Etona Eiga-sha (エトナ映画社)
Etona Eiga-sha (established September 1934, liquidated April 1935) was a film company that existed in Kyoto. It mainly produced silent films, as well as a few talkie films, but was liquidated only half a year after its establishment.
Brief history/summary
After the liquidation of Makino Productions, a company established by Shozo MAKINO in 1925 when he became independent from Toa Kinema, operations of the Omuro Studio it had built when handing over Tojiin Studio to Toa were taken over by Shoei Makino Kinema and then Takarazuka Kinema in 1932, but both of these companies went into liquidation as well.
Isuke TANAKA established 'Etona Eiga-sha' in 1934 and began producing films at the studio after renaming it 'Etona Eiga Kyoto Studio.'
The company employed film directors originally from Makino Productions such as Taisan GOTO of Takarazuka Kinema and Koji INABA of Ichikawa Utaemon Productions (Uta Puro), and Ken TSUMURA, Makino Productions' able advertising manager, was appointed as advertising manager. Key members of the filming department were Masao KISHI and his colleague Juzo TANAKA, who resigned from Makino Productions in 1930 along with the stage carpenter Hiroshi KAWAI and established 'Nihon Kinema Studio' at Uzumasa Narabigaoka. A key member to the scenario department was Masanobu NOMURA from Nikkatsu Kyoto. Key members of the players department were Tozaburo TSUBAME and Genzaburo AYANOKOJI, who called himself Reizaburo ASAKA, from Kawai Eiga Seisakusha, Yoichi MIZUHARA from Takarazuka Kinema and an aviator named Shinpei TAKAGI, as well as Keiko ISUZU from Shinko Kinema.
The company produced nine films, but was liquidated half a year after its establishment in April of 1935. After the company was liquidated, Inaba, Goto and Ayanokoji joined Kyokuto Eiga-sha, Tanaka turned freelance, Mizuhara joined Masahiro MAKINO's company called Makino Talkie Seisakusho and Takagi began doing road shows. Advertising manager Tsumura joined the company called Tsushin Godo-sha and became a journalist.
In June 11 of 2004, the 'Kyoto Shimbun' carried an article describing the details of the company.
Data
Company name: Etona Eiga-sha
Address: Hanazono Tenjugaoka, Ukyo Ward, Kyoto City (currently, Hanazono Tenjugaoka-machi, Ukyo Ward, Kyoto City)
Representative: Isuke TANAKA
Advertising manager: Ken TSUMURA