The beginning of our beloved jdramas - the black and white 50s

On Sunday night at 23.30 I still had no idea of what to write for the post due to Monday. Thank gyoza I'm a night-person and Inspiration-God hit me hard after eating little bit of magical Nutella. So today I will become a history teacher and tell you a little bit of the beginning of our beloved dramas (written at the time when I should have studied for my Japanese language test) :

 

Inabata Katsutaro - classmates with Auguste Lumiere,
he brought cinematographe to Japan
making it possible to make and show movies in Japan

1897 - first movie that is produced in Japan for cinema. Just to remind you the official date of "the birth of cinema/ movies" is 28.th of December 1895 (in Paris by Auguste and Louis Lumiére). So as you can see Japan picked up movie industry in its early days. Of course back then "movie" meant one moving picture that lasted some seconds and had no important characters or actual plot. In Japanese case the first movie showed sights in Tokyo.

13.th of May 1939 - NHK (Nippon Housou Kyoukai, Japanese Broadcasting Corporation, established in 1926) began its experiments in television. Before it NHK was a radio station. Television itself was invented in 1925/26 (in London by John Logie Baird). The world's oldest TV station is WRGB, founded on 13.th of January 1928 in New York. This time Japan had a slight delay as it took 11 years before experimenting in television.

1940 - the first television drama "Yuugemae" ("Before dinner")
Written by Ima Uhei, directed by Sakamoto Tomokazu & Kawaguchi Ryuuji,
Cast: Seki Shihoko, Nonomura Kiyoshi, Hara Izumiko
The story itself was about a family of three: mother, daughter and son. While the daughter Kimiko prepares dinner, the son, Atsushi, reads about a bus crash and starts to worry about their mothers safety. Eventually mother returns with a picture of a man. Children think that mother wants to remarry and the person in the picture is the possible groom. In the end it turns out that its the memorial picture of their father, presumed dead in the war in China.
Guess how long was the first jdrama? A whole 12 minutes. Even though it cannot be tagged as "series" the way jdramas now mean "Japanese series" without those 12 minutes there wouldn't have been the development of 11 episodes we're watching now.

Check the year again and think about the political and social situation. Japan was in the war with China and was preparing for World War II. The following years of occupation did not make it any easier. That's why the idea of television dramas was suspended for about 10 years. 

1952 - "Shinkon album" ("Newly wed album")
While the first drama was quite Japanese-like family drama, then "Shinkon album" was light comedy.
Fun fact it is that there were only 866 television sets that could retrieve NHK at that time, so obviously not many people saw it.

1953 - "Yamaji no fue" ("Flute on the mountain path")

Written by Sugi Kayoko, directed by Hatanaka Tsuneo
Cast: Shitamoto Tsutomu, Otsuka Michiko
It was based on a northern Japanese folktale about a sad love story between musician Tojiro and his wife/ guardian angel.
It was broadcasted live and we all know those awesome "mistakes of live broadcasts". The first blooper in Japanese television industry happened exactly in "Yamaji no fue". The cameraman forgot to turn the camera away from Otsuka Michiko changing her costume. Thank gyoza TV sets weren't that common at that time!

1950s - "Hanshichi"
Written by Nishikawa Kiyoyuki, directed by Nagayama Hiroshi
Adapted from old samurai detective story by former kabuki playwright Okamoto Kido.
This was Japanese first true period drama.
The lenght of the it was 40-minutes - basically the same as one episode nowadays!
Also as in the following years sequels were made - it can be titled as the first Japanese series.

1953 - "Wagaya no Nichiyou nikki" ("Sunday diary of my home")
Written by Yamashita Yoshikazu, directed by Ogata Tsutomu
Cast: Mayumida Kazuo, Horikoshi Setsuko

Murase Sachiko played in "Koufuku e no kifuku"

An upgrade on the series field. In total there were 25 episodes (~30minutes per episode).
It was also the first jdrama in the genre "home drama" or "kitchen-sink drama" as it focused on general differences and the contradictions of being a loving family in a confined space.
Shown on NTV (Nihon TV).

1953 - "Koufuku e no kifuku" ("Ups and downs towards happiness")
Written by Kyo Izumi
The story is about wealthy Kanou family who are rendered penniless after the World War II and are forced to struggle for existence. This drama brought depth and real life events into dramas.
This was the first time that 13 episode format was deliberately used. Even though after that they continued experimenting.

1955 - "Todoroki sensei" live-action
The first televisual adaption of manga! The manga its based on is "Todoroki sensei" by Akiypshi Hajime. Todoroki-san was played by comedian Furukawa Roppo.

The same year KRT (now known as  Tokyo Broadcasting Systems aka TBS) made its first broadcasts. KRT/TBS immediately specialized in "television novels" aka jdramas - guess they knew where the fortune lies! Their first hit was "Himanashi Tobidasu" ("Mr. Himanashi jumps out") - a mystery series about crime-solving adventures of a photographer Himana Shinsuke and his assistant Daisuke.

Gekko Kamen character chart

During those years television series were mainly imported from USA (let me remind you again that Japan was under occupation until 1952, so Japanese after-war life was greatly influenced by American lifestyle). Using this influence as inspiration Japan made its first superhero (and series about him),"Gekko Kamen" ("The Moonlight Mask"), that was one of the few fully Japanese made series that made it into the top ten ratings.

"Jiken Kisha" ("Crime journalist") is considered to be the first "career drama" or "work-place drama" - genre that now is the dominating one in the world Japanese dramas. Actually before that "Himanashi Tobidasu" and "Dial 110" (a slice of life drama about police officers) were made, but as they focused only on the crime solving, "Jiken Kisha" was the first to put emphasis also on the workplace itself.

1959 - two more networks started broadcasting. Guess what they were? Of course they were Fuji TV and Nihon Educational Television, now known as Tv Asahi. Of course as the Royal wedding of Crown Prince Akihito to Shota Michiko  (current emperor and empress) was shown in TV, so it made even more people purchase television sets. Some months later color TVs made it to Japan.

Watashi wa kai ni naritai (1959)
in 2008 it got a remake!

So as you can see the first decade of Jdramas were rather experimental both in the area of television technologies, series formats and plots. Yet the roots of current jdoramas are clearly noticeable in the earlier dramas: the family-focused home-dramas, the touch of reality,  the live actions and even career dramas began during that time! Also I must add that the royal wedding gave inspiration to Cinderella stories as Empress Michiko was a commoner.
From that time come titles as "Tenraku no shishuu" ("Poems from heaven"), "Watashi wa yakusoku wo mamotta" ("I kept my promise"), "Inu wa ikiteiru" ("The dog is alive"), "Tsuiseki" ("Pursuit"), "Watashi wa kai ni naritai" ("I want to become a shellfish"), "My wife is 18", "Mama is my rival", "Minami's sweetheart", "Steel angel Kurumi - Pure", "Bus Dori Ura" ("Off the bus route") , "Non-chan's dream", "Musume to watashi" ("My daughter and I") etc. I hope one day I am able too see some of them.

This time it was rather educative, wasn't it? Most of the information comes from a book titled "The Dorama Encyclopedia: A Guide to Japanese TV Drama Since 1953" (Stone Bridge Pres, 2003) written by Jonathan Clements and Motoko Tamamuro. Dear Santa, I don't mind having my own copy of this fantastic book! I promise I will study hard to do something as awesome as that with my degree in the future!