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Abstract Maple Viewing (1899) is considered the earliest surviving Japanese film. Photographed by the cinematographer Shibata Tsunekichi, the film records Kabuki actors Ichikawa Danjurō IX and Onoe Kikugorō V performing in a play of the same name. There is no doubt that Maple Viewing is an early “surviving” work. Yet can we call Maple Viewing “Japanese” simply because it was photographed in Japan by a Japanese cinematographer? If we imagine that it was produced for non-Japanese viewers in the context of an Orientalist imagination, what would its classification as “Japanese” amount to? Moreover, we can also question its status as a “film” in turn-of-the-century discourse. What was Maple Viewing understood to be when it was first exhibited? Focusing on the work of Shibata, this chapter examines early Japanese filmmaking in terms of the influence of Japanese art and culture on European fine art, as well as Japanese reactions to “Japonisme.”
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