Nikkatsu 100: A Century of Japanese Cinema
The letter “Katsu (活)” means “kinetic” as in Kinematograph and was the recurring Kanji character in vocabulary of Japanese cinema culture. As Katsudo-shasin (活動写真) is the almost literal translation of Kinematograph, many film studios had the letter “Katsu(活)” in their brand name. Tenkatsu (天活) was one of the earliest cinema studios, Tennnenn-shoku Katsudo-shasin Kabusikikaisha (天然色活動写真株式会社, 1914 – 1919), specialized in hand-painted color features. Kokusai-Katsuei (国際活映, 1919 – 1925), dubbed as Kokkatsu (国活), inherited Tenkatsu in 1919, while Taisho-Katsuei (大正活映, 1920 – 1927) or Tai-Katsu (大活) was another studio with artistic flavor. While these studios were all short-lived, spanning less than …