Danemon’s Monster Hunt at Shojoji-Japanese Animation 1935-Anime Cartoon

A slapstick tale of a real life figure who transmuted into legend: Ban Naoyuki (1567 — 1615), a Japanese samurai general. Here, depicted as a lovable, blustering strongman (who uses pince-nez!), he does battle with a house of tanuki, the funloving, shapeshifting raccoon dogs, led by the one-eyed Date Masamune (1567 –1636) another historic warrior. Both these true-life personalities continue to figure in Japanese popular media. (UPDATE: A viewer has noted: “Is it one-eyed samurai Date Masamune? No, it’s wrong You should know one arm, one eye samurai, Tange Sazen Tange Sazen was a very popular samurai at the time, and between 1928 and 1939 many film companies made as many as 20 films about him. (Including OokaSeidan)“) Here we see the comic, Fleischer-inspired side of Japanese animation, with a hero resembling Bluto, and modern props incongruously figuring in a historic milieu. But still, an atmosphere of comic suspense is maintained. “Drawings”: Yoshitaro Kataoka, who made some of the earliest efforts in col