Noburô Ôfuji

A short documentary on the making of Noburo Ofuji's Katsura-hime.

A black cat sings and dances, animated using cut-outs.

A Japanese equivalent of a Hollywood Screen Song.

Early Japanese anime. A stop-motion papercraft animation set to a song sung by Kikoku Inoue

Created by Noburo Ofuji, who had been cartoon making since the 1920s, often with decorative paper cutouts. The character animation looks like it was...

Directed by Noburô Ôfuji.

A re-edited, feature length compilation of the two parts of Ôfuji's The Great Sage Shakyamuni Buddha - the culmination of Noburô...

Short directed by Noburô Ôfuji.

In 1955 Tadahito Mochinaga was asked to create commercials for Asahi beer, which he created using stop-motion, followed by the 1956 short film "Beer...

An animated black-and-white short by Noburô Ôfuji.

The mischievous Chinkoroheibei visits the underwater realm of the fish king where he tries to steal the king's treasure box.

A war propaganda film by Oofuji Noburou.

In order to win the hand of a princess, a man must defeat an evil dragon and claim its treasured magic stone. Upon his return, Baghdad has been...

A man has a strange adventure on a hill as he returns from the village festival.

A somewhat historical tale about a famous Japanese businessman who made his fortune by shipping oranges from the farmlands to the capital city of Edo.

In front of a girl with the traditional Japanese hairstyle, a small man on a desk says, "women descended from tobacco." The girl laughs at him and...

A film about traveling artists arriving from Mishima and Odawara.

A man in love with a noble lady tries to get close to her with the help of cats.

Film about a ghost ship. There is no dialogue, just music and a choir.

A whale swallows women and men.

A short Japanese animation film from 1934.

A whale swallows women and men.

Very short animated film from Japan, using cut-outs in the style of Lotte Reiniger.

A cut-out animation adaptation of the classic novel "Journey to the West."

An early color animation which uses the color to help tell the story. Three butterflies save a bird that falls out of it's nest during a rainstorm....

In order to win the hand of a princess, a man must defeat an evil dragon and claim its treasured magic stone. Upon his return, Baghdad has been...

Silhouette animation about an orphan, relating to Christmas.

Created by Noburo Ofuji, who had been cartoon making since the 1920s, often with decorative paper cutouts. The character animation looks like it was...

A rare glimpse of early Japanese sound anime and prewar Japanese culture, The Roots of Japanese Anime features the masterworks of such pioneers of...

Chaos in the wild as fires break out and thread from a spider is the savior.

The story of a gluttonous whale and the other aquatic creatures

Short film about a princess being kidnapped.