was a Japanese film studio active in the early years of cinema in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. Its origins can be traced back to when Einosuke Yokota received one of the first Lumiere

Lumière

-Characters:*Lumière , one of the two main characters of the 2002 anime series Kiddy Grade*Lumiere, a character in the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast-Places:*Lumière, a restaurant in Vancouver, Canada...

 cinematograph machines in Japan from Katsutarō Inaba to conduct traveling exhibitions of the device. In 1901, Yokota founded Yokota Shōkai and concentrated on film importing and exhibition. Around 1908, the company began contracting with Shōzō Makino and his Senbonza theater to begin creating jidaigeki

Jidaigeki

is a genre of film, television, and theatre in Japan. The name means "period drama" and is usually the Edo period of Japanese history, from 1603 to 1868. Some, however, are set much earlier—Portrait of Hell, for example, is set during the late Heian period—and the early Meiji era is also a popular...

 (called kyūgeki at the time), which eventually made a star out of Matsunosuke Onoe

Matsunosuke Onoe

, sometimes known as Medama no Matchan , was a Japanese actor. His birth name is Tsuruzo Nakamura. He is sometimes credited as Yukio Koki, Tamijaku Onoe, or Tsunusaburo Onoe, and as a kabuki artist he went by the name Tsurusaburo Onoe...

. Its first studio was the Nijō Castle Studio, the second the Hokkendō Studio. In 1912, Yokota Shōkai merged with Yoshizawa Shōten

Yoshizawa Shōten

was a film studio and importer active in the early years of cinema in Japan. Originally involved in the magic lantern business, Yoshizawa bought a cinématographe camera off a visiting Italian and began exhibiting motion pictures in 1897. Run by Ken'ichi Kawaura, and having an office in London,...

, Fukuhōdō

Fukuhōdō

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. To supply these eight theaters, Tabata started a production arm, with a studio located in Nippori...

, and M. Pathe

M. Pathe

was a Japanese film studio active in the early years of cinema in Japan.-Background:M. Pathe was founded in 1906 by Shōkichi Umeya, a businessman who had distributed films first in Malaysia and Singapore and then in Japan. He took the name "M. Pathe" from the French Pathé Frères studio even though...

 to form Nikkatsu

Nikkatsu

is a Japanese entertainment company well known for its film and television productions. It is Japan's oldest major movie studio. The name Nikkatsu is an abbreviation of Nippon Katsudō Shashin, literally "Japan Cinematograph Company".-History:...

.

External links

• Yokota Shokai in the Internet Movie Database