VII. The Town That Supported Films (Part 2) Destination: Kyobashi in the Taisho Period

When Hollywood in Los Angeles of the US began making history as “The Town of Films,” the field of motion pictures in Japan was facing a significant transition stage. When Universal Pictures and Paramount Pictures, two major film companies that are doing business still now, emerged in the United States in 1912, a major film company was born in Japan as well. It is Nippon Katsudo Shashin (currently Nikkatsu Corporation) as mentioned in Part 1.

Nippon Katsudo Shashin, abbreviated Nikkatsu, was a company established by consolidating four major motion picture companies at that time, i.e., Yokota Shokai, Yoshizawa Shoten, Fukuhodo and M. Pathe, under the name. The office for preparing the establishment was located at Hibiya Hotel at first (later a Chinese food restaurant Tototei). Then, the office was relocated to Kayaba-sho, Nihonbashi-ku, and the company was headquartered in 26, Himono-cho, Nihonbashi-ku (currently near 1-7, Yaesu), which is currently the place across from Yaesu North Exit of Tokyo Station along the Sotobori-dori Street. From the Meiji period to Taisho and early Showa periods, this area was occupied by the red-light district (Hanamachi) of Nihonbashi. So, this means that the most advanced entertainment hub of the time was developed in this prominent district.

However, the film industry in Japan had a lot of trouble. Though the new company made a grand appearance, actually, it was merely a medley of four companies.

Later, Hollywood developed into an urban cinema district that could cover all the processes from creation to distribution. In Japan, by contrast, an urban area like Hollywood was not formed maybe because film companies and film-production studios were scattered maybe affected by the narrowness of the land. In this context, the Nihonbashi and Kyobashi area that had worked as the center of information and distribution since the Edo period played quite a significant role in the early days of Japanese films.

In Part 1, I focused on the fact that the current location of National Film Archive of Japan in Kyobashi had been a place with a connection with films since the building of the motion movie theater Dai-ichi Fukuhokan in the Meiji period. In Part 2, on the other hand, I would like to focus on one showman who had a connection to this area. This showman was Kobayashi Kisaburo, who deeply engaged in the construction of Dai-ichi Fukuhokan as well.

Shibusawa Eiich, who was a businessman known as the “father of Japanese capitalism,” contributed an article titled “Beikoku no Katsudo Shashin”[“Motion Pictures in the USA”] to the February 1916 issue of Katsudo no Sekai [The World of Motion Pictures] (published by Katsudo no Sekaisha), which is one of early movie magazines. In the article, looking back on the study tour to Hollywood made as a member of the businesspersons’ group organized to visit the United States in 1909, Shibusawa gave constructive criticism to the motion picture world of Japan.

〈What is going on in the motion picture industry of Japan? Those who are engaged in it are concerned only about their self-interest and have no social sense, either. So, influential individuals of this country who have access to and knowledge of motion movies do not regard them at all, and therefore it is inevitable that motion picture business is sluggish in Japan.〉

In this motion picture industry of Japan, Shibusawa had great expectations of a certain person—it was Kobayashi Kiyosaburo who should be called a lucky adventurer in the early days of Japanese films. About Kobayashi, Shibusawa mentioned that his intention might be valuable while he lacked learning and a firm belief. So, he sent cheers to Kobayashi, saying “I want him to pursue learning and training fully with a firm belief that it is up to him whether Japanese motion pictures would bloom or not.”

Shibusawa’s advice was, in light of the future of Kobayashi, considerably predictive, but let’s leave it at that for now. Kobayashi Kisaburo was born to a farmer in Koujima Village of Sarushima District, Ibaraki Prefecture (currently Miwa-cho, Furukawa City) [*]on December 10, 1880.

