The Masterpiece of Tamagata
A secret child, a powerful adversary & a boundless painted world
UK | 40 mins | 2025 (in PRODUCTION)
Tamagata Blog
“For several years, we had secretly sheltered a young boy to prevent him being separated from his mother by the oppressive apartheid government. I think my mother wrote Tamagata to process that experience, setting it far away from South Africa to avoid the child being forcibly taken and she and my father being sent to prison.”
love, defiance and Escape
Set in ancient Japan, this hand-painted animation is based on a secret story by acclaimed author Betty Misheiker.
Desperate to save their childless marriage, a master painter and his wife retreat into an imagined world, painting the daughter they cannot have. With each brushstroke, the line between fantasy and reality blurs, until a dangerous confrontation with the Shogun threatens to tear it all apart.
The 40-minute film will be released on the international festival circuit in 2026.
“Hearing the story of Tamagata really resonates with me as someone that’s experienced an internalisation or an internal fantasy based on external trauma.”
EXPANDED CINEMATIC EXPERIENCE
Paris Projections (image: Artcrush / Amir Azari)
Beyond the film, Tamagata is a cinematic experience that extends into the museum, concert hall, cityscape and metaverse.
We plan to develop our prototype installation into a fully immersive museum experience, combining fine art, digital projections, an architectural set and orchestral music. Accompanying this, we are devising a programme of creative workshops, including Japanese ink painting (sumi-e), kimono design and dressing, frame-by-frame animation, visual storytelling, and more.
“I was absolutely taken away to old Japan but also into the drawing itself. With the ink swirling I felt completely part of the piece.”
Orchestral Music
The Tamagata score combines Western orchestral music with feature soloists on traditional Japanese instruments, including shamisen, shakuhachi and koto. Composer Anna Rice has been a key part of the creative team since the development phase of the project, driving the emotional narrative and character development.
“I feel that all of us can make a bond with the story. What I mean is this contrast between the real world and our own inside world.”
THE TAMAGATA COLLECTION
The Masterpiece of Tamagata is one of the first ever animated features to use blockchain technology.
In May 2023, we released a collectible digital artwork as part of an immersive experience at the NFC Summit in Lisbon. The official launch took place on 21 June as a featured project on Makersplace. Thanks to the extraordinary generosity of our community, the collection sold out in two hours - thank you!
“It is amazing. Touching. Intense. It makes you think about how we process all the information we feel and the pressure we feel from this reality and how we can just release it differently.”
Behind the scenes
CAST & CREW
The team is guided by specialist advisers, who are helping us shape a world that is respectful of the rich cultural traditions of Japan. We are particularly grateful to Hamish Todd and Yasuyo Ohtsuka at the British Library; Haemin Ko and the University of Seoul; Anna Jackson at the V&A; Diana Roberts at the Royal College of Music; Sam Meech for his projection mapping expertise; Gregory Magee for his generous contribution to the music; and William Simpson and Richard Crane for their feedback on script and story.
Music published by First Name Music Ltd / Novello & Co Ltd © 2021. All rights reserved.
“The imagination, the sensitivity – beautiful; the visualisation – beautiful; it’s got to be taken right as far as it can.”
