Lightning Burglar

...The "Japan's Leading Film Festival," held in 1899 by Hiromeya (an advertising agency) at the Kabukiza Theater in Tokyo, was a major production of this kind, and was narrated by Komada Yoshihiro, the founder of film tours and the first popular narrator (see the entry on "ben").
[Japan's first feature film, "Inazuma Kozo"]
In the same year, Shibata Tsunekichi was asked by Hiromeya to film "Lightning Robbery," a film using actors, about a robber being caught by a detective, and also filmed the kabuki play "Momijigari," starring Ichikawa Danjūrō ​​IX and Onoe Kikugoro V, at the request of the Kabukiza Theatre; the former is considered Japan's first feature film, and the latter is the oldest surviving Japanese film. Film exhibitions began to flourish around this time, and initially took place in vaudeville halls and sideshow booths, but as early as 1897 a movie theater called the Nippon Cinematograph Hall was built in Asakusa Roku-ku, albeit in a shack-like structure, and eventually in 1903 Denkikan, also in Asakusa Roku-ku, became the first proper movie theater.

*Some of the terminology explanations that refer to "Lightning Robbery" are listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…99年に広目屋(広告代理店)が東京の歌舞伎座で催した〈日本率先活動大写真〉はそれらの本格的興行で，映画巡業の創始者であり最初の人気弁士である駒田好洋が説明を行った(〈活弁〉の項目を参照)。
［日本最初の劇映画《稲妻小僧》］
　同じ99年，柴田常吉は広目屋の依頼で，強盗が刑事に捕らえられるという内容の《稲妻強盗》を俳優を使って撮るとともに，9世市川団十郎と5世尾上菊五郎の歌舞伎《紅葉狩》を歌舞伎座の依頼で撮影し，前者は日本最初の劇映画とされ，後者は現存する最古の日本映画となった。映画興行はこのころより盛んになり，初めは寄席や見世物小屋で行われたが，早くも1897年には浅草六区に，バラック建ての小屋ながら日本シネマトグラフ館という映画館がつくられ，やがて1903年，同じ浅草六区の電気館が最初の本格的映画館となった。…

※「《稲妻強盗》」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

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