He moved to Tokyo in his early 10s and became an apprentice at Osawa Gofuku-ten (a kimono store) located in Nihonbashi Tachibana-cho (currently near 3-chome, Higashi-Nihonbashi). He was promoted to head clerk at the age of 16, however, a few years later, he was invited by his friends to play at a red-light district in Shinagawa, and he embezzled money from the store. It got out at the store, and he ran away. He wandered aimlessly around and joined the touring group of Yokota Shokai based in Kyoto, which led him to the world of entertainment.

Kobayashi was an opportunistic gambler. The first big entertainment he organized was boldly provided by renting Kabukiza, one of the largest and most traditional theaters in Tokyo, for a full week. In 1908, he jumped at a film projector brought by a French person which was publicly acclaimed to be the world-largest to use it for the entertainment and advertised it as “the 36-square-shaku (around 11-square-meter) large picture.” He bowled over the audience by the amazing screen that was large enough to protrude from the stage.

Recognized for his talent, he joined Fukuhodo as sales manager in 1910. In the next year, he organized the French film Zigomar, which was an unprecedented hit. Zigomar is a detective novel about the story of an elusive phantom thief Zigomar who commits every evil deed while dodging the detective’s pursuit, originally written by a French writer Léon Sazie. The rows over this film are detailed in Kaito Zigoma to Katsudo Shashin no Jidai [The Era of a Phantom Thief Zigomar and Motion Pictures] written by Nagamine Shigetoshi. Indeed, this film led to the development of the so-called Taisho version of media mix, including the repeated release of the sequel and publishing of related books.

In fact, this boom was not what Kobayashi had intended. He had previewed Zigomar at Dai-ichi Fukuhokan in Kyobashi, but its reputation had not been good, and so it had been put on the shelf. But as there was few materials for entertainment, he dragged Zigomer up, and it became an improbably big hit. Thanks to this least expected hit, Fukuhodo could take advantage of the talks over the merger between the four companies. Kobayashi became famous in the country, called “Zigomar in the motion picture world,” and assumed office as the first sales manager of Nikkatsu.

However, Kobayashi soon left Nikkatsu because he had trouble fitting in at the large organization. After that, he became independent and established a company repeatedly, which created a sensation in the general public.

Tokiwa Shokai, which Kobayashi established after leaving Nikkatsu, shot only several films before being merged with Nikkatsu. Kobayashi returned to Nikkatsu once, but he left it again and joined Toyo Shokai established in Osaka. And in 1914, he established Tennenshoku Katsudo Shashin Kabushiki Kaisha (Tenkatsu for short).

However, Kobayashi did not settle down here, either. He formed the Kobayashi Entertainment Department within Tenkatsu in the following year, and in 1916, he became independent by establishing the department as the company Kobayashi Shokai. It had a severe cash flow problem, but the hit of the U.S. movie Intolerance in 1919 brought Kobayashi Shokai back to life. Using the profit gained through the hit, he established Kokusai Katsuei Kabusiki Kaisha sensationally in the same year.

But this brilliant success suddenly ended. In 1921, the stockholders of Kokusai Katsuei accused him of embezzlement and breach of trust.

Kokusai Katsuei had frequently faced internal strife since its foundation and the flow of money had been also opaque. Kuwano Toka, a film journalist who knew Kobayashi, said in his writing Mizu no Nagare [Stream of Water], “Mr. Kobayashi had no choice but to fall from grace because he did not know laws and regulations.” After the Japanese-Russo War between 1904 and 1905, perhaps hit-or-miss accounting practices in business management were no longer allowed in the context of improvement of the corporate structure.

”Zigomar in the motion picture world,” who was mentioned by Shibusawa as “lacking in learning and training,” disappeared from the front of entertainment. Kobayashi was involved in the film industry after that as well and assumed office as the auditor of Nikkatsu after World War II. However, after the said cases, he never came into the limelight until he died in 1961 at the age of 80.

Kobayashi’s aggressive approach was controversial at that time. However, it is clear that his foolhardy attempts without thinking ahead shook the Japanese film industry and prompted change.

