Three Steps Over Japan

The History of Manga, Part 12

2009-12-28T17:10:00.000-08:00

(Shonen Club cover, from the Authentic Account exhibit book. Used for review purposes only.)

Kenichi Katou (1896-1975) was a pivotal player in the mid- to recent-history of manga. Born in Aomori prefecture on May 28, 1896, as well as being a kendo master, he joined the Kodansha publishing company in 1921. Initially, he worked as the editor-in-chief on the 少年倶楽部 (Shonen Kurabu, renamed to 少年クラブ (Shonen Club) in 1946) magazine. While there, he worked with famous names like the historical novelist Eiji Yoshikawa, as well as introducing new artists like Suihou Tagawa, creator of "Norakuro, Private Second Class" (1931), and Keizou Shimada, creator of 冒険ダン吉 ("Boken Dankichi", 1933) to the public. In 1936, he launched the new publication "Kodansha no Ehon" (Kodansha Picture Book).

(Manga Shonen and Shonen Club covers. From the Authentic Account exhibit book. Used for review purposes only.)

("The Wonderful Journey", by Tezuka. From the Authentic Account exhibit book. Used for review purposes only.)

("Angel, Second Class", by Ishinomori. From the Authentic Account exhibit book. Used for review purposes only.)

In 1947, Kenichi decided to strike out on his own, creating his "漫画少年" (Manga Shonen) magazine. It was here that he had the biggest impact on manga history, publishing Tezuka's "Jungle Taitei" and "The Wonderful Journey", and helping promote the "Tokiwa Manor Gang". Shotaro Ishimori's "Second Class Angel" appeared in Manga Shonen in 1952. He also printed Machiko Hasegawa's "Sazae-san". However, Manga Shonen ended its run in 1955 and Kenichi returned to Kodansha.

(Yakyu Shonen covers. From the Authentic Account exhibit book. Used for review purposes only.)

(Shonen Magajin cover. From the Authentic Account exhibit book. Used for review purposes only.)

He became the section chief at Kodansha, then eventually a board member. One of the titles started at this time was Yakyu Shonen (Baseball Boys). And, he also launched this one, obscure, magazine in 1959, called Weekly Shonen Magajin (Weekly Shonen Magazine), which celebrated its 50th anniversary in March, 2009. He died on June 30, 1975, at age 79.

(Kodansha Ehon cover. From the Authentic Account exhibit book. Used for review purposes only.)

(Medal you received for joining the Manga Shonen fan club. From the Authentic Account exhibit book. Used for review purposes only.)

References:
Short bio (Japanese only).
Additional info (Japanese only).
"An Authentic Account: Manga Shonen" exhibit book.

More anime-related pictures, 2

2009-12-27T16:08:00.000-08:00

The weekend of Dec. 19-20, the space in the tunnel next to Yodobashi Camera in Akihabara was used to promote the new release of the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen DVD.

The same Saturday, the Belle Salle building down the street on Chuu-ou Dori hosted the sales of a number of video games. Most prominent was the walking gun mount set up in front of the building.

And, over in Shinjuku, the pillars in the basement of the JR station were used to promote the release of the new Final Fantasy XIII game.

The History of Manga, Part 11

2009-12-26T16:28:00.000-08:00

The Norakuro Manga Museum in the Morishita Cultural Center has a little brochure advertising the museum, and it includes a short chronology for "Norakuro's" creator, Suihou Tagawa. It's relevant here because Suiho was a contemporary of the early shojo magazine illustrators, and he published panel strips at the same time Katsudi did, but he took the route of early shonen magazines instead. I've mentioned Suihou several times, especially as the mentor for "Sazae-san's" Machiko Hasegawa. The below information is translated from the MCC pamphlet.

田河水泡略年譜
Suihou Tagawa Short Chronology

1899 Feb. 10, born in Muramachi, in Honjo Ward, Tokyo as Nakataro Takamizawa. His parents produced knitted goods at home. The following year, his mother, Waki, died.

1905 After entering Tatekawa municipal school, he entered Rinkai Jinjo Elementary. Around that time, an older cousin, Osamu Takamizawa and others, would visit, carrying oil paint sets. Seeing this, Nakataro became interested in painting.

1922 Entered Nihon Bijutsu Gakuen (Japan Art School), where he received instruction from Hisui Sugiura and Kigen Nakagawa. After visiting the "Sanka Independent" exhibition, he started drawing abstract art.

(Hisui was a famous art deco illustrator, and Kigen made woodblock prints. Kigen studied briefly under Henri Matisse.)

1923 Joined the Avante-Garde group "Mavo" and changed his name to Michinao Takamizawa. Members included Tomoyoshi Murayama, Masamu Yanase and Sumitani.

("Mavo" was an Avante-Garde art movement in Japan from 1905 to 1931. "Sanka Independent" (i.e. - Third Department Independent) was an exhibit featuring Mavo's works.)

1926 Joined Kodansha Publishing as a rakugo writer (Japanese style comedy). Changed his name to 高沢路亭 (having trouble finding the correct reading for these kanji).

1928 His first manga, "Eyeball Chibi-chan", starts serialization in Shonen Kurabu (Boy's Club) magazine. He starts using the pen name Suiho Tagawa. In September, he marries Fujiko Komura (younger sister of literary critic Hideo Komura). She changes her name to Junko Takamizawa.

(Norakuro)

1931 "Norakuro Nitou Sotsu" (Norakuro, Private, 2nd Class ) started running in Shonen Kurabu. Initially, it was just planned to have a 1-year run, but its popularity exploded and it ran continuously for 11 years. It was also published as collected volumes.

1933 "Dekoboko Kurohei'e" started running as a separate supplement with the May issue of Fujin Kurabu (Women's Club).

1934 Introduced to Machiko Hasegawa (later, the creator of "Sazae-san"). She has a story serialized in Shoujo Kurabu (Girl's Club) as early as age 16.

(She was born in 1920, so the first story would have appeared in 1936. Sazae-san started in 1946. She moves out of Tokyo in 1944 to escape the bombing. Her apprenticeship with Suiho would have been between 1934 and 1941.)

1941 The Military government shuts down "Norakuro" and all other entertainment-only manga, ostensibly to conserve printing paper.

1958 "Norakuro's Autobiography" begins running in the October issue of Maru magazine. This starts a Norakuro revival boom.

(Shonen Kurabu, with an early Norakuro story.)

1967 Publication of "The Norakuro Complete Manga Works". Because the pre-war first volume published by Shonen Kurabu had been discontinued, the "Complete Works" did not include it. This collection triggered the second Norakuro boom.

1981 Publication of "Kokkei no Kouzou" ("The Structure of Humor") through Kodansha. This book includes explanations and exercises as an examination of the humorous.

1987 In November, awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Fourth Class.

1989, Feb. 10 A birthday party is held for "Suiho' 90's anniversary, and the 60th meeting of "Tadpole"". In August, the Tezuka World exhibition holds the "Norakuro and The Phoenix" display (at Takashimaya in Nihonbashi). On December 12, Suiho suffers from respiratory failure at the Kitasato University hospital, where he passes away at age 90.

This is an admittedly short list. The Japanese wiki page lists 9 of his students. You can see more examples of his artwork here.

Kameari

2009-12-25T17:10:00.000-08:00

"Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Koen Mae Hashutsujo" (This is the police box in front of There Are Turtles Park in Katsushika Ward) is the longest-running manga in history, having started in Sept., 1976, and with well over 170 volumes. Shortened to "Kochikame", it's actually set in a real location, near Kameari station a few miles east of Ueno, outside the Yamanote loop. To commemorate the manga, two bronze statues were erected in 2006, one each near the north and south station exits.

Actually, the southern statue is next to the police box about 100 feet to the left of the station exit, past the taxi circle. The northern statue is between the exit and the bus circle. There's a second police box a short distance off to the right from this statue, as well.

(South police box. Ryou is just to the left here.)

To get here from Tokyo, the most simple option is to just get on the Chiyoda metro subway line (it can be picked up at Nishi Nippori, 2 stops north of Ueno on the Yamanote line) and ride out to Kameari. If you take one of the JR lines out of Ueno, you'll have to switch to Chiyoda about 2 stations short of Kameari, since the JR trains pass over Kameari without stopping. Train fare is about 200 yen one way from Ueno.

(Ryou greets you just as you exit the station on the north side.)

(North police box, just to the right of Ryou #2.)

The Association of Japan Animations sightseeing map mentions various branded goods available from the stores nearby. All I could find were the omiyage (souvenir) snacks at the convenience stores at the station exits. There were three kinds - two different boxes of "yaki ningyo" (baked figure cakes) and a box of rice cracker shapes. They were in the 800-1000 yen range ($9-$12 USD).

(Sign for the goods shop)

However, a sign up at the tracks next to the platform seems to advertise a goods shop somewhere off from the south exit. I couldn't read the sign until after blowing up the photo when I got home.

(Custard-filled figure cakes. Mmm, tasty.)

Some of the streets also had Ryou banners. I liked the juxtaposition of a "kameari rice cracker shop" next to one of the banners.

This is the Kameari Park in its current state. I couldn't find anything else in the area with that name. Definitely no turtles here.

(Here there be turtles (rice cracker turtles).)

The History of Manga, Part 10

2009-12-24T17:04:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to All!

Again, we run into the question of what manga is. Obviously, we have dedicated manga magazines as early as the 1870's, but they're based on western designs, and are often just political cartoons. Granted, by 1910 they're multi-panel (as opposed to simple one-panel editorial cartoons), with dialog and a story, but there's a disconnect between the early "manga as caricature" and the panel strip titles like "Norakuro" (1931) and "Mysterious Clover" (1934). There's also a tendency to lump shonen and shojo magazines together. Gekkan Bijutsu included Shonen Kurabu (Boy's Club) in along with the children's titles like Kodomo no Kuni and Kodomo no Tomo (Child's Country and Child's Friend; the latter of which came from Rakuten Kitazawa, of Tokyo Puck fame) in their time line of illustrated girl's and women's magazines.

The main point, though, is that there wasn't a vacuum. Comics in one form or another were appearing in magazines and newspapers from the 1870's up to 1908, when we have the creation of Shojo no Tomo. Then, we have the illustrators like Takei Takeo and Takehisa Yumeji working in Shojo no Tomo and the other girl's magazines, and in the children's manga magazine Kodomo Puck (1924) up until Tezuka's arrival in 1946. However, there was something of a gap between the late 1930's and 1946. The two main artists doing consistent panel stories that I can find right now were Katsudi and Suiho Tagawa, and both of them were knocked out of print during WW II because of the military decree against entertainment publications.

When the war ended, artists stepped back in to fill the void. Machiko Hasegawa (who trained under Suiho Tagawa, and I'll discuss him more in part 11) also started her "Sazae-san" in 1946 in the local Kyushu newspaper. Toshiko Ueda ("Fuichin-san", who trained under Katsudi) came in with "Boku-chan" in the newly-formed Shojo Book magazine in 1951.

But, it's not until Tezuka starts running "Shin Takarajima" in 1947 that we start seeing what we truly recognize as "modern-day manga" becoming more common - i.e. - longer story-driven art that isn't social satire and isn't yonkoma. Based on the wiki entry, we see from him, "Tuberculosis" (1948), "The Moony Man" (1948), "Lost World" (1948), "Metropolis" (1949), "Jungle Taitei" (1950-1954, AKA "Kimba"), "Captain ATOM" (1951-2) and "Tetsuwan Atomu" (1952-68) - all appearing in established magazines such as Shojo no Tomo, as well as the new boy's publication - Manga Shonen. In order to meet his deadlines, Tezuka starts hiring assistants and that's where we see him working from Tokiwa Manor from 1953 to 1954. Following this, at least half of his assistants go on to be major manga artists themselves, most notably Shotaro Ishinomori (Cyborg 009), Fujio Fujiko (Doraemon) and Fujio Akatsuka (Tensai Bakabon). While there are other manga artists that show up in the 50's and 60's, many of them at a minimum were at least influenced by the manga they read from Tezuka. The big hitters include Leiji Matsumoto (1953) ("Captain Harlock"), Mitsuteru Yokoyama (1954 or '55, "Tetsujin 28-go"), Shigeru Mizuki (1957) ("Gegege no Kitaro"), Chiba Tetsuya (1958) ("Ashita no Joe") and Monkey Punch (1962) ("Lupin III"). (Note: the dates are for when they debuted. The titles in quotes are their big hits for identification purposes only.)

