Dojoji Temple

Kihachiro Kawamoto｜1976｜Digital | Colour｜Sound｜19 min.

As Kihachiro Kawamoto’s best work, Dojoji Temple was adapted from Japanese folk legend Kyoganoko Musume Dojoji (the Maiden of Dojoji Temple). The anime combines Noh masks and Ningyo Johruri Bunraku puppets in stop motion. A handsome monk is on his way to the temple for a pilgrimage when he meets a woman, who falls in love with him immediately. In order to relieve himself of the woman’s repeated pleas for his affection, the monk promises her that he would meet her again. When the woman realises that he reneges onhis promise, love turns into hate—moving towards an inevitable tragic end to this story.

Pica Don

Renzo Kinoshita｜1978｜Digital | Colour｜Sound｜10 min.

In Japanese, the film title Pica Don means ‘atomic bomb.’ The word ‘pica’ refers to the blast of light from an atomic explosion, which radiates a blaze hundreds times that of sunlight. ‘Don’ refers to the explosive bang and seismic waves after the bombing. Renzo Kinoshita’s Pica Don is the first anime that addresses the atrocities of the Hiroshima bombing. It inspired the Hiroshima City Government to start the biennial Hiroshima International Animation Festival.

Jumping

Osamu Tezuka｜1984｜Digital | Colour｜Sound｜7 min.

Osamu Tezuka’s dedication to experimental animation is relatively less widely known. This film is told entirely from the protagonist's point of view, as he jumps into the forest from a rural town, leaps higher and higher into cities, oceans, foreign lands, war zones, and returns to reality from the underworld.

Broken Down Film

Osamu Tezua｜1985｜Digital | Colour｜Sound｜6 min.

This is a badly scratched piece of film with the otherwise run-of-the-mill subject of a cowboy trying to rescue a beauty from the hands of a villain. When shown, the film is choppy and at some points it even blacks out—but this is intended as part of the plot. At first glance it may seem to border on the whimsical, but Broken Down Film shows the boundless possibilities in animation. From content to form, the film is Osamu Tezua's love letter to cinema in a bygone era.

A Well-Ordered Restaurant

Tadanari Okamoto｜1992｜Digital | Colour｜Sound｜19 min.

A Well-Ordered Restaurant was adapted from the novel by Kenji Miyazawa of the same name. Two hunters and a dog enter into a strange restaurant in a forest deep in the mountains, thereupon finding themselves mired in a labyrinth of horrors. Tadanari Okamoto experimented with different techniques and decided to use the hand-drawn technique for this production. A number of renowned artists drew this anime. Due to Tadanari Okamoto’s unexpected death during the production, Kihachiro Kawamoto took over to finish his masterpiece posthumously.

Kihachiro Kawamoto (1925—2010) was the master of Japanese puppet animation. In his early years he shadowed the pioneering puppet animator Tadahito Mochinaga to learn the craft. In 1963, he went to Prague, and continued to study under the tutelage of Czech puppet animator Jiří Trnka for a year. In his puppet animation he fuses the artistry of Noh, Bunraku and Kabuki Theatre, creating anime that embodies the best of Japan’s artistic tradition. His best works include The Demon (1972), Dojoji Temple (1976), House of Flame (1979), Winter Days (2003) and The Book of The Dead (2005).

Renzo Kinoshita (1936—1997) was an animator and anime director. He served as the Vice President of International Animated Film Association and the President of its Japanese chapter. In 1966, he joined Mushi Production, a company set up by Osamu Tezuka, and in 1967 he established Studio Lotus. He has won numerous international awards for his independent short anime, such as What is he? (1971), Made in Japan (1972), Pica Don (1978) etc. In 1985, together with his partner Sayoko Kinoshita, he inaugurated the Hiroshima International Animation Festival and designed its mascot.

Osamu Tezuka (1928—1989), animator, anime producer, and doctor in medicine, is celebrated as the ‘God of Manga’. He was the first animator that introduced a creative assistant system and maintained a corporate structure for an anime business. He also pioneered the reduction of frame rate in anime making in order to control the production cost and time for TV anime. In 1961, he established his own company Mushi Production, from which were born Japan’s first TV anime Astro Boy (1963), the first colour TV anime Kimba the White Lion (1965) and others. His lifelong passion in experimental animation has also garnered international critical acclaim.

Tadanari Okamoto (1932—1990) was a Japanese animator and director of anime films. In 1961, he joined Tadahito Mochinaga’s MOM Productions, where he honed the skills for filming anime. Eight of his anime were awarded the Ofuji Noburo Award at the Mainichi Film Awards. Over his lifetime, he made more than thirty films, and received twenty-four international awards, including The Mysterious Medicine (1965), Welcome, Aliens (1966), Praise be to Small Ills (1973) and The Magic Fox Okonjoruri (1982).