Tadahito Mochinaga. All photos provided by and courtesy ofKosei Ono.

On April 1, 1999, Tadahito Mochinaga died at the age of 80. He holds a unique position in the history of both Japanese and Chinese animated films. He is the animator who designed and used the multi-plane camera for the first time in Japan. He also made the first stop-motion puppet animations in China and Japan. In addition, he is among the founding members who built the present Shanghai Animation Film Studio.

The Legend's Early Years
Born in Tokyo in 1919, Mochinaga moved to Manchuria with his family, since his father worked at the South Manchuria Railway Company. Mochinaga spent his elementary school days in China where he became familiar with the Chinese people and their culture. Although his father was stationed in Manchuria, other members of the family, including Mochinaga, made trips back and forth between Japan and China from time to time. When he was 10 years-old, he saw a Mickey Mouse animation short at a movie theater in Tokyo which left a strong impression on him. During his junior high school days in Tokyo, Mochinaga saw another Disney animation: Water Babies from the Silly Symphony series. Made in Technicolor, the lotus flower pond in the film captured him with its beauty. Due to this, he was determined to become an animation filmmaker.

During his three years as an art school student in Tokyo, Mochinaga devoted his time to studying the techniques of animated filmmaking. In 1938, he surpised the school instructors by making a short film titled How to Make Animated Films as his graduate work. After graduation, he was employed as a member of the animation department at Geijutsu Eigasha (GES) or Art Film Company.

Young Mochinaga's first job at GES was as a background artist for director Mitsuse Seo's cartoon short for children. This animation, featuring a school of ducklings, was sponsored by the Ministry of Education. In 1941, Seo directed another animation film for the Ministry of Education. The title was Ari-Chan (Ant Boy). For the first time in Japan, Mochinaga designed and built a four-level multi-plane camera for this 13-minute piece. The story revolves around a boy ant who is fascinated by the violin music played by a cricket. Mochinaga's new camera effectively and beautifully shot this film, and it became one of the most poetic cartoon films in pre-war Japan.

But the animators' satisfaction of making such elegant children's films was short lived. Japanese militarism was strengthened, and with the outbreak of the Pacific War, Japanese animators were forced to make propaganda films. In 1943, commissioned by the Imperial Navy, Seo directed Momotaro, the Sea Eagle, the 37-minute cartoon version of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Mochinaga worked on the background art and shooting of this film. Japanese children enjoyed the story of the teenage hero Momotaro, leading the monkey and rabbit fleet to attack Devil's Island. The film became a record boxoffice hit.