchan (''"Eyeballs" Matsu''), was a Japanese actor. His birth name is Tsuruzo Nakamura. He is sometimes credited as Yukio Koki, Tamijaku Onoe, or Tsunusaburo Onoe, and as a kabuki artist he went by the name Tsuru ...
. Its first studio was the Nijō Castle Studio, the second the Hokkendō Studio. In 1912, Yokota Shōkai merged with
Yoshizawa Shōten
was a film studio and importer active in the early years of cinema in Japan. Originally involved in the magic lantern business, Yoshizawa bought a cinématographe camera off a visiting Italian and began exhibiting motion pictures in 1897. Run by ...
,
Fukuhōdō
was a Japanese film studio active in the early years of cinema in Japan.
Background
Fukuhōdō was founded in 1910 when Kenzō Tabata built a chain of modern, concrete movie theaters in Tokyo. To supply these eight theaters, Tabata started a prod ...
, and
M. Pathe to form
Nikkatsu
is a Japanese entertainment company known for its film and television productions. It is Japan's oldest major movie studio, founded in 1912 during the silent film era. The name ''Nikkatsu'' amalgamates the words Nippon Katsudō Shashin, literally ...
.
Notes
External links
*
*
*
Yokota Shokai' in the Internet Movie Database
Japanese film studios
{{film-studio-stub