I'm not belittling Tezuka's contributions to manga as we know it now. I certainly respect both the man himself and body of work he produced. It's undeniable that he reshaped "caricature manga" into "story-driven manga", started up a new "manga boom", and broke the trend for simple humor, social and political commentary-only strips. But, it's equally important to look at the early history of shojo magazines to see how we got where we are today. Or, rather, how we got up to 1954. That's when new magazines take over:

1954: Nakayoshi (girl's monthly from Kodansha).
1955: Ribon (girls' monthly from Shueisha).
1956: Weekly Shincho.
1956: Weekly Manga Times (adult weekly from Houbunsha).
1959: Shogakukan starts its Weekly Shonen Sunday (3-17).
1959: Kodansha follows with Weekly Shonen Magazine (3-17).
1968: Shueisha launched Weekly Shonen Jump.
1969: Akita starts up Weekly Shonen Champion.

Tezuka and the Tokiwa crew move to Shonen Sunday, and Mizuki and Chiba go to Shonen Magazine. The rest of the story is then told by the DNA exhibit that ran at the Kawasaki City museum.

Gakken Kit Review: Mini Electric Guitar

2009-12-23T16:51:00.000-08:00

If you're not a musician, or you slept through your physics classes, here's a quick run down on guitars. First, take something that isn't overly elastic or stretchy and fix it to two end posts, such as a steel wire, twisted horse hair or cat gut. Tighten the string down (generally by wrapping the ends around the posts and then turning one of the posts for adjustment). Now, pluck the string and it will vibrate at a frequency based on the tension and length of the string. This vibration moves the surrounding air to create sound waves of the same frequency as the string. If you mount the entire assembly on a wooden box, the cavity of the box acts as a resonator to amplify and direct the sound, as well as to create complex harmonics (integer multiples of the sound waves) that "add richness" to the sound. The more strings you have, the more notes that can be played at one time; and frets under the strings give you a wider variety of notes from the same string, reducing the number of strings you need for the sound range.

With an acoustic guitar, the body is placed under the general playing area, and the neck is added to allow for longer strings. Expect 6 strings on most regular guitars; 4 on bass guitars. All pretty basic and simple - it's the crafting of the guitar that takes all the work, and the tuning of the strings that requires practice. Of course, knowing where to place your fingers for different chords also helps.

All of this goes out the window when we convert over to electric. The body becomes a solid sheet (wood or plastic), you can have multiple necks, and the shape of the guitar has little effect on the sound produced. In fact, the sound is made by using a coil (pick-up), located under the steel strings, and then feeding the electrical signal generated in the coil from the vibrating strings, through an amplifier or various processors before running it out to an external mixer and/or speaker. All that really remains the same from a physics viewpoint is the vibration of the strings and where you put your fingers.

Gakken kit #26, The Mini Electric Guitar (3400 yen), is a continuation of the SX-150 synth and wire recorder kits, in that the circuit boards are preassembled and that there's not as much eye-hand coordination required for assembly. That, and the price tag has jumped again. Kit 1, the putt putt boat was 1600 yen, and now we're consistently up at around 3400 yen per kit (#27, the 8-bit microprocessor will also be around this price). The book suggests an assembly time of 1 hour, and it took me about 1 and 3/4 hours because I was being careful and rereading the instructions multiple times before proceeding. There's about 20 pieces, including the wires and screws. The body is about 15" long and 5" wide when fully assembled, and it's got 4 strings.

For the most part, assembly is fairly straightforward (PDF instructions here). The tricky parts are in installing the strings and putting together the pickup coil. The book has a warning about uncoiling the strings, which is important because they unwrap really fast and can swipe you in the face if you're not careful. There's a small metal rod used for mounting the strings, and you want them in order from thinnest to fattest, with the fattest wire on top when holding the guitar for normal play. Run the strings from the back of the guitar up to the tuning pegs, then from the bottom of the guitar up over the end of the neck and back down to the 4 mounting screws. Be careful as you wrap the strings around the screws - you want to pick up most of the slack at this point, but if you use a pliers to hold the strings, you can damage them. Wrap the strings around the screws about 3 or 4 turns, then tighten down the screws to hold the strings in place. (Any excess wire can be concealed within the guitar body when you put the covers on.)

As for the coil, start by running the copper wire through one of the small holes in the coil form, get about 2-3 inches of slack wire and tape it down with cellophane tape onto the form, then bolt the form to the guitar body as shown in the book. Wrap the wire around the form, making sure to avoid kinks and snarls, until there's about 2-3 inches left. Run the loose end through the mounting holes in the form, take the tape off the other end and run that end through the other hole as well (again, as shown in the book). When you wrap the copper wires to the leads for the plug end, make sure that the uninsulated parts of the wires make contact as you twist them together. Use cellophane or electrical tape for insulation and don't let the two wires from the coil short out against each other. Finally, wrap a thin strip of cellophane or electrical tape along the coil to protect the copper wires. It doesn't matter which ends of the coil are connected to the red and black wires of the connector jack, but you do want the red and black wires running down to the guitar body, rather than aiming up at the strings, when you wrap up the coil with the long strip of tape (see photo below).

After the coil is finished, put the magnet inside coil form, peel the paper off the one side of the silver seal (the rounded silver shape with the 4 holes) and put the seal on the top of the form to hold the magnet in place. Try to center the seal on the form as best you can (although, it's not critical). Unbolt the coil from the body and mount it into place under the strings. Line it up so the holes of the seal are centered under each of the four strings (this is critical) and tighten the mounting screws down to fix the coil in place. When you screw down the amplifier circuit board inside the guitar body, make sure that you don't pinch the wires between the posts and the screws.

(Close-up of the pick-up coil and wiring. Note the cellophane tape wrapped around the outside of the coil to protect the copper wire and hold it in place. Note also how the red wire comes off the coil at the top, above the tape, and threatens to touch the guitar strings. You don't want to do this. You want the red and black wires to come off the coil from the side away from the strings. Note also the silver seal with the 4 holes, which holds the magnet inside the coil form. You want the holes to be centered under the strings.)

The kit uses two AA batteries. It has an internal amplifier and speaker, plus a big audio jack for plugging into an external mixer or amp. The tuning pegs at the bottom can be tightened or loosened as needed to tune the strings. Like a true electric guitar, the mini has a raw noise sound when you hit all of the strings at one time. To make it sound better, you're going to need to be very careful about the tuning. I'm not a guitar player, so when someone I know tried to tune the mini, he gave up saying that the strings haven't stretched out yet so the thing won't stay tuned; I pretty much have to trust him on that. I do know that the positioning of the seal under the strings makes a big difference. If the holes aren't centered under the strings, then one string is going to be interpreted as being two strings at one time, and one of those "interpreted strings" is going to sound horribly out of tune.

The output from the guitar jack is not enough to drive iPod earbuds. I did use a small external speaker, which worked but was very hissy. I don't have a mixer or good amp yet, so I can't say anything about the final sound output. All the comments I've gotten so far have just been that the mini looks like some kind of little ukulele.

The mook is great, though. It starts out with profiles of various Japanese guitarists (Sugizo, Scandal, Shonen Knife), and includes write ups of the axes that they posed with. There's a piece on converting the mini to a Hawaiian steel guitar sound, and some sheet music at the back for Smoke on the Water and Silent Night. There's a long piece on the history of electric guitars, from the original banjo/frying pan shape in the 1930's, up through Jimmy Hendricks, Led Zeppelin, the Ventures and AC-DC. There are a lot of pictures of unusual axes, like Cheap Trick's 5-neck monster, and a story on a Japanese artist that does custom paint jobs. Mods include putting the mini into a wooden shell, turning it into a steam punk pistol, and adding a smoke gun and electric light effect. Then there's the 2 pages of effects pedals (wah-wah, distortion, etc.), examples of weird customized guitars (including a collapsible version and a 2-string shamisen) and instructions on how to learn to play the mini. There's an article on a guy that makes life-like models of insects using tissue paper and paint, and a manga explaining why body odor makes you stink bad. I'm not sure about the Koress Project story, but it looks like a circuit board that allows you to control appliances via twitter tweets. Probably the best story is on the ex-Megadeth member who's "gone native" in Japan - Marty Friedman. If you like Megadeth.

Musicians mentioned in the mook:
Tomoyasu Hotei (Bambina is HOT! But I like Karasu better).
Kazumi Watanabe (You Can Do It, and Nothing from Nothing)
Kotaro Oshio (Canon-Kanon, and Fantasy!)
Kyoji Yamamoto (James in my Casket, and Hurricane)
Sugizo (Enola Gay, and 1000 Knives)
Shonen Knife (Top of the World, and Twist Barbie)
Scandal (Don't Say "Lazy", and 09, 09, 26)
Yoshio Nomura (Rider Chips main page, Nomura's Official Page) (Surreal is good)
Marty Friedman (Solo piece, and Tornado of Souls)

I've got to say, that if you think Japanese rock is dead, there's got to be at least one video up there that'll change your mind.

Additional Links:
Ukulele Picnic (Hawaiian Guitar site)
Ukulele Duo (Guitar Art)
Pangra (Steam Punk Guitar Gun)
Tokyo Pistol (Graphic Arts site)

Bottom line is that this is a really cool looking kit, but it's something that's as hard as the theremin or the SX-150 to make sound good. Not sure about replacement strings, yet, but changing them will require disassembling the body. The mini's best feature is that it's small, and can be modded into other shapes. It's a great introduction to the theory of the machine, and it's easy to carry around. May be a good toy instrument for kids wanting an addition to their toy piano. (Oddly enough, while there is one photo showing one guy playing the guitar, theremin and synth each, there's no mention of trying to feed the guitar into the synth; although, there is a suggestion of plugging into the "mike in" jack of your laptop.)

-----------------------

Next up, kit #27: 8-bit microcomputer. Approx. 3400 yen, to be released in April, 2010.

The History of Manga, Part 9

2009-12-22T16:03:00.000-08:00

(Marumaru Chimbun, from Birth of a Million Seller, used for review purposes only.)

The Kyoto Manga Museum is a very good online source of information in English about early manga history. Click on the "Collections" tab, then on "Please enter here to the Manga Gallery". The first entry is on Eshinbun Nipponchi (Picture Newspaper + a play on "Japan" and "Punch"), which was based on Japan Punch, founded by Brit Charles Wirgman in Yokohama. Nipponchi started in 1874 by Robun Kanagaki and Kyosai Kawanabe, and consisted of simple line drawings and conservative political content. The jabs at leaders Taisuke Itagaki and Yukichi Fukuzawa (Yukichi founded Jiji Shimpo, mentioned in part 8) went over poorly with the public and the magazine folded after 3 issues. However, it did lead the way for other caricature magazines that followed, starting with Kisho Shimbun (1875), Marumaru Chinbun (1877) and Garakuta Chinpo (Kyoto, 1879).

(Tokyo Puck, from Birth of a Million Seller, used for review purposes only.)

Next is Shonen Puck (1907), edited by Denkichi Kashiwabara, an employee at Jitsugyou no Nihon. Denkichi saw the success of Tokyo Pakku ("Tokyo Puck", 1905) by our man Rakuten Kitazawa, and decided to create Japan's first dedicated children's manga magazine. Shotaro Kawabata was the artist for Shonen Puck for 3 years, but it eventually folded. It wasn't until 1924 and Kodomo Pakku (Children's Puck) that there was another try at a purely manga magazine for kids.

(Ehagaki Sekai, from Birth of a Million Seller, used for review purposes only.)

The third entry is a great list of names for adult cartoon magazines, in a boom that was a result of the political pressures from the Russo-Japanese War. Jiji Manga Hibijutsu Gaho (1905, Kyoto), Nipponchi (1905), Tokyo Pakku (1906), Osaka Pakku (1907), Joto Ponchi (1907), Ehagaki Sekai (1908), Warai (1908), Shonen Pakku (1908) and Poten (1908). Poten, from the French "potin" (rough and tumble) was 34 cm x 19 cm, with a single sheet topical satire manga centerfold spread, full color pages and a page of 4 usable picture postcards. (Ehagaki Sekai (Postcard World) had the idea first.) But, it looks like Poten only ran for the one issue.

