Ryūichi Yokoyama(1909-2001)
- Writer
- Director
- Producer
When his mangas gave him enough popularity, the film industry began to
take an interest in him and he was hired to do the cartoon sequences of
the films "Enoken's Millions" (1937). Shortly after he created his most
famous manga series, "Fuku-Chan" (1938-71), which was converted in two
short animation films (1942-44) the first directed by reputed Kenzo
Masaoka. Yokoyama wrote the script himself and co-directed the second
one, which was his debut as a director; he directed several short films
more and finally, after creating his own studio, Otogi, in 1957, he did
two long-feature animation films, "Hyotan Suzume" ("The Sparrow in the
Empty Pumpkin", 1959) and "Otogi no Sekai Ryoko" ("Journey Around
Otogi's World", 1962). Yokoyama was also creator and director of the
Japan first animation TV series, "Instant History" (1961-62), followed
by "Manga Calendar" (1962-63). Yokoyama also directed a live-action
film with animation sequences, "Watashi wa nisai" ("I Am Two Years
Old", 1962), and also appeared as an actor in a film based on the manga
of his little brother Taizo Yokoyama, "Pu-San" ("Mr. Poo").
