Noburo Ofuji (1900-1961) ranks among the key figures in the history of animated cinema in Japan and was the first Japanese animator to gain international recognition for his work post-WWII. Ofuji’s inventiveness is already evident in his earliest surviving work, Kemurigusa monogatari, in which he combines live-action and animation techniques. The film only survives as a fragment: ironically, it breaks off at precisely the point where the kobold-like cartoon character is about to launch into the story suggested by the film’s title! Nevertheless, Kemurigusa monogatari provides a good example of Ofuji’s signature style, employing cut-out figures made from chiyogami (Ofuji named his studio after the decorative paper for a reason). Ofuji was also adept at silhouette animation in a style not unlike Lotte Reiniger’s, a notable example being his later masterpiece Yureisen (The Phantom Ship), which was screened at the Venice Film Festival in 1956.

Oliver Hanley