(Osaka Puck, from Birth of a Million Seller, used for review purposes only.)

This brings us to the entry on Kodomo Pakku (Children's Puck), the next attempt at a children's manga magazine. It was published in 1924 by Tokyosha company, which eventually bought out Shonen Gaho and Kodomo no Kuni (which we've seen many times earlier). It contained artwork by Takeo Takei, Yumeji Takehisa and Yutaka Aso. The KMM article's author, Isao Shimizu, comments that about half of the manga in the magazine had word balloons, a practice used by "Shochan no Boken" in the Asahi Graph paper in 1923, and the other half was still in the older "manga-manbun" style without the balloons. Takeo and Minoru Yamada are singled out for special praise on the quality of their work. Only issues 1 through 4 of Kodomo Puck have been confirmed.

Finally, we have the Kyoto Manga Museum gallery entry on Manga no Kuni (Manga Country). This one ran from May, 1935, to January, 1941. In August, 1940, it changed its name to Sashi Manga Kenkyu. Published by Kotaro Nakane (Japan Manga Workshop), it's primary aim was to train cartoonists, and it included information on the manga industry, discussions, research and information on comics industries in other countries, mainly Germany. Konosuke Nakane (1900-1987) originally was a tram driver who was laid off for trying to unionize the tram workers. He then managed a boarding house, started up an art college and began the Japan Manga Workshop to train artists from 1935 to 1965. It was the JMW that published Manga no Kuni.

Birth of a Million Seller, Part 3

2009-12-21T16:45:00.000-08:00

When I put together the sections describing the 10 main shojo magazine illustrators, I wanted to include the covers of the magazines they appeared in as they were mentioned, and I couldn't come up with anything that made sense. Instead, I decided to do it this way, as an addendum to the Birth of a Million Seller thread (mainly because these images all came from the BoMS exhibit book). In any case, the below covers are for magazines that either ran illustrations along with serialized novels, or were tied more directly to manga itself (i.e. - Tokyo Puck, Ehagaki Sekai and Shonen Kurabu), and were (or will be) mentioned as part of the History of Manga series. All images are used here for review purposes only. Click on the image to get a better view of it.

Early Shojo no Tomo (Girl's Friend) cover, 1914, pre-Jun'ichi Nakahara.

Shojo Sekai (Girl's World), 1908.

Shojo Kurabu (Girl's Club), plus sample page, 1923.

Marumaru Chimbun, an early all-manga magazine.

Tokyo Puck, 1905, Rakuten Kitazawa's all-manga magazine.

Sample page from Tokyo Puck, 1905.

Osaka Puck, 1909.

Shonen Kurabu (Boy's Club), 1914, along with a sample page from Norakuro, 1931.

Shojo Gahou (Girl's Illustrated Magazine), 1912.

Reijo Kai (Mademoiselle Kingdom, 1922.

Kodomo no Kuni (Children's Country), 1925.

Sample page from Kodomo no Kuni, 1925.

Kinder Book, 1934.

Kodansha Kurabu (Kodansha Club), 1911.

Hi no De (Sunrise), 1932, first issue.

Fujin Gahou (Ladies' Pictorial Magazine), 1905.

Fujo Kai (World of Women), 1910.

Egaki Sekai (World of Picture Postcards), 1907, an all-manga postcard book.

Akai Tori (Red Bird), 1918.

Fujin Kurabu (Ladies' Club), 1920.

The History of Manga, Part 8

2009-12-20T17:12:00.000-08:00

(Tokyo Puck cover, 1905, from Birth of a Million Seller, used for review purposes only.)

It's important to note here that some of the illustrators listed by Gekkan Bijutsu didn't explore manga or panel strips to much of an extent, if at all; Katsudi, Takeo Takei and Yumeji Takehisa being the main exceptions. But, the influence of the cover artists and story illustrators on the rest of the magazines is pretty inescapable, since many of these people made it into editorial positions at some point. Further, with the ending of WW II and the appearance of Tezuka's "Shin Takarajima", shojo magazines proceeded to be the main monthly stage for manga as we currently know it, for about a decade.

(Tokyo Puck inside page, 1905, from Birth of a Million Seller, used for review purposes only.)

Granted, panel art didn't just appear in shojo magazines. Newspapers had western-style comic strip sections, and many of the artists also illustrated the serialized novels running in the papers. But, the important point here is that these early artists tended to come from different backgrounds, such as avant-garde art circles, postcard printing, fashion and newspaper editorials. They then go through a convergence that takes them either through shojo magazines on to children's book publishing, or to editorial strips, and this convergence set the tone and pace for the manga leading up to 1947. I admit that I may be off the mark here, so feel free to correct me if necessary.

(Rakuten comic, from the wiki article, used for review purposes only. Compare the character designs to Winsor McCay's "Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend" series, which started in 1904.)

Switching paths, we backtrack to the turn of the Twentieth Century, and the advent of Rakuten Kitazawa (1876-1955). Born Yasuji Kitazawa, he took on "Rakuten" as a pen name. From the wiki page, "he studied western-style painting under Ohno Yukihiko and Nihonga under Inoue Shunzui"; in 1895 he started working for the English language magazine Box of Curios and learned how to draw western cartoons from Australian Frank Arthur Nankivell. (Frank would later go to America to work at Puck magazine).

(Frank Nankivell picture from Puck magazine. From the wiki article, used for review purposes only.)

In 1899, Rakuten started working at the daily newspaper Jiji Shimpo, founded by Yukichi Fukuzawa, in the Sunday comics section Jiji Manga. He started up Tokyo Puck in 1905, a satirical full-color magazine, and Rakuten Puck in 1912. He returned to Jiji Shimpo in 1915 and then finally retired in 1932. While Rakuten popularized the word "manga", according to the wiki entry his predecessor at Jiji Shimpo, Ippyo Imaizumi is probably the one to first start using it "in the narrower sense of 'caricature'". Most sources credit Rakuten for using "manga" in the 'caricature' sense, moving it way from its original reference to ukiyo-e woodblock prints.

(Ippeo Okamoto picture from Lambiek.net, used for review purposes only.)

Tezuka is reported to have claimed Rakuten and Ippei Okamoto (岡本一平) (1886-1948) as his two main influences. Ippei, according to the Lambiek.net page, worked as a political cartoonist for Asahi Shimbun starting in 1912. He also produced comics for various magazines, starting with "Kuma o Tazunete". In 1921, he went globetrotting and when he returned to Japan he introduced American comics like "Mutt and Jeff" and "Bringing up Father" to Japanese audiences through the Asahi Shimbun. He produced his own artwork as well, including caricatures and advertising illustrations. He also wrote at least one novel.

The problem with treating Rakuten and Okamoto as "manga artists" (in the way I'm approaching it) is that for the most part they were either doing political cartoons, or Japanized versions of western strips. "Localized" yonkoma and panel strips as what we expect to see as "modern manga" (post-Tezuka) appear more with Katsudi and Suiho Tagawa ("Norakuro") in towards the late 1920's.

Birth of a Million Seller, Part 2

2009-12-19T13:49:00.000-08:00

Picking up where we left off in part 1...

(Kokumin no Tomo (People's Companion) magazine cover, 1887, from Birth of a Million Seller, used for review purposes only.)

(Nihonjin (Japanese) magazine cover, 1888, from Birth of a Million Seller, used for review purposes only.)

(Toyo Keizai Shimpo (The Oriental Economist) magazine cover, 1895, from Birth of a Million Seller, used for review purposes only.)

The second narrative article from Birth of a Million Seller, by Koichi Kabayama, attempts to break up the time span of the exhibit into 4 eras, (Meiji in 1888-1902, Meiji to the first year of the Taisho Era between 1902-1912, the first decade of Taisho from 1912 to the start of the 1920's, and then the 1920's themselves) and then picks 2 pairs of magazines to represent each period. For the first period, Koichi chose Kokumin no Tomo (People's Companion) and Nihonjin (The Japanese); followed by Jitsugyo no Nihon (Business of Japan) and Toyo Keizai Shimpo (The Oriental Economist). People's Companion, the largest magazine of the period, was modeled on England's Nation as a populist critic of the government, including editorials and serialized literature. The Japanese was more conservative, nationalist and traditional "to promote the national interest". Business of Japan, formed by former workers at the Yomiuri newspaper, is still in print today. It promoted capitalism and business practices as controlled by government pressure. Conversely, The Oriental Economist spent its time criticizing government economic policy making. (Not all of the magazines mentioned here were included in the exhibit book.)

(Taiyo (The Sun) magazine cover, 1913, from Birth of a Million Seller, used for review purposes only.)

(Chuo Kuron (Central Opinion) magazine cover, 1913, from Birth of a Million Seller, used for review purposes only.)

(Seito (Blue Stockings) magazine cover, 1910, from Birth of a Million Seller, used for review purposes only.)

(Shirakaba (Birch) magazine cover, 1910, from Birth of a Million Seller, used for review purposes only.)

For 1902-1912, we have Taiyo (The Sun) and Chuo Koron (Central Opinion); along with Shirakaba (Birch) and Seito (Blue Stockings). The Sun was a populist magazine containing essays and lectures, critiques in English, and contributions from politicians, economists and writers, with a peak circulation of 300,000. It was aimed at higher income citizens. Central Opinion, on the other hand, started out as an educational journal for the Nishi-Honganji Temple in Kyoto, and became a general interest magazine after moving to Tokyo in 1899. It ran essays, interviews and round-table talk. It became a staunch advocate of the movers behind the Taisho Democracy. Then we have Birch (1910), which started as a Gakushuin University publication, with literature, self-actualization, art and science articles. Blue Stockings (1911) came from the Japan Women's University, with an emphasis on women's education, social problems, and commentary on modern morals. Because Birch and Blue Stockings were published from the Yamanote region of Tokyo, they had a reputation for an elite readership.

(Kaizo (Change) magazine cover, 1919, from Birth of a Million Seller, used for review purposes only.)

(Shufu no Tomo (Housewife's Friend) magazine cover, 1917, from Birth of a Million Seller, used for review purposes only.)

(Fujin Koron (Ladies' Opinion) magazine cover, 1916, from Birth of a Million Seller, used for review purposes only.)

In the 1912-1920 period, we have Kaizo (1919, Change) and Warera (1919, We); plus Shufu no Tomo (1917, Housewife's Friend) and Fujin Koron (1918, Ladies' Opinion). We're starting to see more social upheaval, rice riots and the affects of the Russian Revolution. Change was founded by Sanehiko Yamamoto, founder of 1 yen books. He was an advocate for democracy and the proletariat and this showed in the magazine, inviting Einstein and recruiting Lu Xun and Russel. We, as well, carried current affairs and opinion, with a socialist, anti-military bent. Then there's Housewife's Friend, which promoted domestic happiness, and the more radical Ladies' Opinion advocating for gender equality and equal rights.

(King (King) magazine cover, 1925, from Birth of a Million Seller, used for review purposes only.)

(Ie no Hikari (Light of the House) magazine cover, 1934, from Birth of a Million Seller, used for review purposes only.)

(Asahi Shukan (Weekly Asahi) magazine cover, 1922, from Birth of a Million Seller, used for review purposes only.)

(Mainichi Sande- (Sunday Everyday) magazine cover, 1922, from Birth of a Million Seller, used for review purposes only.)

Finally, for the decade of the 1920's, Japanese society had moved away from it's pre-Meiji traditions and had to deal with the accumulation of wealth followed by its total loss due to the Kanto Earthquake. The representative magazines are King (1925) and Ie no Hikari (1925, Light of the House); coupled with Shukan Asahi (1923, Weekly Asahi) and Sunday Mainichi (1923, Sunday Everyday). King toned down its political essays and critiques, and aimed its entertainment for "the masses" (i.e. - urban residents). Light of the House was aimed at farmers, with practical agricultural information. Asahi and Sunday introduced the new concept of "weekly news" to their audiences. Both magazines still exist, but took their current forms following WW II. What's important here is that previously, time spans were based on the 5th and 10th of the month, and half-month and 1-month cycles. Asahi and Sunday both brought with them the idea of a 7-day week, which was a novelty back then.

