Within a context of continuous interaction between the visible and invisible elements of artistic expression, within the give-and-take between the graphemic and phonemic elements of the sign, the development of the motion picture (katsudô shashin) in Japan represents yet another attempt by the visual to adapt to the growing dominance of the phonetic in modern culture. Other earlier reactions to the phonocentrism of modernity would include the talking penis- and vagina-heads of Utagawa Kunisada and their counterparts in the genitalia-centered texts of Santô Kyôden, where visual signs seek to become sources of speech. Another would be the brief collaboration, and subsequent failure, of Takizawa Bakin and Katsushika Hokusai as they attempted to produce gôkan (lengthy texts of illustrated fiction) together. The seeds of cinema were planted here in this failure.

Both Bakin, the writer, and Hokusai, the painter, sought and accomplished narrative brilliance, despite the fact that one specialized in words and the other in pictures. Hokusai's use of two-dimensional figures to tell stories gives us an important insight as to the general semiotic formation of modern consciousness. The movement toward narrativity reflected and emphasized earlier narrative uses of the image, such as etoki (narration of pictures), emaki (narrative picture scrolls), Nara ehon (picture books), and otogizôshi (illustrated narratives), though Hokusai moved significantly further in this direction than earlier visual artists. Needless to say, he readily proved his ability to narrate with pictures; and it was precisely this brilliant success that made Bakin reject him and seek out a less capable illustrator.