Tenkatsu started as a company creating color motion pictures exploiting the technique called Kinemacolor, which used alternating red and green filters as indicated by the company name (Tentenshoku Katsudo Shashin literally means “natural color motion pictures”). In 1914, it released Japan’s first color fiction film Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura [Yoshitsune and the Thousand Cherry Trees] (directed by Yoshino Jiro) and grew to become one of two major forces alongside Nikkatsu for a time.

And the history of Japanese cinema cannot be discussed without mentioning the foreign films handled by Kobayashi. Serial films (serially releasing each of short films made by dividing a single story on a week basis), such as Meikin [The Broken Coin] released at the theater Denkikan in Asakusa in 1915, promoted the trend of abolishing a silent-film narrator (Benshi) and carrying subtitles.

Films produced by Bluebird Photoplays Inc. in the United States were exemplars of the Pure Film Movement centered on Kaeriyama Norimasa (1893–1964). The Pure Film Movement advocated the use of actresses and the pursuit of more cinematic techniques, such as more natural and realistic-looking scenarios, acting performances and staging, without following the traditional theatrical plays. It is said to have become the turning point for Japanese films.

When the US film Intolerance was released in 1919, the very expensive admission fee drew attention. Kobayashi employed a strategy to spark interest from people by setting an extraordinarily expensive admission fee at 10 yen for the Imperial Theatre where the highest admission fee at that time was 4.5 yen. Apart from the topicality, it was true that the innovative methods employed in this film, including the four parallel storylines, monumental sets, and the cutting-edge shooting technology, had no small impact on the cineasts of the time.

And that’s not all. Kobayashi not only brought Rensa-geki, which combined performance of motion pictures and theatrical staging alternately, into vogue in Tokyo, but also had Taii no Musume [The Captain’s Daughter] and Dokuso [A Poisonous Herb] (both released in 1917) shot by Inoue Tadao, which were known for novel shooting methods such as close-up and crosscut. Thus, Kobayashi had a direct influence on the production process of Japanese films.

When tracing Kobayashi’s business sites, you will find that he appeared in the Nihonbashi and Kyobashi area frequently in establishing companies. The office of Tokiwa Shokai was in Shinhana-cho, Hongo-ku where his home was located, but when he established Tenkatsu, he located its headquarters at the site of Fukuhodo’s headquarters in Tori 1-chome of Nihonbashi.

The office of Kobayashi Entertainment Department formed within Tenkatsu was, according to the advertising of Katsudo no Sekai [The World of Motion Picures], at 13 banchi, 3-chome, Motozaimoku-cho, Kyobashi-ku (currently near 2-16, Kyobashi). It was also not far from Kabuto-cho, which was near the Kaedegawa River, which was reclaimed later for the construction of the Metropolitan Expressway, where Shibusawa Eiichi located his business site.

After leaving Tenkatsu, Kobayashi established Kobayashi Shokai at 19 banchi, Shinsakana-machi, Kyobashi-ku (currently near 3-3, Ginza), and then relocated it to Asakusa. However, when he was going to establish Kokusai Katsuei, he returned to the preceding area, setting the location of the establishment at 6 banchi, Nakabashi-Izumi-cho, Kyobashi-ku (currently near 1-18, Kyobashi). After establishing Kokusai Katsuei, he based it at the location in Honzaimoku-cho where the office of Kobayashi Entertainment Department within Tenkatsu had been located. Indeed, this area was perfect for promotors because it was a downtown area where many merchants and craftsmen who were the audience for mass entertainment lived, as well as being easily accessible and conveniently located near the financial district that was favorable for funding.

The advantage of the area was still effective after the World War II. Dai-ichi Fukuhokan, the motion picture theater built by Kobayashi, burned down in the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923 and was later rebuilt as Nikkatsu Kyobashi-kan. In 1931, it was changed to a new company building of Nikkatsu. Nikkatsu headquartered there until it relocated to Hibiya in 1952.