(Bungei Kurabu (Literature Club) magazine cover, 1902, from Birth of a Million Seller, used for review purposes only.)

The reason for writing about all this is to put the growth of shojo magazines into some kind of a focus. When magazines first appeared in the late 1860's, the literacy rate was very low and the readership was pretty much limited to the educated elite, with subjects confined to translated western texts, economics and politics. It wasn't until the 1890's that magazines started appealing to the average adult, and that children could actually read and understand them. Then, with the beginning of the 1900's, magazine readership expanded and started gearing towards entertainment and hobbies, rather than just education. Shojo no Tomo was the first really successful shojo (girl's) magazine, starting in 1908 and lasting for over 50 years. It was also the home for some of the early manga (as we know it today) artists, including Katsudi Matsumoto and Takei Takeo. It was joined by Shonen Kurabu (Boy's Club)in 1918, which then ran the Norakuro manga starting in 1931. Along with a handful of other girls' magazines (Shojo, Shojo Sekai), and the newspapers that ran political cartoons and illustrations for serialized novels, the foundations were being set in preparation for Tezuka's eventual debut in 1946.

The History of Manga, Part 7

2009-12-18T13:55:00.000-08:00

Again, Tokyo Art Beat comes to the rescue, this time for Hidetsune Kobayashi (1908-1942). In 1934, he started illustrating a serialized novel by Kan Kikuchi, entitled "Teiso Mondo" ("Chastity Talk", "貞操問答"), which appeared in one of the newspapers. Within a few years, he was being called one of the "three masters of illustration" along with Sentarou Iwata and Tatsumi Shimura. However, he became ill, and died a few years later at age 34. In all, his work spanned less than a decade.

("Orizuru" ("Folded Paper Crane") by Hidestune Kobayashi, Shojo no Tomo, 1938, from Gekkan Bijutsu, used for review purposes only.)

Now, here's where things get interesting. Edogawa Rampo was one of Japan's first mystery writers, and his first novel came out in 1923. The first story he wrote for children was "Kaijin Nijuu Mensou" ("The Mysterious Man of 20 Faces"). According to the One Hundred Japanese Books for Children website, "Kaijin Nijuu Mensou" was serialized in Shonen Kurabu magazine in 1936 and was illustrated by Hidetsune. We're now starting to see shojo illustrators crossing over into the shonen magazine world. Other artists did cross over between shonen and shojo magazines, but this is the first example worth talking about. It's still not panel strip-style manga, but it does show that the trend of illustrating stories was prominent in both shonen and shojo magazines in the '30s. The One Hundred Japanese Books for Children page continues on to state that Kobayashi also illustrated Edogawa's later stories "Shonen Tantei Dan" ("A Troop of Boy Detectives") and "Youkai Hakase" ("A Monstrous Doctor").

(Conversely, author Kan Kikuchi went on to found Bungeishunju publishing, which issues a literary monthly magazine of the same name. The company has also been presenting the Bungeishunju Manga Award, recognizing manga artists and illustrators, since 1955.)

Technically, Jun'ichi Nakahara (1912-1983) doesn't really belong in this list of featured shojo magazine illustrators because he wasn't one of the 10 in the main list. On the other hand, it's his publishing company that printed the Shojo no Tomo magazine collection sold at the Yayoi-Yumeji Gallery exhibit (and is still available from the Soleil shop in Hiro-o, near Ebisu), and he is one of the artists featured on the September issue cover of Gekkan Bijutsu magazine which ran the list of the other 10 people. So, I'll let him slide this time.

(Soleil, in Hiro-o.)

(Shojo no Tomo covers by Jun'ichi Nakahara, from Gekkan Bijutsu, used for review purposes only.)

As mentioned in Part 2, Jun'ichi started out as a dress designer and fashion illustrator. He was attracted to illustrating for shojo magazines in the 1920's, and he produced the cover art for quite a few issues of Shojo no Tomo up into the '30s. He doesn't seem to have gotten into panel manga, though. In 1946, he started up his own girl's magazine, Soleil, which ran until 1960, and then Himawari (Sunflower), which ran from '47 to '52. The Soleil shop, between Shibuya and Roppongi in Tokyo, continues to sell his prints, and displays some of his dress patterns. The Artlino webpage entry for him credits his "big eye style" as a forerunner of modern manga design, and it may have influenced Katsudi's own characters, when he started working for Shojo Gaho in 1928. Compare Katsudi's Kurumi-chan, which first appeared in 1938, to Jun'ichi's cover girls.

(Note that Artlino gives Jun'ichi's birth date as 1913, while Gekkan Bijutsu says it's 1912.)

Birth of a Million Seller, Part 1

2009-12-17T16:35:00.000-08:00

Birth of a Million Seller
Printing Museum Tokyo

(Birth of a Million Seller, used for review purposes only.)

The Printing Museum in Tokyo, located in the Toppan Publishing building, runs various exhibits that are tied to the printed form in one way or the other (one exhibit consisted of early cigarette packaging). The nearest station is Iidabashi, on the Sobu line, just 3 stops from Akihabara. Toppan is about 1 or 2 kilometers west of Tokyo Dome, making it an easy walk to the Hongo Cultural Center (where they had the Authentic Account: Manga Shonen exhibit), and another 10 minutes past the HCC is the Yayoi-Yumeji Gallery, which had hosted the Shojo no Tomo exhibit. To find Toppan, take the main exit from the Iidabashi station, get up on the overpass walkway to cross the main intersection, then follow the river west about 6 blocks. Toppan is the oval-shaped building on the right just as the river makes a dog-leg to the left.

(Shonen (Boy) magazine cover, 1903, from Birth of a Million Seller, used for review purposes only.)

(Shonen Sekai (Boy's World) magazine cover, 1895, from Birth of a Million Seller, used for review purposes only.)

I'd mentioned Birth of a Million Seller in part 1 of the History of Manga post. It was an exhibit that ran during the summer of 2008, and focused on the introduction of western-style magazines to Japan, with their subsequent growth up through the 1920s. The exhibit book is still available for 2900 yen from their online shop, if you want it (click on Catalog). The majority of the book consists of various magazine covers plus one or two sample pages and a paragraph or two of explanatory text. The rest covers printing and ink technologies. Unfortunately, there's no time line of start and end dates for the publications, and most of the text is only in Japanese. But, the introduction was translated into English, and that contains the info I really want to use here, which is all I care about. The below information comes from this exhibit book. First is a narrative piece by Misako Shinozawa, which I'll excerpt below.

(Seiyo Zasshi (Western magazine) cover and inside page, 1867, from Birth of a Million Seller, used for review purposes only.)

According to BoMS, Japan adopted western style newspapers at the same time it took on magazines. (Although, as mentioned in the History of Manga part 1, Japanese newspapers did exist as early as the 1600's, they were mainly for government announcements.) Initially, magazines and newspapers were indistinguishable, and were produced by westerners located in Japan. The first recognized Japanese magazine was Shunsan Yanagawa's Seiyo Zasshi ("Western Magazine"), in 1867. It was a booklet of half-sized Japanese Mino paper woodblock prints on 10 pages in a folio binding, made up of translations of western scholarly articles. The idea was to go monthly, but Seiyo folded in 1869 after only six issues. What makes Seiyo important is that the editor stated in the first issue that the booklet's purpose is to bring news and interesting topics of the world to the people, which is what a news magazine does.

(Hagaki Bugatsu (Postcard Literature) magazine cover, 1905, from Birth of a Million Seller, used for review purposes only.)

In 1869, the Meiji government was established, and initially magazines published knowledge from the west, criticism of the government, and new political thought. Shimbun Zasshi (1871, "Newspaper Magazine") was funded by a Meiji politician. Meiroku Zasshi (1874, "Journal of Meiroku Company") was the mouthpiece of an academic organization that included the Minister of Finance at the time.

(Nihon Daitaika Ronshuu (Japan Big Expert's Essay Collection) magazine cover, 1887, from Birth of a Million Seller, used for review purposes only.)

The magazines were printed on typographic presses using imported paper. As they became more popular, printing technology improved, increasing the number of copies that could be made, reducing costs, and allowing the printing of photos. This was followed by the creation of companies that made western-style paper domestically. In return, literacy increased and people from around the country got access to the same news at the same time when the introduction of the steam train increased distribution coverage. Where newspapers and magazines diverged was in their content. Papers were printed daily (or almost daily) and could feature breaking news, while the monthly schedule for magazines promoted more of an educational bent, including scholarly papers, opinion pieces, medical theses and criticism.

(Maru-maru Chimbun (Entirely Curious News) magazine cover, 1882, from Birth of a Million Seller, used for review purposes only.)

Entertainment content started surfacing with Maru-maru Chimbun, which was mostly made up of political and social cartoons. But, it wasn't until the 1890's that hobbies, entertainment or localized literature started becoming common. With the new educational system implemented by the Meiji government, school enrollment went from 50% in 1891 to 97% in 1907, while we also have the proclamation of the Constitution of the Empire of Japan in 1889, the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95, and the Russo-Japanese War in 1904-05.

(Nisshin Sensou Jikki (Sino-Japanese War Chronicle) magazine cover, 1894, from Birth of a Million Seller, used for review purposes only.)

These events drove public expression in magazines, and the number of publications rose. A lot of the present-day printing companies were formed at this time. However, up to this point, producers sold strictly on a cash basis; distributors bought what they thought they could sell, so they'd underbuy to avoid being stuck with deadstock. "Fujin Sekai" ("Ladies' World", 1909) was the first monthly sold on consignment, and their sales soon reached an unheard-of 250,000 copies per month. Then we have the introduction of the 3-color press; its first use was with the "Roses" frontispiece for Bungei Kurabu (1902, "Literature Club").

((Tokyo Economics) magazine cover, 1879, from Birth of a Million Seller, used for review purposes only.)

The economy started soaring following WW I, and Japan was on the verge of becoming a modern industrial nation, but the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923 sent the country into a major depression. Common citizens started complaining about the problems around them, setting the basis for the Taisho Democracy and giving rise to liberal and social movements. This is what the new wave of magazines focused on. At the same time magazines created content designed to appeal to modern tastes, driven by the motto "large sales, large profits". The Tokyo Magazine Union was formed in 1914 to prevent price wars between distributors, leading to fixed, uniform pricing of magazines. And, the Tokyo Magazine Sellers' Union (1914) became the Japan Magazine Association in 1924, making for a much more stable marketplace.

(Fuuzoku Gahou (Illustrated Customs) magazine cover, 1889, from Birth of a Million Seller, used for review purposes only.)

In 1925, emerging publisher Dai Nihon Yuben-Kai Kodansha (present day Kodansha Corp.) came out with King magazine - "The most amusing! The most educational! The most reasonably priced magazine you ever had!", at 354 pages for 50 sen (half a yen). The biggest magazine at the time was Shufu no Tomo ("Housewife's Companion"), 348 pages at 75 sen, with a circulation of around 200,000-300,000. King's first issue was 500,000 copies and sold out immediately, forcing a reprint with a final run of 620,000 copies. They reached 1,000,000 copies with the January, 1927 issue. The numbers hit 1.4 million in November of that year, meaning that one out of every 50 Japanese was reading King now. This was followed by a rush of new titles in the "1 yen" boom (with the "1 Yen" publisher producing books for 1 yen each).

To be continued in part 2...

The History of Manga, Part 6

2009-12-16T16:45:00.000-08:00

("Falling Rain" by Sudou Shigeru, for Shojo Sekai, from Gekkan Bijutsu, used for review purposes only.)

Sudou Shigeru (1898-1946). Hardly an auspicious way to start a blog entry, on someone that's got nothing in English and little in Japanese. But, that seems to be the trend with these people. Born Genzu Sudou (須藤源重). Began studying the nihonga Japanese style of painting in 1916. Appeared in Shojo Kurabu, Shojo no Tomo and Reijo Kai. He is known for his illustrations of Yaso Saijou's "Tenshi no Tsubasa" ("Angel's Wings") poem, and Nobuko Yoshiya's "Hana Monogatari" ("Flower Story") novel. Pictured here are "Falling Rain", published in Shojo Sekai in 1931, and "Harvest Moon", Shojo Kurabu, 1928.

