Katsudō Shashin

, sometimes called the Matsumoto fragment, is an animated filmstrip that is the oldest known work while being the origin of Japanese animation. The title current stands provisional while the actual remains unknown along with its creators. Evidence suggests it was made before 1912, so it may predate the earliest displays of Western animated films in Japan. It was discovered in a collection of films and projectors in Kyoto in 2005.

Description
Katsudō Shashin consists of a series of cartoon images on fifty frames of a celluloid strip and lasts three seconds at sixteen frames per second. It depicts a young boy in a sailor suit who writes the kanji characters "活動写真" (katsudō shashin, "moving picture") in the historical eastern-asian right to left order, then turns to the viewer, removes his hat, and bows.

Unlike in traditional animation, the frames were not produced by photographing the images, but rather were impressed onto film using a stencil. This was done with a kappa-ban, a device for stencilling magic lantern slides. The images were in red and black on a strip of 35 mm film whose ends were fastened in a loop for continuous viewing.

Other Early Works before

 * , 1917 short film by Jun'ichi Kōuchi.
 * , 1917 short film by Ōten Shimokawa.
 * , 1918 short film by Seitaro Kitayama.
 * , 1928 short film by Yasuji Murata.
 * Norakuro film reels from 1933 - 1938.
 * , 1933 short film by Kenzō Masaoka.
 * , 1939 short film made by Kenzō Masaoka.
 * , 1942 short film by Mitsuyo Seo.
 * , 1943 short film by Kenzo Masaoka.
 * , 1945 full-length film by Mitsuyo Seo.
 * , 1958 short film by Hiroshi Washizumi.