was a Japanese
film studio
A film studio (also known as movie studio or simply studio) is a major entertainment company that makes films. Today, studios are mostly financing and distribution entities. In addition, they may have their own studio facility or facilities; how ...
active in the early years of cinema in
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
. 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 ...
machines in Japan from
Inabata Katsutarō
was a Japanese industrialist and film pioneer.
Career
Born to a Kyoto family that ran a long-standing wagashi store, Inabata attended the Kyoto-fu Shihan Gakkō (now the Kyoto University of Education) and in 1877 earned a scholarship to attend ...
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, and theatre in Japan. Literally meaning "historical drama, period dramas", it refers to stories that take place before the Meiji Restoration of 1868.
''Jidaigeki'' show the lives of the samurai, farmers, crafts ...
(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,
Fukuhōdō, and
M. Pathe to form
Nikkatsu
is a Japanese film studio located in Bunkyō. The name ''Nikkatsu'' amalgamates the words Nippon Katsudō Shashin, literally "Japan Motion Pictures".
Shareholders are Nippon Television Holdings (35%) and SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation (28.4%). ...
.
Notes
External links
*
*
*
Yokota Shokai' in the Internet Movie Database
Japanese film studios
{{film-studio-stub