Editing Cinema of Japan (section)

===Early silent era===
[[File:Orochi film1.jpg|thumb|[[Orochi (film)|Orochi]] ([[Buntarō Futagawa]])]]
[[File:Roningai film1.jpg|thumb|[[Roningai]] ([[Masahiro Makino]])]]

The [[kinetoscope]], first shown commercially by [[Thomas Edison]] in the United States in 1894, was first shown in Japan in November 1896. The [[Vitascope]] and the [[Lumière Brothers]]' [[Cinematograph]] were first presented in Japan in early 1897,<ref>{{cite book |last=Tsukada |first=Yoshinobu |title=Nihon eigashi no kenkyū: katsudō shashin torai zengo no jijō |publisher=Gendai Shokan |year=1980}}</ref> by businessmen such as [[Inabata Katsutaro]].<ref name="Victorian">{{cite web |last=McKernan |first=Luke|title=Inabata Katsutaro |url=http://www.victorian-cinema.net/inabata |work=Who's Who of Victorian Cinema |access-date=14 December 2012}}</ref> Lumière cameramen were the first to shoot films in Japan.<ref>{{cite book|title=Eiga denrai: shinematogurafu to &lt;Meiji no Nihon&gt; |date=1995 |editor1=Yoshishige Yoshida |editor2=Masao Yamaguchi |editor3=Naoyuki Kinoshita |publisher=Iwanami Shoten |isbn=4-00-000210-4}}</ref> Moving pictures, however, were not an entirely new experience for the Japanese because of their rich tradition of pre-cinematic devices such as ''gentō'' (''utsushi-e'') or the [[magic lantern]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Iwamoto |first=Kenji |title=Gentō no seiki: eiga zenʾya no shikaku bunkashi = Centuries of magic lanterns in Japan |publisher=Shinwasha |year=2002 |isbn=978-4-916087-25-6}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://plaza.bunka.go.jp/bunka/museum/kikaku/exhibition02/english/index-e.html |title=Utushi-e (Japanese Phantasmagoria) |last=Kusahara |first=Machiko |year=1999 |publisher=Media Art Plaza |access-date=29 December 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100528025650/http://plaza.bunka.go.jp/bunka/museum/kikaku/exhibition02/english/index-e.html |archive-date=28 May 2010 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> The first successful Japanese film in late 1897 showed sights in Tokyo.<ref>{{cite book| author=Keiko I. McDonald | title=Reading a Japanese Film: Cinema in Context| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ICqSfjUqIpMC | year=2006| publisher=University of Hawaii Press| isbn = 978-0-8248-2993-3 }}</ref>

In 1898, some [[ghost films]] were made, such as the [[Shiro Asano (cameraman)|Shirō Asano]] shorts ''[[Bake Jizo]]'' (Jizo the Spook / 化け地蔵) and ''[[Shinin no sosei]]'' (Resurrection of a Corpse).<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.seekjapan.jp/article-1/765/J-Horror:+An+Alternative+Guide |title=Seek Japan {{!}} J-Horror: An Alternative Guide |access-date=June 8, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070528164551/http://www.seekjapan.jp/article-1/765/J-Horror:+An+Alternative+Guide |archive-date=May 28, 2007 }}</ref> The first documentary, the short ''[[Geisha no teodori]]'' (芸者の手踊り), was made in June 1899. [[Tsunekichi Shibata]] made a number of early films, including ''[[Momijigari (film)|Momijigari]]'', an 1899 record of two famous actors performing a scene from a well-known [[kabuki]] play. Early films were influenced by traditional theater&nbsp;– for example, kabuki and [[bunraku]].