Shōkichi Umeya

Shōkichi Umeya
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	梅屋莊吉
Simplified Chinese	梅屋庄吉
Transcriptions
Japanese name
Kanji	梅屋庄吉
Hiragana	うめや しょうきち

Shōkichi Umeya (梅屋 庄吉, Umeya Shōkichi) (1868 – 1934) was a Japanese film promoter and producer who financially supported Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary activities over a period of nearly 20 years.[1] In 1906 he founded the early Japanese film production company M. Pathe.[2]

Biography

Umeya was a pan-Asianist activist.[3]: 1 

Umeya was born in 1868 to a merchant family in Nagasaki.[3]: 44  In 1882, he took his first trip abroad, going to Shanghai.[3]: 44  There, he was both impressed by the city's Euro-American aspects and also witnessed the city's semi-colonial nature, racism, and inequality.[3]: 44 

In his early 20s, Umeya worked in his family's international business, selling rice in Korea and speculating on gold mining in China.[3]: 44  In 1891, having experienced a series of business losses, he relocated to Amoy and then to Singapore, where he opened a photography studio.[3]: 44 

By 1895, Umeya had relocated his family and photography studio to Hong Kong.[3]: 44  He first met Sun Yat-sen in 1895 in Hong Kong and became a supporter of Sun's revolutionary cause.[3]: 1  Umeya began contributing funds to Sun's revolutionary activities and helped to secure weapons for the aborted Canton Uprising in 1895.[3]: 45  In 1903, Umeya fled the authorities and went to Singapore.[3]: 2  Drawing on his contacts with Sun's network, he entered the film exhibition business in order to help generate funds and popular support for the revolution.[3]: 2 

Umeya's film exhibition business became extremely profitable through showing news films about the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905).[3]: 2  Audiences were enthused to see the success of a rising Asian power on the film screen.[3]: 2 

Returning to Japan in 1906, Umeya founded one of Japan's earliest film companies, M. Pathé.[3]: 1, 44  He named the film company after the French company Pathé Frères.[3]: 44  Umeya used his profits to fund Sun's revolutionary activities, including providing financial support for the Mingbao newspaper.[3]: 2  Purportedly based on Sun's suggestion to use cinema for the public benefit, Umeya sought to connect film to the development of science, industry, and education.[3]: 46  As a result, M. Pathe in 1906, M. Pathe imported more than 120 educational and scientific films form Europe.[3]: 46 

In 1911, Umeya published A Treasured Encyclopedia of Moving Pictures, which provided synopses of approximately 400 scientific and educational films.[3]: 46 

M. Pathe documented the success of the 1911 Xinhai Revolution beginning with the Wuchang uprising and leading to Sun's inauguration, producing three documentary films that covered the revolution.[3]: 1 

See also

• Tōten Miyazaki, another Japanese supporter of Sun Yat-sen.

References

1. "Sun Yat-sen and his Japanese friend, Umeya Shokichi", CCTV News - CNTV English, 09/10/2011
2. "Umeya Shokichi - The Revolutionist as Impresario", Peter B. High, 2005 - Detailed biography of Umeya Shokichi by a professor at Nagoya University.
3. Qian, Ying (2024). Revolutionary Becomings: Documentary Media in Twentieth-Century China. New York, NY: Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231204477.

Further reading

• da Silva, Joaquín. "Chronology of Japanese Cinema 1906". EigaNove.

External links

• "Sun Yat-sen And Umeya Shokichi: China And Japan 100 Years Ago" The Japan Times Online, 22/07/2011
• "30 years of friendship on show in Japan", China Daily, 10/10/2011
• "A Bosom Japanese Friend of Sun Yat-sen - The Unveiling of Bronze Statue of Umeya Shokichi Held in Shanghai", Foreign Affairs Office of Shanghai Municipality, 07/11/2011