("Harvest Moon" by Sudou Shigeru, for Shojo Kurabu, from Gekkan Bijutsu, used for review purposes only.)

Iwata Sentarou (1901-1974) is also underrepresented on the net. An article on Tatsumi Shimura hints that Iwata created the illustrations for the serialization of "Tange Sazen". The wiki article on "Tange Sazen" says that it's the name of a character in a novel by Fubo Hayashi, which had been serialized in Mainichi Shimbun from 1927 to 1928. The Gekkan Bijutsu only mentions the Osaka Asahi Shimbun illustration work without giving any details (like the name or print dates). GB also states that Iwata started working for Kodansha Magazine in 1920. Pictured here is "Niizuma Kagami no Bundai" ("Age of the New Bride's Mirror"), published in Shufu no Tomo (Housewife's Friend), 1938.

("Age of the New Bride's Mirror" by Iwata Sentarou, for Shufu no Tomo, from Gekkan Bijutsu, used for review purposes only.)

One of Iwata's illustrations can be found here (description in Japanese only).

Which now brings us up to Katsudi Matsumoto (1904-1986). I've already written about Katsudi's Gallery in Setagawa Ward, and I mentioned his shojo magazine works in part 2 of this series. Of the group of artists so far, Katsudi seems to have been the only one to really play with panel comic strips. The others are only mentioned in conjunction with shojo magazine cover art and illustrations to accompany someone else's text (although, as mentioned in part 4, Takeo Takei and Yumeji Takehisa did "caricature" work in Kodomo Puck, which started publication in 1924). He's also one of the most extensively-documented artists in wikipedia. One anecdote missing from the wiki entry, though, was that when he was young, his parents became unemployed. To help support the family, he started working as a newspaper delivery boy around age 13. Because there was a lot of idle time when he waited for the papers to be dropped off at the distribution point, Katsudi would doodle on scraps of paper. An editor happened to see his work and talked Katsudi into moving into the illustration arm of the paper. Later, he realized that he needed to learn the basics and enrolled in art school (from a conversation with Katsudi's son). The wiki entry states that Kouji Fukiya (part 4) encouraged Katsudi to work in shojo magazines, and that Kouji later married Katsudi's younger sister, Ryoko.

("Sasayaki no Komichi" by Katsudi Matsumoto, for Shojo no Tomo, from Gekkan Bijutsu, used for review purposes only.)

According to the wiki entry, Katsudi's first steady illustration work came from Shojo Gaho, where he submitted illustrations from 1928 to 1938. "Poku-chan", his first attempt at panel manga, ran off-and-on in Shojo Gaho from 1930 to 1934. The 16-page "The Mysterious Clover" was printed as a pamphlet included with the April, 1934, issue of Shojo no Tomo. His most famous manga is the yonkoma strip "Kurukuru Kurumi-chan", in Shojo no Tomo from 1938-1940. After the war, it resurfaced as "Kurumi-chan", from 1949 to 1954 in Shojo magazine. "The Mysterious Clover" wasn't really recognized by Japanese manga scholars until it appeared in an exhibit at the Yayoi-Yumeji gallery in 2006. As mentioned in the wiki article, "Clover" was remarkable at the time for its use of varied panel sizes and changing viewpoints, predating Tezuka by 13 years.

("Nani Kangeteru ka?" by Katsudi Matsumoto, from Gekkan Bijutsu, used for review purposes only.)

The pictures here are "Sasayaki Nokomichi" (Shojo no Tomo, 1934) and "Nani Kangeteru ka?" ("What are you thinking about?", 1935). The second picture features Kurumi-chan.

Manga Reviews: NHK ni Youkoso, Genshiken

2009-12-15T16:39:00.001-08:00

Some more exploration of the darker end of the room called "human nature"...

(Image from wikipedia, use for review purposes only.)

Genshiken, by Kio Shimoku, Grade A
The title comes from an abbreviation for "The Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture". It's not easy for a writer to discuss otaku culture pragmatically, because you're either going to come off as disparaging or patronizing, or you're just going to be dismissed as a self-serving otaku yourself. From my point of view, Kio has succeeded in creating a story about a group in an otaku university club. New members to the group either can't fit in with regular society, and end up grating on the club's members' nerves as well, or they don't want to admit to themselves that they're otaku (anime and manga geeks) and try to get out of the club. Yet, over time, they learn to accept the fact that they enjoy manga, anime, video games, figure creation and cosplay even to the point of trying to get jobs in those fields when they graduate. The secret is to not let others control your thoughts, which actually requires that you open yourself up to them and become vulnerable.

Genshiken follows a group of college students in a manga/anime club, and their experiences leaning how to draw, to make costumes, and to buy doujinshii in Komiket. They grow, mature a little, and by the end of volume 10, they are even ready to take baby steps out into the real world. The artwork is a bit crude to the point of caricature, but the backgrounds are highly detailed, and the subject matter is handled very evenly. There is a dark side to fanaticism, as the hero learns after hearing about one girl's suicide attempt following the exposure of her hentai drawings in front of the rest of the school. The series has ended, so you can easily read it from start to finish in a couple of days.

Summary: It's easy to make fun of people that avidly read comics or watch cartoons. Kio avoids all that to explore otaku (both male and female) nature in a balanced way. The artwork isn't all that great, but it's not that bad to look at. A slice of life drama involving university anime fans. Recommended if you want to learn more about figure making, cosplay or komiket.

(Image from wikipedia, use for review purposes only.)

NHK ni Youkoso, written by Tatsuhiko Takimoto, art by Kendi Oiwa, Grade A
Here's where things turn black. "NHK ni Youkoso" (Welcome to the NHK) explores the world of the hikikomori - those that shut themselves in a room and refuse to come out. "NHK" was initially written as a novel by Takimoto, then released as a manga and a TV anime. Tatsuhiro Satoh is a university dropout that hates leaving his apartment. He makes up excuses to his family for his inability to attend school and lies about trying to find a job. While he does occasionally force himself outside, he quickly sabotages himself in order to head back to the safety of his den soon after. Over time, he encounters other hikikomori that all have different ways of dealing with their fears of rejection, by using drugs, alcohol, self-denial, self-sacrifice and suicide attempts.

Hikikomori is a real, recognized problem in Japan, but it's not well-understood and tends to be swept under the rug. Takimoto created a dark comedy that explores this problem, which seems to stem from a combination of not being able to deal with the pressures of having to fit in with a group, an overblown paranoia regarding what other people think about you, and agoraphobia. Sufferers hide because they think they can't succeed at what they try, and when they cause themselves to fail, take it as proof they should never have tried in the first place. It's an easy trap to fall into if you're a shy introvert, and the manga can really prey on you if you're reading it alone in your apartment. It's easy to lie and just tell the other person what they want to hear so they'll leave you alone. And in Japan, with its emphasis on the group over the individual, it's a sad, unsurprising fact.

Takimoto takes a wide brush to paint an overblown picture of the hikikomori, treating everyone as caricatures. But, it's not at the expense of illustrating the core problems. The artwork is a bit rough and the characters are a little unattractive, but that adds to the realism. It's a short series, only 8 volumes, and while there is a sort of resolution at the end, it's a precarious balance at best.

Summary: Social outcasts hide in their rooms and lie to their family, friends and themselves in order to wallow in the safety of being rejected by society. When that doesn't work, there's always the escape into alcohol, or self-mutilation. "NHK" attempts to look at this problem in an honest light, and I think it succeeds. Highly recommended to anyone that wants to really understand Japan and its social problems.

The History of Manga, Part 5

2009-12-14T17:00:00.001-08:00

1895 brings us to Kobayashi Kaichi (1896-1968). Tokyo Art Beat seems to be one of the few sources of information for several of the shojo magazine illustrators here. Annoyingly the exhibits that TAB describes finished their runs at the Yayoi-Yumeji gallery just a few of months ago, before I knew of these people and long before I had any interest in them. Sigh. Kaichi was based in Kyoto, and there are two permanent displays of his collections, in Kyoto and Gunma. He's best known for his woodblock print postcards and envelopes. Little was known about his personal life and history until a relative recently stepped forward to provide some information. Unfortunately, not even the Gunma gallery has that info online in Japanese yet.

(Postcards by Kaichi Kobayashi, from Gekkan Bijutsu, used for review purposes only.)

What's still unclear is the reason for including Kaichi in with the rest of the shojo illustrators. He primarily produced sets of postcards such as the one shown here, with several variations on a theme. My assumption is that the postcards were either reproduced in the shojo magazines, or included as presents to the readers. A case in point is "Ehagaki Sekai" (Postcard World) magazine, a manga-based postcard collection which began publication in 1908, and may have been emulated by the various shojo magazine publishers.)

For elusive, we can look towards Masao Katou (1897-1977). Little is available on him in English, and the Japanese wiki just has a superficial overview. The Gekkan Bijutsu magazine talks about his art style without mentioning the magazines he appeared in. The accompanying images here (from Gekkan Bijutsu) appeared in Shojo Kurabu (1929) and Shojo no Tomo (1928).

(Shojo Kurabu illustration by Masao Katou, from Gekkan Bijutsu, used for review purposes only.)

(One note about the spelling for "Shojo Kurabu". The kanji used in the name phonetically spells out the word "club" as written in romaji, and the literal meaning of those kanji is "club or association". So, it's often written in English as "Shojo Club". The problem is that many magazines started out with "kurabu" in their names, and sometimes two different publishers would have rival titles where one used the kanji "kurabu" and the other used the katakana to represent "club". Other times, a magazine would start out as "kurabu" and later change its name to "club". So, I'm keeping the kanji spelling as "kurabu" where it was originally used in order to highlight this distinction and to avoid confusion between two different titles like "shonen kurabu" and "shonen club".)

(Shojo no Tomo illustration by Masao Katou, from Gekkan Bijutsu, used for review purposes only.)

So, let's quickly move on to Hatsuyama Shigeru (1897-1973). Finally, some meat! Well, not really. The Sosaku Hanga page only has 5 lines. He was born in Asakusa, Tokyo, and studied painting as a child. He then apprenticed as a goldsmith, wrote poetry, got involved in kabuki, and started illustrating children's magazines in 1919. He stopped illustration around WWII because he objected to making propaganda for children. Afterwards, he started doing hanga (woodblock prints), and joined the Japanese Hanga Association in 1944. After the war, he focused on woodblock prints for children. "Taberu Ton-chan" ("Ton-chan is eating") was a children's book published in 1937. Pictured here is "Hoshi no Juuji Mase" ("Star's Cross Fence"). According to the iiclo page, Shigeru tended to be a nihilist, and this shows in his later books.

("Star's Cross Fence" by Hatsuyama Shigeru, from Gekkan Bijutsu, used for review purposes only.)

UDX Matsuri

2009-12-13T16:41:00.000-08:00

Back in August, Akihabara decided to host a small summer festival (matsuri). It included some stalls selling t-shirts and other goods, some games, and some live performances (music, juggling, etc.) Most of the performances were amateurish and only had a few people in the audience.

(Food carts.)

(Trying to scoop toys.)

(Ring toss (behind the speaker. Not one of my better photos.))

(Behind the stage, waiting to be set up.)

(Air ball.)

(T-shirts advertising music.)

(Darts)

The History of Manga, Part 4

2009-12-12T13:53:00.000-08:00

Taking the shojo magazine illustrators in chronological order, the next person on Gekkan Bijutsu's list is Koji.

According to Tokyo Art Beat, Koji Fukiya (1891-1979) painted in the style of Taisho-era (1912-1926) romanticism before becoming known for his Showa-era (1926-1989) illustrations. He wrote the lyrics for the children's song "Bride Doll" at age 25, and he studied Nihonga (Japanese style painting) before becoming an active member of the Ecole de Paris. His range of expression included Jojoga (self-described as "lyricist painting") which featured heroines "with intelligence and hidden, deep sensuality".

(Shojo Kurabu illustration by Koji Fukiya, from Gekkan Bijutsu used for review purposes only.)

