Shintoho

Shintoho Company, Limited (新東宝株式会社 Shin Tōhō Kabushikikaisha, lit New Toho Co., Ltd.) was a short-lived Japanese film studio. It was founded by defectors from Toho in 1947 and was financed by Daiei. In 1961, Shintoho declared bankruptcy and a successor was founded the same year, named Shintoho Eiga, which went on to specialize in pink films.

Shintoho is considered to be one of the 6 major film studios active during the 1950s' "Golden Age of Japanese Cinema", which also included Toho, Daiei, Nikkatsu, Shochiku, and Toei.

History

Founded in 1947 as an offshoot of Toho after the major company had become struck with labor turmoil, Shintoho began its relatively short existence producing such films as Stray Dog, which was later distributed by Toho, and The Life of Oharu. However, the company found itself to be outflanked by other much larger studios and appointed Mitsugu Okura as its new top executive in 1955 to guide the company toward better things. Under the guidance of Okura, Shintoho began producing such works as the critically acclaimed Super Giant series, war films, a slew of pink films, and a number of films centered around the supernatural among a handful of others.

In May of 1961, Shintoho declared bankruptcy and two new companies were formed to take its place. Mitsugu Okura, Shintoho's former president, created the Okura Eiga studio after purchasing Shintoho's production facilities in Tokyo. At this time Koichi Goto, a former Shintoho employee, purchased the rights to the Shintoho name and 3 years later established Shintoho Entertainment. In 1972, this new company relocated from Osaka to Tokyo and absorbed another piece of the original Shintoho, as well as receiving a new name: "Shintoho Eiga". Shintoho Eiga also later went on to distribute a number of Shintoho's films and former director for Shintoho, Kiyoshi Komori, began directing pink films for Shintoho Eiga in 1964 until his retirement in the 1970s.