1917-1960: Early Animators

Note: Film lengths in this section are not accurate for a number of reasons:

current copies of films may be missing frames/footage.
silent films had varying recording/projecting speeds. It is unclear whether or not the lengths given in current sources are taken from playing the film at 24 fps or at 16-23 fps depending on the intended projection speed of the film
some lengthsmay be estimates or rounded up/down
because of the unreliability of film lengths, the number of reels is also cited when it is known.
when more information becomes available, the lengths section will be altered to give additional context to the question of individual film lengths. ie. film reel(s) length in meters.

Resources:

A History of Japanese Animation (JP), NFC Screening Programme, July 2004)
Geschichte des japanischen Animationsfilms (pdf), Stadtmuseum Online
Early Japanese Animation: As Innovative as Contemporary Anime (Armen Boudjikanian, Frames per Second, 26 Feb. 2008)
Interview with Akira Tochigi (Montreal Mirror, 18 March 2008)
Interview with Akira Tochigi (Armen Boudjikanian, Frames per Second, 5 April 2008)
Pioneers of Japanese Animation at PIFAN, Pt. 1 (Jasper Sharp, Midnight Eye, 23 Sept 2004)
Pioneers of Japanese Animation at PIFAN, Pt.2 (Jasper Sharp, Midnight Eye, 1 Nov 2004)
Old anime (Benjamin Ettinger, Anipages, 30 May 2007)
Shorts By Anime Pioneers Surface in Japan (pdf), The Silent Treatment, Vol. 2, No. 1 (May/June 2008)
A Capsule History of Anime (Fred Patten, AWN)
Japan's Top Anime People (knol)

DVD Filmography: