Nikkatsu

The Nikkatsu Corporation (日活株式会社, Nikkatsu kabushiki kaisha) is a Japanese entertainment company well known for its film and television productions. It is Japan's oldest major movie studio. The name Nikkatsu is an abbreviation of Nippon Katsudō Shashin, literally "Japan Cinematograph Company". Nikkatsu was founded on September 10, 1912 when several production companies and theater chains, Yoshizawa Shōten, Yokota Shōkai, Fukuhōdō and M. Pathe, consolidated under the name Nippon Katsudō Shashin. The company enjoyed its share of success. It employed such notable film directors as Shozo Makino and his son Masahiro Makino. In the course of World War II the government ordered the ten film companies that had formed by 1941 consolidate into...