Daiei Film, after it was founded in Hacchobori, Kyobashi-ku, relocated to the Nikkatsu’s headquarters building, and after World War II, it headquartered at Kyobashi 3-chome, where currently the Tokyo Square Garden is located, between 1949 and 1972 when Daiei Film went into bankruptcy. Toei Company also headquartered at Kyobashi 2-chome between 1952 and 1960 when it relocated to Nishi-Ginza. In the early 1950s what is said to be the golden age of Japanese cinema, Kyobashi was a town where many cineasts interacted with each other.

Nikkatsu’s headquarters building was renovated after the headquarters were relocated and became vacant to be converted into the National Museum of Modern Art equipped with a film library, and now it is the National Film Archive of Japan of the Independent Administrative Institution National Museum of Art, which is the one and only national institution dedicated to films in Japan.

In the May 1916 issue of Katsudo no Sekai [The World of Motion Pictures] appears an article titled “Kokuritu Kastudo Shashin Kenkyusho” [“National Motion Picture Institute”]  written by Kobayashi. In this article, Kobayashi appealed for the need to work together for the establishment of a joint public-private laboratory in Japan for research on motion pictures, taking the laboratory of Etienne-Jules Marey, who was a French physiologist, and invented a precursor to the cinematograph as an example.

Tenkatsu and Kokusai Katsuei, both of which Kobayashi established, were short-lived, but the site of Dai-ichi Fukuhokan became the research hub of Japanese films and is reminiscent of milestones in film history now. What a coincidence! This is a place where showmen with burning ambition would have strolled the streets. When I think of this coincidence, I cannot help but feel the power of the area that transcends the passage of time.

[*] Kobayashi Kisaburo Den [Biography of Kobayashi Kisaburo] written by Imamura Miyoo says that Kobayashi was born in Terashima Village of the Sarushima District, Ibaraki Prefecture, but such a village name does not exist, so it is likely to have been mistaken for Koujima Village.

References:
“Nikkatsu no Shashi to Gensei [The Company History of Nikkatsu and Current Status]“ (1930) Reido Kamo, Nikkatsu no Shashi to Gensei Kankokai
Mizu no Nagare Geien Hiroku [Stream of Water: The Secret Memoir on the Society of Arts] (1934) Toka Kuwano, Sogo Engei Tsushinsha
Eigakai Mukashi-gatari Zadankai, “Nihon Eiga” 1939 nen 10 gatsu-go [Roundtable Discussion on the History of the Film World, the October 1939 issue of “Japanese Films”], Dainihon Eiga Kyokai
Kobayashi Kisaburo-den [Biography of Kobayashi Kisaburo] (1967) Miyoo Imamura, Sanyo Kogyo
Nihon Eiga Hattatsu-shi I [The History of Japanese Films I] (1980) Junichiro Tanaka, Chuokoron-sha
Koza Nihon Eiga 1 Nihon Eiga no Tanjo [Lectures on Japanese Films 1: The Birth of Japanese Films] (1985) edited by Shohei Imamura, et al., Iwanami Shoten, Publishers
Nihon Eiga Syoki Shiryo Shusei 〈3〜5〉[The Material Collection on Early Japanese Films <3-5>] (1990) San-ichi Shobo
Hiroku・Nihon no Katsudo Shashin [The Secret Memoir: Motion Pictures in Japan] (2004) edited by Junichiro Tanaka, supervised by Honchi Haruhiko, Wides Publishing
Kaito Zigoma to Katsudo Shashin no Jidai [The Era of a Phantom Thief Zigomar and Motion Pictures] (2006) Shigetoshi Nagamine, Shincho Shinsho
Nihon Eiga no Tanjo Nihon Eiga-shi Sosho 15 [The Birth of Japanese Films: Japanese Film History Series 15] (2011) edited by Kenji Iwamoto, Shinwasha