A paper written by Yukiko Yamanaka at the Ritsumeikan University goes on to list Fukiya's apprenticeship under Chikuha Odake (1878-1936), his time spent living in Paris and his involvement in producing "Yumemi Doji" ("夢見童子", "Boy Having a Dream", 1958, Toei Studios), in the relatively new medium (for Japan) of animated movies. The Niigata tourism guide describes his memorial gallery as containing 800 of his paintings as well as original hand-written manuscripts.

(Reijo Kai illustration by Koji Fukiya, from Gekkan Bijutsu used for review purposes only.)

Gekkan Bijutsu states that he debuted in 1912 in Shojo Gaho (Girl's Illustrated) at age 21, and the accompanying illustrations here appeared in Shojo Kurabu (Girl's Club) in 1926, and Reijo Kai in October, 1928. In this sense, while Okamoto was the older illustrator (born in 1888 and appearing in Kin no Fune in 1918), Koji beat him to the punch in being first to see print in a shojo magazine in 1912. But, Koji still wasn't the first illustrator, since the first girl's/women's manga, Myojin, started publication in 1900.

Takei Takeo (1894-1983) was an author as well as an artist and book designer. The Boston Book Company has a wealth of images of Takeo's works. According to the Boston Book page, Takeo published 139 books in his "Kampon" series, which ran from 1935 to 1983. Similar to Paul Klee and Bruno Manari in look and feel, Takei used Kampon to experiment with illustration in all directions he could find. Most of the books were intended for children, with wide-ranging stories and styles (additional information on Kampon is provided by Saunders). He designed the title font for Kodomo no Kuni (Children's Country, 1922-1944) and appeared within its pages from the first issue.

(Cover of Kodomo no Kuni by Takei Takeo, from Gekkan Bijutsu used for review purposes only.)

Along with Kiichi Okamoto and the others, he co-founded the Japan Association of Illustration for Children, and took over the role of critic and image editor of Kodomo no Kuni following Okamoto's death in 1931. He became an editorial adviser to "Kinda Bukku" ("Kinder Book") in 1955. (Taken from the Kodomo no Kuni site.) Later on, when we get to coverage from the Kyoto Manga Museum, we'll see that Takei also drew "caricatures" for the Kodomo Puck manga magazine.

(Kodomo no Kuni illustration by Takei Takeo, from Gekkan Bijutsu used for review purposes only.)

The "Kodomo no Kuni and its artists" page has a number of pictures of works from Okamoto, Takei, Takahisa and Hatsuyama.

I'll take a moment to mention Yumeji Takahisa (1884-1934) here, as Takei was an ardent fan of his, and it's the Yayoi-Yumeji Gallery where the Shojo no Tomo exhibit was held. Born in Oku, Okayama, Yumeji submitted short stories and panel strips to one magazine while still in middle school, which were then published. He became the chief illustrations editor for Shin Shojo (New Girls) magazine in 1916, and was one of the leading illustrators in the "Taisho romanticism" movement that included Koji Fukiya. He provided illustrations for Kodomo no Kuni for its first two years, as well as for other children's magazines. He became ill and died just before his 50th birthday. His artwork was collected by lawyer Takumi Kano and is currently displayed in the Yayoi-Yumeji Gallery near Ueno. Again, from the Kyoto Manga Museum, we'll see that Takahisa also drew "caricatures" for the Kodomo Puck manga magazine. If we include his submission of panel strips to that magazine in account, then Takehisa may be one of the first of this group of illustrators to have published manga as well as his other illustrations.

Japan Football Museum

2009-12-11T13:56:00.000-08:00

In 2002, Japan hosted the FIFA World Cup soccer tournament. The Japan Football Museum was built and opened in 2003 to commemorate the event, and then renovated in 2006 to act as a general soccer museum. According to the English brochure, the museum reached its 250,000th visitor in January, 2009.

The space open to visitors is located on the first floor, and basements B1 and B2. Floors 1 and B1 are free, and B2 costs 500 yen for adults (approx. $5.75 USD) to view the special exhibits. Floor 1 contains displays of pins, figures and stamps related to the soccer team, plus walls of photos and jerseys, and a large theater space showing game highlights.

B1 has the goods shop, a space where you can sit and relax or play foosball, and the Hall of Fame. There's also the security gate leading to the stairs to B2. And B2 has the History of Japanese soccer exhibit, which is broken up into zones. As examples, zone 3 is labeled the "training site", zone 4 is "locker room" and zone 9 has the trophy case. Zone 11 contains the special exhibits space, which changes periodically. When I was there, one of the goods shop employees, an older guy, challenged an American in his twenties to a game of foosball. The American had his butt handed to him.

(And yes, it was raining that day.)

If you look closely at the photo pose board, you may notice that both crows have 3 legs. This didn't register for me until I read the information note in the brochure some time later. If you're not a big soccer fan, you may have never seen the Japan Football Association (JFA) mascot, or the Japan team logo before. If you have, then I'm explaining the obvious here). Turns out that the three legged crow was an old symbol used in China, Korea and Japan, representing the three stages of the sun - dawn, noon and dusk. In Japan, it shows up as the "yatagarasu" (8-span crow), which doesn't necessarily have 3 legs, but the version in the JFA logo does. You can read more about this at the wiki page.

(The text in Japanese says "Soccer Street")

Getting to the JFA museum is fairly straightforward, but it helps to have a good map at hand. Using Shinjuku as a starting point, take the Chuu-ou rapid express train to Ochanomizu. Exit from the west end of the platform, and at the street, take a right to the medical university. Cross the street to get to the university parking entrance and turn left. Follow the university building west until you get to the first intersection and then turn right. Go north 2 long blocks, past the university, and you'll see the museum on your left.

When you're done, head back south to the first street light, turn left, and take the street running diagonally to the left (this is Kuramaebashi Dori). About halfway down the block on the right is the Origami Kaikan (Origami Center). If you keep walking, heading roughly east, you'll get to the northwest edge of Akihabara in about 5-7 minutes.

(Hall of Fame)

Instead, if you head west from the JFA museum, you'll get to Tokyo Dome. It's easy to tell that you're getting close when you see the roller coaster and ferris wheel. Conversely, if you return to Ochanomizu station, you can take the Chuu-ou or Sobu lines in to Tokyo station, and then it's just one short stop on the Yamanote line south to get to Yurakucho station, right in front of Ginza (less than 10 minutes by train from Ochanomizu).

(Front lobby)

(A folding postcard (turns into a paper airplane) featuring the new Astro Boy movie design, advertising the bid for a future world cup.)

The History of Manga, Part 3

2009-12-10T16:29:00.000-08:00

A key element as to why most westerners don't know about the early history of manga, other than that much of it hasn't been printed up in English, is the "fan filter". In France, where a wider variety of manga is popular, the market supports what could be called "artistic" works, and a lot of these earlier artists are a little better documented there. In the U.S., on the other hand, up until the 1990's, success of manga and anime had pretty much been limited to the west coast markets, and even then only to a negligible flow of action stories aimed at boys. Therefore, if private companies wouldn't sell translated products in America, the "next best thing" became inevitable.

That is, groups of college students, with lots of spare time and access to import stores, began fan-trading circles (both for xeroxed pages and VHS tapes). Naturally, as the fan groups reached critical mass, new companies (i.e. - Streamline Pictures, AD Visions, U.S. Manga Corps) sprang up to exploit them, which led to the release of legally licensed products in the U.S. However, the tastes of the college students initially, and the marketing decisions of the companies afterward, created "filters" that restricted the titles and artists that made their way overseas. Which means that a creator popular in Japan is completely unheard of elsewhere because specific small groups of foreign fans didn't like him/her.

Normally, "fan filters" are not an issue. Anime and manga that don't make it through the filter probably won't be well-received by anyone else in that foreign country either, and if they do become popular a new group will form to promote them. What concerns us here (or, what I want to write about and no one else wants to read) is that the filters create huge holes in our awareness of manga and anime history. Those people that were famous in Japan, but maybe not elsewhere, are the ones that helped develop the original market that we enjoy now. To understand manga history, we have to blow through the filters and look at the Japanese market directly. Unfortunately, this is difficult now since a lot of information has been lost over time, and may not be documented even in Japanese.

This is why the art exhibits at the Kawasaki and Edo-Tokyo museums, the Yayoi-Yumeji gallery and the Hongo Bunkyo cultural center are so important. Someone else has collected some of this information together for us, and with the books that accompany the exhibits, we can start patching the information back together again into some kind of Frankenstein whole.

(Illustration by Kiichi Okamoto, 1928, from Gekkan Bijutsu. Used for review purposes only.)

Kiichi Okamoto, (1888-1930), was one of the earliest shojo illustrators. From the Kodomo webpage, Okamoto was the son of the vice president of the Miyako Shimbun newspaper (later, the Tokyo Shimbun). He was educated at a western painting research institute, and became a manager of the institute in 1911 (but was expelled later when he joined a rival art group). He was in charge of binding and illustration of the Modern Family Library series in 1915, and was influenced by the art of Edmond Dulac and Arthur Rackham. In 1918, the girl's Kin no Fune (Gold Ship) magazine started up, featuring children's stories and songs, and Okamoto was commissioned to do illustrations for it. He then designed the stage art, costumes and lighting for a stage adaptation of Maurice Maeterlinck's "Blue Bird", which was sponsored by Kin no Fune. In 1922 he became Kodomo no Kuni's (Children's World) chief illustrator from its second issue; in 1923 he illustrated for Shojo Kurabu (Girl's Club); and for Children's Asahi (an Osaka magazine) in 1924. He co-founded the Japan Association of Children's Illustrators (Nihon Dogaka Kyokai) in 1927 with Takeo Takei, Shiro Kawakami, Shigeru Hatsuyama, and some others.

While he wasn't the first illustrator, as an editor and artist he definitely had a long-term impact on the appearance of early shojo magazines.

Left4Dead

2009-12-09T16:17:00.000-08:00

The weekend of Nov. 28, the good people behind the making of the new Left4Dead 2 video game held a promo event in Akihabara, across Chuu-ou Dori from the UDX building. Basically, it was just a large booth set up to look like a toxic waste storage shed, complete with "keep out" tape. Inside were several large monitors showing off the game. People weren't being ushered through very fast, so the wait was about 30-40 minutes to get inside.

Around the booth, women dressed up in plain outfits were handing out "first aid kits"; little paper packets containing 2 band aids and a pack of 10 colored cotton swabs (pink, blue and yellow), with advertising for the game on the back. It looks like a fun game. I may have to think about getting a XBox at this rate.

One comment: I'm a fairly ardent gamer. I really like Japanese RPGs (Final Fantasy, et. al) on the PlayStation. But, since coming to Japan, I haven't really had the opportunity to sit down and play like I used to. Plus, the games cost more here. I just have too many other things that I'm doing to have time to bash monsters like I used to. Sigh.

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At about the same time, one company had set up a booth in front of the UDX building to sell bags of rice, under the appropriate label "Moe Minori" ("cute and sexy harvest"). I don't know how well their sales went, but it is definitely "moe". I like the way her hair turns from braids to grain stalks.

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A week later, I decided to check out Junichi Nakahara's memorial gift shop, Soleil, in Hiro-o, just east of Shibuya station on the Yamanote line. Junichi was an illustrator, fashion designer and doll maker from the '20s to the 50's, and he did the covers for Shojo no Tomo (Girl's Friend) magazine prior to launching two of his own magazines. I wanted to visit his shop to be able to write it up in the Anime and Manga Galleries and Museums page. But, I took a wrong turn and ended up heading back to the train station by accident (a common problem in Tokyo). Fortunately, I walked by two different shops with Looney Tunes characters painted on the shutter doors. The shops were a couple of blocks apart, and there wasn't a Looney Tunes theme elsewhere on the street, so I'm not sure why both places had related art.

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After visiting Soleil, I continued on to Tokyo station, where I wanted to do some Christmas shopping at the gift shops there. Again by accident, I found the Astro Boy goods shop at one end of the station. Better hurry, if you want a Tezuka fix - the shop closes by Dec. 13.

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Within Akihabara station, there's an ad for one of the manga magazines, offering a Christmas present for you. Many of the characters in the ad are from Deadman's Wonderland. Very festive.

