Kenzo MASAOKA was born on Oct. 5 1898, as the son of wealthy landlord in Osaka. He had learned painting and music since he was a child. After studied Japanese-style painting at the art school in Kyoto from 1922, he studied Western-style painting at Aoibashi Art Institute of Seiki KURODA.
In 1923, Masaoka joined Makino Production in Kyoto. He worked as an assistant director for Shozo MAKINO and a set maker. He also appeared in the movie “Hitojichi (Hostage)” directed by Yoshinosuke Hitomi, using the name of Rurinosuke SEGAWA.
In the same year, independing he founded “Donbei production”. Produced and directed the film for the children “Umi to Kyuden (The Palace in the Sea)” which was assisted with money by his family.
In 1929, Masaoka started working at Nikkatsu Uzumasa Studio in Kyoto. After short time working as a cameraman, became the chief of technical section in the Educational movie department. Because of the close down of the department in the next year, he borrowed the production cost on the requirement that he was quit. For that he completed and released the animation film “The Monkey Island”. This was the start of his career as an animation film director.
Masaoka established Masaoka Film Production In 1932 and got down to production of animated cartoon films with his followers, such as Mitsuyo SEO. Getting cooperation of the biggest movie company Shochiku, they produced “Chikara to Onna no Yononaka (The World for the Power and Women”, which was the first full talking film in Japan. The story was about the husband who became crazy about a typist and his attractive wife. It was released at Asakusa Teikokukan Theater in Tokyo on Apr.15, 1933.
In the same year, Masaoka directed “Adauchi Karasu” and “Gang and Dancer”. He also showed his talent on special effect with movies, such as “Kaguya Hime (Princess Kaguya)” which made him known as Japanese Melies.
In 1934, he produced some beautifully smooth-moving animation using a lot of celluloid which were still expensive, such as “Tahchan no Kaitei Ryokou (Tahchan’s trip to the bottom of the sea)”, “Mori no Yakyuudan (The baseball team in the forest)”, and “Chagama Ondo (Dance of the Caldron)”.
Especially ” Mori no Yousei (A Fairy in the forest)” was called the best Japanese animation film at that time. He was even called “Japanese Disney”.
However, his production went bankrupt due to too much expense. So he contracted for the production of talking pictures at J. O. Studio and let it under subcontract of Touzou Masaki, Kakuzan Kimura, Manzou Miyashita, Masao Kumagawa, and so on.
Masaoka again founded the Japan Animation Society in Kyoto In 1937, and released “Benkei tai Ushiwaka(Benkei versus Ushiwaka)”, “Nyan no Urashima(Cat’s folktale)”, “Yume no Majutsushi (Magician in the dream)”, “Tori no Hoken Kanyuuin (the insurance salesbird)”, with the distribution of Shouchiku.
Since the war made hard to obtain the film, he joined the Shochiku Animation Institute as the head chief. He released many movies enthusiastically, starting from “Fuku-chan no Kishuu (Fuku-chan’s attack)”. One of his most famous work, “Kumo to Tulip (the Spider and the Tulip)”, was released in1943. It incurred the military’s displeasure because there was no animated film except it with the story which was not related to the war during the wartime.
In 1945, right after the end of the war, Masaoka established New Japan Animation Company with Sanae (Zenjirou) YAMAMOTO, Yasuji MURATA, and others. It was reformed into Japanese Animated Cartoon Company one month later. In 1946 he directed “Sakura ─ Haru no Gensou (Cherry Blossoms ─Fantasy in Spring)” but it could not release because the distribute company Toho considered the movie too artistic for the public.
Leaving there soon, Masaoka established Japan Animation Company with Yamamoto in 1947. Yamamoto worked as the president, Masaoka was as the director, and Taiji Yabushita was in charge of production management. They placed their studio at Seijo Junior High School in Tokyo and produced “Suteneko Tora-chan (Tora-chan, the Abandoned Cat)” in cooperation with Toho Educational Movie. Masaoka, however, had to retire after making “Tora-chan no Kankan Mushi (Tora-chan, the Ship Painter)” in 1949 because his sight got very poor due to overwork. (Japan Animation Company changed its name into Japanese Animation Film Company in 1952, but next year it was bought by Toei. This became Toei Animation Studio in August, 1956.)
Later Masaoka recovered his eyesight, so he devoted himself into teaching followers, writing a draft of the essay on movies, and drawing the storyboards of a new film. As you can see, he was multi-talented. He was also familiar with Japanese traditional performing arts, such as Nagauta and Kyogen.