1926 Anime

A short film based on the classic novel Journey to the West.

This is a political address delivered using a film as the medium. An arrow icon shows where to look. The original book was published under the same title.

(Source: animation.filmarchives.jp)

In front of a girl with the traditional Japanese hairstyle, a small man on a desk says, "women descended from tobacco." The girl laughs at him and traps him under a glass. The angry man puffs on a cigarette in a pipe and blows smoke at the girl. The girl takes the cigarette from the man and puts it under her book. When the man threatens her with a gun, the girl throws the cigarette into the yard. The man becomes really angry and tries to shoot her, but the gun does not fire. In the end, the man starts telling her about the beginning of tobacco.

(Source: animation.filmarchives.jp)

"This film was made to promote the public's awareness about hygiene. It is a rare film composed only of animation, with no live-action. At the time, the Ministry of Education released science films made using microscopic cinematography, such as Infectious Bacteria (傳染病の病原體, 1925), The Life of a Mosquito and the Spread of Disease (蚊の一生と疾病の傳播, 1925) and Flies and Diseases (蠅とその害毒, 1926). This work is an animation film made based on the achievements of these science films."

(Source: Japanese Animated Film Classics)