was a Japanese film studio active in the early years of cinema in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

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Background

Fukuhōdō was founded in 1910 when Kenzō Tabata built a chain of modern, concrete movie theater

Movie theater

A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....

s in Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

. To supply these eight theaters, Tabata started a production arm, with a studio located in Nippori. The company also enjoyed a huge success importing the French film Zigomar, which "had a major impact on Japanese film culture".

Merger

Fukuhōdō was one of Japan's major motion picture companies until 1912, when it merged with Yoshizawa Shōten

Yoshizawa Shōten

was a film studio and importer active in the early years of cinema in Japan. Originally involved in the magic lantern business, Yoshizawa bought a cinématographe camera off a visiting Italian and began exhibiting motion pictures in 1897. Run by Ken'ichi Kawaura, and having an office in London,...

, Yokota Shōkai

Yokota Shōkai

was a Japanese film studio active in the early years of cinema in Japan. Its origins can be traced back to when Einosuke Yokota received one of the first Lumiere cinematograph machines in Japan from Katsutarō Inaba to conduct traveling exhibitions of the device. In 1901, Yokota founded Yokota...

, and M. Pathe

M. Pathe

was a Japanese film studio active in the early years of cinema in Japan.-Background:M. Pathe was founded in 1906 by Shōkichi Umeya, a businessman who had distributed films first in Malaysia and Singapore and then in Japan. He took the name "M. Pathe" from the French Pathé Frères studio even though...

 to form Nikkatsu

Nikkatsu

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".-History:...

. Some employees of Fukuhōdō who did not take part in the merger, such as Kisaburō Kobayashi, later formed Tenkatsu

Tennenshoku Katsudō Shashin

was a Japanese film studio active in the 1910s. The name translates as the "Natural Color Moving Picture Company," but it was known as Tenkatsu for short...

, exploiting the Kinemacolor

Kinemacolor

Kinemacolor was the first successful color motion picture process, used commercially from 1908 to 1914. It was invented by George Albert Smith of Brighton, England in 1906. He was influenced by the work of William Norman Lascelles Davidson. It was launched by Charles Urban's Urban Trading Co. of...

 color motion picture system that was acquired before the merger but which was hidden from Nikkatsu. The National Film Center of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo

National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo

The in Tokyo, Japan, is the foremost museum collecting and exhibiting contemporary Japanese art.This Tokyo museum is also known by the English acronym MOMAT...

 is now located where the first Fukuhōdō theater, the Daiichi Fukuhōkan, was in Kyōbashi

Kyobashi

is the name of a bridge as well as the geographical region around it. Two regions with this name exist in Japan, one is in Tokyo and one lies in Osaka. It refers to a bridge connecting roads to the capital in castle towns.-Tokyo:...

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