winter 1925

Ubasuteyama

Once upon a time, there was a lord in Shinano Province who hated old men. In accordance with the rules of the province, a person was exiled to an island when they turned 60 years old. On the night of August 15th, there was one such farmer woman, but her son loved her, and took her to a mountain to leave her there instead of turning her over to the cruel officers. However, he felt sorry about what he was doing and hid her under the earthen floor of a barn. One day, a messenger of the lord of the neighboring province was sent to the lord of Shinano Province making an unreasonable demand that a silk thread be threaded through a winding hole in a crystal ball and threatened that force would be used unless the task was done. The devoted son consulted with his mother, and she taught him a method in which you put honey around the end of one hole and let an ant tied with a thread go through it from the other end. The lord rewarded the son. However, a messenger was sent from the neighboring province again demanding that they identify which of two identical mares is the parent and which is the child. The son asked his mother again and then told the solution to the lord. When told by the lord that he would grant the son’s wish, he pleaded for his mother’s life. Since then, old men and women have been treated with respect and are no longer exiled. (Source: Japanese Animated Film Classics)

Senga Tsubo

Classical animation directed by Yamamoto Sanae.

Kanimanji Engi

An early silhouette animated film by Hidehiko Okuda, Hakusan Kimura and Tomu Uchida. The original story is a Buddhist tale of a young lady who saved a crab (a spiritual being according to Japanese Buddhist faith) from being eaten, and was later saved from danger by the same crab.

Kinken Chochiku Shiobara Tasuke

"Industrious farmer Tasuke makes the necessary sacrifices to advance his station in life from a farmer to a store-owner. Based on a well-known kabuki tale Shiobara Tasuke ichitai-ki (The Life Story of Shiobara Tasuke), this parable about the virtues of hard work is based on a true story." (Source: Mubi)

Nonki na Tousan Ryuuguu Mairi

One of the first examples of the tale is Hakuzan Kimura's Dreamy Urashima (Nonkinatousan Ryugu Mairi, 1925), in which a lazy man wakes up from his sleep and heads off to the seaside to spend the day fishing. There is a brief live-action shot of the sea swelling before the film returns to its animated fantasy world when a beautiful girl appears on the beach and lures him into the waves, transforming into the legendary turtle and carrying him beneath the surface to an undersea kingdom of fish and squid. Here he is welcomed by a bevy of kimono-wearing lovelies who lead him to a stately court full of musicians and dancers. As a ballerina pirouettes on the palace floor in front of him, he is plied with alcohol and handed a small gift box, before being escorted to a giant scallop shell that rises through the water taking him back to the surface. When he returns home, he finds he has aged so much that his wife and son no longer recognise him. He opens the gift box and a hideous demon springs from it and squashes him beneath its fists, at which point the man wakes up, and realising that the events of this story have all been a terrible nightmare, hurries out to work, alerted to the potential dangers of a life spent in idle daydreaming. (Source: midnighteye.com)

Shisei Sasshin

Classical animation created by Kouuchi Junichi. (Source: AniDB)

Yosan Seiji

Classical animation created by Junichi Kouchi.

Kokka wo Suku e

Sameyo Yuukensha

Classical animation created by Junichi Kouchi.