Two of Japan's oldest animation films, a folk tale and a comedy about a samurai warrior, have been recovered more than 90 years after they premiered, a museum said Thursday.
The two-minute silent films were forerunners of Japan's "anime" industry, which has developed into one of the country's major cultural exports.
The two films, which had been only known in historical documents saying that they were shown in 1917 and 1918, were found last year in an antique market in the western city of Osaka, the National Museum of Modern Art said.
One of the animations, entitled "Namakura-gatana" ("An Obtuse Sword"), is believed to be the oldest Japanese animation film still in existence. A comedy, the film relates the story of a samurai warrior who is tricked into buying a dull-edged sword.
He tries to attack passers-by so as to examine the sword, but lower-class townspeople fight back and knock him down.
The other film, which premiered in 1918, depicts a famous Japanese folk tale about a fisherman who is invited to an underwater castle after saving a sea turtle on a beach.
"They were both kept in paper containers, which prevented the films from deteriorating thanks to good ventilation," said Yoko Akasaki, a film researcher at the museum.
"We knew these films existed from reading about them in historical documents," she said. "We confirmed they were the films as they bore their titles."
The very first animation film created in Japan is believed to be one shown in January 1917, a few months before "Namakura-gatana" hit the screen.
Back then, silent films were screened with narrations.
They are particularly interesting for researchers, Akasaki said. "They are very ingeniously crafted, for example using the technique of shadowplay in the middle of the story."
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