Also within the Akihabara station, the cell phone company Docomo had their booth set up for promoting wireless laptops using their internet services. Actually, Docomo had the same booth set up some time previously, but it was taken down by the end of that weekend. The space here is often used to promote a variety of things, including the Which Witch game I ran photos of before.

Here, we have Tetsujin 28-go, known in the U.S. as Gigantor. This is the same character that is now a 30-some foot tall life-sized statue standing in Kobe. The one shown here is not quite so big,

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Just outside the Akihabara station, in the Yodobashi Camera building tunnel, they had a display set up to sell the new Harry Potter and the Halfblood Prince DVD. The staff was dressed up in Hogwarts robes and carried wands.

The display stand was designed for anyone that wanted their photo taken before buying the DVD, and I think they could put on a robe for the shot if they wanted.

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Just north of the Akihabara station, beside the UDX building, someone set up a Christmas tree covered with Gundam toys. Not sure why, because there's no one nearby telling potential customers where to go to buy the toys. And, that night, it rained pretty heavily. The display was still outside the next day, though. The monitor ran advertising for a new Gundam game, and occasionally people would gather to take photos of the tree.

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However, NOTHING says "Christmas" like little happy green zombie ghosts. This poster ad was on the shutter doors of an electronics shop at the east end of Akihabara. I don't know if the green girl is part of the shop's brand or not, but she does look pleased to get a present. Although, her hands look like a pair of alligator clips, so she may have problems actually playing with her presents...

The History of Manga, Part 2

2009-12-08T15:22:00.000-08:00

The Yayoi-Yumeji gallery ran its exhibit on Shojo no Tomo magazine from Oct. 1 to Dec. 23, 2009. The exhibit itself consisted of two small rooms of maybe 200 articles, from copies of the original magazines, to examples of the artwork that accompanied the stories, and some information on Tezuka and a few other artists. Tezuka arrived kind of late to the game. His "Shin Takara-jima" ("New Treasure Island") started in 1947, and the two titles included in the Shojo no Tomo exhibit were "The Maiden of Tatsugafuchi" and "Robin-chan" (both roughly around 1954). Granted, all manga publications (unless they contained propaganda promoting the war effort) were halted during WW II, but for the almost 35 years worth of magazines leading up to Tezuka's debut, there were many other artists already active in the shojo manga scene.

(Soleil, a shop dedicated to selling Junichi Nakahara's artworks, in Tokyo.)

The 4000 yen book that accompanied the exhibit was published by Junichi Nakahara's company. Junichi (1913-1983) was a well-established fashion designer who was attracted to drawing illustrations for Shojo no Tomo. He went on to found two of his own girl's magazines - Soleil and Himawari (Sunflower).

The Soleil shop, near Ebisu (from Ebisu, take the Hibiya line one stop east to Hiro-o; it's right around the corner from the Hiro-o station) in Tokyo, continues to sell his prints and old copies of Shojo no Tomo, and displays some of his dress patterns. His paintings were used extensively for Shojo no Tomo's covers from the 1920's.

Also available for sale at the Yayoi-Yumeji gallery was the September issue of Gekkan Bijutsu (Monthly Art), which included feature stories on Junichi and Shojo no Tomo. There's also a brief time line of girl's magazines, and an overview of ten of the most important illustrators of the first half of the 1900's. I've already written about Katsudi Matsumoto. So, I'll cover the others as I go.

(Poku-chan, by Katsudi Matsumoto, from wikipedia. Used for review purposes only.)

Not all of the artists listed drew manga. All of them created illustrations to accompany fashion articles, serialized fiction stories and for the cover art, in a variety of shojo magazines. Katsudi in particular drew illustrations for the Japanese translations of western fiction (i.e. - Hans Christian Andersen). A smaller number tried their hand at manga, generally "yon-koma" (4-panel gag strips). I need to mention here that while they're called "4-panel", the strips could be of any length needed to tell the story, from 6 to 20 panels.

(Mysterious Clover, by Katsudi Matsumoto, from wikipedia. Used for review purposes only.)

Katsudi drew an irregularly published narrative strip about a girl named "Poku-chan" for Shojo Gaho (Girl's Illustrated) from 1930 to '34, but he really broke new ground with the creation of his "Nazo no Kuroubaa" ("The Mysterious Clover"). Appearing as a booklet insert in Shojo no Tomo in 1935, Clover was a female version of Zorro, a masked and caped crusader helping the oppressed. Katsudi's most famous manga was the yonkoma "Kurukuru Kurumi-chan", which ran in Shojo no Tomo from '38 to '40.

(Kurukuru Kurumi-chan, by Katsudi Matsumoto, from wikipedia. Used for review purposes only.)

Unfortunately, there was a divide between the first half of the century and the second half, when the Japanese military government banned most entertainment publications to "conserve printing paper" (as well as to keep people's focus on the war effort). What this meant was that the artists that had been successful up until 1941 suddenly lost their audience, and then just as suddenly found themselves facing new competition and changed public tastes following 1946 (plus being in the middle of massive poverty). Additionally, several magazines folded in the years just before, during and after the war, making way for new publications later. In a way, this break in publication can be said to have allowed new artists like Tezuka to stand out more against the older vanguard, even though he was actually repeating things that Katsudi and the others had originated 10-15 years earlier.

The 10 major shojo magazine illustrators as given by Gekkan Bijutsu are:

1891 - 1979, Fukiya Kouji (蕗谷虹児)
1897 - 1977, Katou Masao (加藤まさを)
1904 - 1986, Matsumoto Katsudi (松本かつぢ)
1898 - 1946, Sudou Shigeru (須藤しげる)
1888 - 1930, Okamoto Kiichi (岡本帰一)
1896 - 1968, Kobayashi Kaichi (小林かいち)
1894 - 1983, Takei Takeo (武井武雄)
1897 - 1973, Hatsuyama Shigeru (初山滋)
1901 - 1974, Iwata Sentarou (岩田専太郎)
1908 - 1942, Kobayashi Hidetsune (小林秀恒)

And of course,
1912 - 1983, Nakahara Junichi (中原淳一)

I'll look more at each of these people in the next few entries.

Manga Reviews: Esper Mami

2009-12-07T15:56:00.000-08:00

As mentioned in the Hotel review, Fujio F Fujiko (FFF) (Doraemon), Akatsuka Fujio (Tensai Bakabon) and Shotarou Ishinomori (Cyborg 009, Kamen Rider) are arguably the three top artists to have come out of Tezuka's Tokiwa Sou (Tokiwa Manor). But, while Ishinomori had the greatest level of output, FFF probably wins on one single title - Doraemon. None of the others have a series that has run so long on TV, or has been so completely accepted by both children and adults.

I've mentioned before that originally two friends (Hiroshi Fujimoto and Abiko Motoo) had teamed up to work under the penname "Fujio Fujiko", and they'd also worked together as assistants to Tezuka in Tokiwa. However, they did eventually drift apart and ended the partnership in the 1980's. They kept the name, with Abiko identified as Fujio A Fujiko, and Hiroshi as Fujio F Fujiko. FAF was slightly involved at the beginning in the development of Doraemon, but there was no connection afterwards in FFF's later works. While FAF did write some stories for children, a lot of his solo works were pretty dark, such as Black Humor and Smiling Salesman. On the other hand, FFF stayed mostly in the "young children's manga" genre, yet did treat children as being fairly mature and intelligent.

So, why not review Doraemon? I'd rather tackle a slightly less well-known title to show a more complete view of FFF's techniques. It's too easy to find video clips and commentary on Doraemon and I have nothing to add to what's already out there.

Esper Mami, vol. 1, by Fujio F Fujiko
As given in the wiki entry, Esper Mami first appeared in Shonen Big comic in 1977. By this time, FFF had already created Paa-man, 21-emon, Moja-kou, Ume-boshi Denka, Doraemon and Kiteretsu Daihyakka. In fact, in the wiki list of major works, Mami is the second to last, followed by Chimpui. He already had a vast amount of experience to draw on when he decided to tackle his next work. Even so, there are some rough edges throughout the first volume. Mami's proportions vary from page to page, with her neck or arm getting a little too stretched out, or her height shrinking when standing next to someone. Her expressions are often static, looking flat and pasted down on top of the paper. Within the same scene, her face will be drawn as a 12-year old, then suddenly look a more mature 18 years old. Movement generally consists of a fixed pose and some speed lines.

Ignoring the artistic issues, the story is fairly sophisticated. 14-year-old Mami Sakura starts out as a normal young girl, kind of an airheaded slacker who is often late waking up and getting to school. Her grandmother was French, which is why she has red hair; the rest of her family comes from Japan. And she has a raccoon dog, named Konpoko, as a pet. One day, she sees a classmate, Kazuo Takahata, being threatened by three other kids trying to get people to join their boxing club so they can demand membership fees from them. The three start picking on Kazuo when the boy suddenly finds himself up in a tree. Initially, Kazuo convinces himself that he can teleport, and he ends up banging himself up trying 'port again. However, Mami realizes within a few days that not only was she the one that saved Kazuo, but that she can also read thoughts and do some telekinesis. The limit on teleporting though is that something has to be moving at her or her target, like a punch or Konpoko jumping at her, for it to work. Later, she develops a "person in distress signal", where she detects someone in a severe panic as emitting a ringing bell sound.

For the first few chapters, Mami dreams of being older and having adventures as the "beautiful girl Esper secret agent", only to wake up in the middle of the classroom with everyone else laughing at her. During the normal course of the day, she still has trouble studying and fitting in with others. When she considers misusing her powers for one reason or another, someone straightens her out unknowingly. The fact that her ancestors in France used to burn witches at the stake keeps her from telling anyone else about her powers. Stories include two customers that both want to buy the same painting from her father; the continuing problem of the boxing group picking on Kazuo; Kazuo's existing girlfriend getting jealous over Mami's spending time with the boy; rescuing a kidnapped child; and a group of hoodlums trying to force themselves on a female hiker out in the woods. Eventually, Kazuo does figure out that Mami's the one with the powers, and he takes on the task of building equipment to help support her, such as a brooch that shoots BBs so that Mami can teleport herself (or some other target) at will. Kazuo is smart, but knowing that he doesn't have ESP himself does eat at him at times.

Mami's mother, Naoko is a newspaper reporter, and her father, Juro is a painter that also works at Mami's school as an art teacher. And here's where we run into problems talking about manga in the U.S. Mami occasionally poses as a model for her father, and because of this she sometimes appears naked in the comic. Japan in general has a much more relaxed attitude towards the human body than the U.S. does, and it was very common up until recently for whole families to bathe together in the same tub (partly to save water, partly to enforce the group mentality). The main reason why it's less common now is that everyone is too busy to be all in one place at the same time. Regardless, Mami has a casual attitude towards nudity, which causes everyone else around her to panic if suddenly caught without clothes on. On the other hand, she has absolutely no interest in having boyfriends. It does mean, though, that "Esper Mami" can't run in the U.S. without some very serious re-editing. Esper Mami addresses a number of issues that all Japanese children encounter, and in this sense, FFF is attempting to teach his readers how to overcome various challenges.

FFF has a cartoony style, most obviously shown in Konpoko's design. But, he can do elaborate backgrounds when he wants to, and his stories don't settle for the easy solutions. Then again, the stories are lighthearted, and avoid the kind of darkness that FAF embraced in Black Humor. Esper Mami is a kid's "magical girl" series that embraces older-fashioned Japanese values while adding a twist to the sorts of esper stories that Tezuka, Ishinomori and FAF also played with. It's highly likely, though, that most western readers will be happier reading Doraemon.

The History of Manga, Part 1

2009-12-06T16:57:00.000-08:00

In the beginning was the word.

Actually, not quite correct. In the beginning were some scratches on a cave wall. Increasingly, manga historians seem to be starting their explanations of manga history with ancient paintings. I'm told by a friend attending classes at Tokyo's Temple university that that's how her manga class began, and the "Authentic Account: Manga Shonen" exhibit dedicated a good fraction of the display case area to cave and tomb drawings.

(An example of a woodblock print that tells a story, mid-1800's. Used for review purposes only.)

