Fukuhōdō

Fukuhōdō (福宝堂) was a Japanese film studio active in the early years of cinema in Japan.

Background

Fukuhōdō was founded in 1910 when Kenzō Tabata built a chain of modern, concrete movie theaters in Tokyo.^[1] To supply these eight theaters, Tabata started a production arm, with a studio located in Nippori.^[1][2] The company also enjoyed a huge success importing the French film Zigomar, which "had a major impact on Japanese film culture".^[3]

Merger

Fukuhōdō was one of Japan's major motion picture companies until 1912, when it merged with Yoshizawa Shōten, Yokota Shōkai, and M. Pathe to form Nikkatsu. Some employees of Fukuhōdō who did not take part in the merger, such as Kisaburō Kobayashi, later formed Tenkatsu,^[4] exploiting the Kinemacolor color motion picture system that was acquired before the merger but which was hidden from Nikkatsu.^[5] The National Film Center of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo is now located where the first Fukuhōdō theater, the Daiichi Fukuhōkan, was in Kyōbashi.^[6]

References

1. Komatsu, Hiroshi (2005). "Fukuhodo". In Richard Abel. Encyclopedia of Early Cinema. Routledge. p. 261. ISBN 0-415-23440-9.
2. "Eiga satsueijo no machi Arakawa". Arakawa monogatari (in Japanese). Retrieved 16 May 2011.
3. Gerow, Aaron (2010). Visions of Japanese Modernity. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 52. ISBN 978-0-520-25456-5.
4. Komatsu, Hiroshi (1995). "From natural colour to the pure motion picture drama: the meaning of Tenkatsu Company in the 1910s of Japanese film history". Film History 7 (1): 69–86.
5. Gerow, Aaron (2000). "One print in the age of mechanical reproduction: film industry and culture in 1910s Japan". Screening the Past (11).
6. Irie, Yoshirō (2008). "Nonfirumu: Shūshū, fea yūsu to akusesu" (PDF). Annual Report on THE GOOD PRACTICE (College of Arts and Sciences, Ritsumeikan University): 7.