Why? Well, the question is "what exactly is manga?" American manga purists want to treat "manga" as "comics by Japanese artists for a Japanese audience". Most Japanese use "comics", "anime" and "manga" interchangeably and include western comics in the mix, and the manga section in the bookstores is often labeled "comics". Recently, some of the artists gaining popularity in Japanese magazines are from Korea. Then we have "gekiga", a term coined around 1957 to refer to more "realistic" manga (similar to the use of "graphic novel" as separate from "comic book" in the west) and the word "manga" itself was originally applied to certain styles of ukiyo-e woodblock prints. So, the answer's not really carved in stone and we know that "manga as we know it" did not just "show up" out of a vacuum.

That's why a broader definition of "illustrations within Japan that tell a story" seems to be in the process of being adopted. And, that's exactly what those cave and tomb drawings do - tell a story. They also set the starting point for examining the growth and evolution of Japanese illustration. Over time, illustration evolved to include screen paintings, drawings for "Tales of Genji", and even the ukiyo-e woodblock prints that span from the 1600's to the 1900's. If you examine some of the ukiyo-e prints, especially those with "manga" in the title, you can see that there's a level of dynamism and storytelling that would fit right in on the pages of Shonen Jump or Afternoon. As the artists learned from each other and explored new ideas and approaches, their results succeeded in jumping off the paper and into popular culture at the time.

(Santo Kyoden woodblock print, early 1800's, used for review purposes only.)

A key element here is the audience. If a painting or sculpture is intended to be "high art" from the beginning, it remains in the hands of a privileged few and the common folk never get to see it, keeping circulation and evolution at a minimum. But, ukiyo-e was aimed at the middle classes, and it gained broad acceptance in Edo (old Tokyo) at the time. Ukiyo-e was popular entertainment, it had a narrative and the media evolved over decades. This is what we're looking for. According to wikipedia, the word "manga" (or, "silly pictures", depending on how you want to translate it; most people on the net parrot "whimsical") entered common usage in the late 1700's, with Santo Kyoden's (1761-1816) (山東京伝) "Shiji no Yukikai" picture book ("四時交加", 1798) and Aikawa Minwa's (合川珉和) "Manga Hyakujo" ("漫画百女", 1814). Big important point here!!!! - While most sources on the net offer up "Shiji" and "Hyakujo" as references, no one has actual pictures of these prints online. Take this info with a grain of salt for the time being.

(Whimsical woodblock prints. From the Authentic Account: Manga Shonen exhibit book. Used for review purposes only.)

A turning point came with the introduction of western magazines. There was an exhibit in Tokyo in 2008 showing the history of magazines in Japan, and unfortunately I can't find any mention of it online now (I didn't blog about it at the time because I couldn't find anything I wanted to highlight). Doing a search on "history of magazines in Japan" doesn't bring up anything useful in English. In any event, Japan had a form of newspaper in the 1600's, mostly just a couple sheets of paper containing official announcements, but nothing like modern western magazines. Admiral Perry opened up the Japanese borders in 1854, which led to the Meiji Restoration and the start of the Meiji era in 1868. From this point, foreigners started settling in Yokohama, introducing the western printing press, and launching their own publications. Japanized versions of magazines then became widely available. The first magazine of political cartoons, "Nipponchi" came out of Yokohama in 1874, but it soon folded. Japanese publishers were a little slow in producing their own homegrown magazines, and by the 1890's there was still a strong western feel to the content, with illustrations showing women wearing western coats, dresses and hats. But, "localized" magazines were finally well-established when we get to the end of the century.

(Edit: The exhibit was "The Birth of a Million Seller", held at the Tokyo Printing Museum, in the Toppan building. It ran from Sept. to Dec., 2008. According to the blurb, King magazine was the first to hit a circulation of 1 million, in 1927, roughly 60 years after magazines were first published in Japan, dating the first magazine to right around the beginning of the Meiji Era. I went to the exhibit specifically to look for old manga, and there wasn't anything in the pages on display.)

When girl's magazines first started appearing at the beginning of the 1900's, they contained a mix of articles and stories, including recipes, adventure stories, game ideas and sewing tips, and they were only a few pages long. Any artwork either illustrated a story, or was used as filler for the blank space on the pages. The later boy's magazines were similar, but with some additional focus on sports. The first girl's magazine that I have information for is "Myojo" (Morning Star), which ran from 1900 to 1908. As in any venture, the first few years are the most formative. The earliest girl's magazines were (although, Myojo may have been more of a woman's magazine):

1900 to 1908, Myojo (Morning Star)
1902 to 1912, Shojo Kai (Girl's Kingdom)
1906 to 1931, Shojo Sekai (Girl's World)
1908 to 1955, Shojo no Tomo (Girl's Friend)
1910 to 1923, Shirakanba (White Birch)

As can be seen here, in the first 11 years, 5 magazines started up, only 3 lasted more than 10 years, and only Shojo no Tomo ("Girl's Friend") had any staying power, running up to 1955 when tastes changed and the weekly magazines started pushing the monthlies off the shelves. We'll look at these monthlies in the next entry.

(All information here came either from the associated wiki entries, or from the Sept., 2009, Gekkan Bijutsu art museum magazine).

A more complete time line based on the Gekkan Bijutsu list can be found in my Manga History section.

A comprehensive display of the Shojo no Tomo volumes is offered by the Junichi Nakahara press (4000 yen).

Manga Reviews: Hotel, Ishinomori

2009-12-05T13:57:00.000-08:00

Caution. Adult content contained below. If you're not considered an adult by your country's laws, or if you're easily offended, stop reading now.

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Of the ten artists that came out of Tezuka's Tokiwa Sou (Tokiwa Manor), three stand at the top: Fujio F Fujiko (Doraemon), Akatsuka Fujio (Tensai Bakabon) and Shotarou Ishinomori (Cyborg 009, Kamen Rider). All three are recognizable by name in Japan, and their works are still aired today. Understandably, since they were all born in the 1930's, none of them are still alive now. Yet, the anime based on their manga lives on, and their influence on subsequent generations of artists will be felt for decades. But, the question remains, who's number 1? And, did they supersede Tezuka along the way?

Shotarou (1938-1998) has at least a claim to the title. Fujio F Fujiko (FFF) and Akatsuka both created a dozen or so different series. Shotarou (according to one source) was posthumously awarded the Guinness World's record in 2008 for most comics published by one author. Not bad for a first start.

Initially, Shotarou was dinged for having an art style that mimicked Tezuka's too closely. Certainly the characters in Cyborg 009 looked like they'd stepped out of an Astro Boy page. But, over time, he developed his own designs, and his stories were at least as wide-ranging as Tezuka's ever were. We have detective stories, robots, masked fighters, ghosts, sports, medicine and social commentary. His "Introduction to the Japanese Economy (comic version)" was released in the U.S. as "Japan, Inc." (which I read years ago).

(Hotel, vol. 1, by Ishinomori. Used for review purposes only.)

Hotel, volume 1, by Shotarou Ishinomori, Grade: A
It's actually a little difficult trying to get the start date for this manga. My copy is a reprint and it doesn't give the dates for when the individual chapters each appeared in print. Most of the online references emphasize the TV drama that ran in the later 1990's. According to amazon.co.jp, there's at least one edition that came out in 1985, which is what I'm going to go with. I do know that when I first came to Japan in 1992, that I saw Hotel in Big comics, and that at the time I didn't want to bother trying to read it. Funny how time changes perceptions (and how much it helps being able to actually read the dialog...)

Hotel, as the name implies, is set in the Hotel Platon, a fictional location presumably in Tokyo. The design of the building slowly changes over the first volume, and in the first chapter, the marquee over the front door only says "Hotel". Later, the name reads "Hotel Platon", and that's what appears on one of the Do Not Disturb signs. However, in the last chapter of the volume, one of the veteran maintenance workers reminisces over the previous hotel in the same location, which was the Platon Hotel before being demolished to make way for the current Hillside Platon Hotel. However, the design of the building's facade is pretty much set by the middle of the book. Same holds true for the staff. In the first chapter, two of the front desk staff are introduced - a younger man with thick, curly black hair who later turns into the building manager; and an older man with graying hair who becomes that manager's assistant. With each new chapter, we get one or two new people, including a female on-call doctor, the lounge bartender, the maintenance chief, a few cleaning women and a handful of unsavory backstabbers working as floor managers. Platon is a huge building, with an olympic-style swimming pool, high end jewelry shops, presidential suites, computerized central air systems, wedding halls (one of which has been abandoned) and a top flight kitchen.

Each chapter is a standalone story, and the staff is not infallible. They do usually recover from their mistakes, but one of the appeals of this title is that the characters are human and they behave that way. However, equally, the stories look at many of the guests that frequent the hotel. And, since one of the reasons for going to a hotel is to have sex, that's a fairly common thread in the first volume, from a newlywed couple that needs their parent's help for their first romp, to actors and singers having secret flings, to an S&M session that requires the doctor's intervention for the one that passes out. In with these scenes we also have an author that's lived in the same room for years since his wife died, a snobbish couple that accuses an aging cleaning woman of stealing an expensive camera, and one couple that attempts to charge a wealth of jewelry to the room and then abscond with it before anyone notices that the room's been rented under a false name.

It's not reasonable to summarize all of the chapters from volume 1, so I'll only pick two. In the very first chapter, "Opening Story", we're told that a hotel is a living creature. It contains hopes and dreams, successes and betrayals. Then, we have three sets of people checking in. First is an old man and what looks like either his wife or an older son in disguise. Second is a famous actor, followed by a female singer incognito. The singer is recognized by a fan that follows her up to the room. And third is actually a party planner that's setting up an event in one of the ballrooms. The old man proceeds to buy various jewelry pieces and charges them to the room, then boxes them up to have them shipped elsewhere. The actor and singer meet up in the actor's room, and in the middle of sex are interrupted by the fan, who initially wanted the woman's signature on a poster, but then pulls out a big knife and ties the two lovers up with bedsheets and tries to understand how the woman of his dreams could let herself be sullied like this. And, the planner suddenly finds that his guest of honor refuses to stay at a hotel without an onsen (naturally-fed hot spring spa) and ends up with a big empty room and an equally big bill to pay off. The old man prepares to leave the hotel happily; the fan contemplates murder-suicide; and the planner just considers suicide. However. The hotel staff has gotten suspicious of the old man's room bill and opens up the shipping boxes prior to bringing in the internal security staff. The fan just ties the couple up in the shower and leaves them for the cleaning people to find. And, the planner is told by his manager to try to ignore the failure and move on with his life, which he does with a new event at the end of the chapter.

(Hotel, vol. 1, by Ishinomori. Used for review purposes only.)

In the story pictured here, "Over Booking", the manager okays accepting various reservations after the hotel has reached 100% booking. A rookie receptionist asks if this is ok, and is told that on average 10% of the bookings each day go unclaimed because the guests decide to not show up. So, as long as they stay below 110%, they'll be fine. And, of course, today just happens to be the one day when no one cancels. The manager faces the fury of guests that don't like hearing that there's no rooms left after having made reservations months in advance. To make things worse, one of the other hotels is also overbooked and they send their customers to Platon without calling first. Eventually, a third hotel is found to take some of the people, a few couples get free upgrades to the presidential suites, and most of the remaining people get shuffled to other rooms as well. Leaving a group of foreign campers standing in the lobby. The older reservations desk worker offers to put most of the campers up at his house, which they accept happily as a way of learning more about Japan in a kind of "home stay", but the big burly guy refuses to budge. He wants to stay in Platon. But. What he wants is a place to put up a tent, and to play his harmonica before going to sleep. By the last page, the manager is wading through reports that he has to write up because of this fiasco, and the burly guy is happily playing his harmonica outside his tent, up on the open roof.

Ishinomori has a way with ink. His characters are drawn with a variety of thin and heavy lines, and a mix of white and black space. His character's faces are distinct from each other (he doesn't rubber stamp his characters) and they don't warp and bend when going from full frontal view to 3/4 orfull profile. His backgrounds can be simple or detailed, indoors and outdoors, and aren't always just looking down on someone's bed. For some reason, though, he's not represented very well in English translations (mostly Cyborg 009, and Kikaider). And of course, Japan, Inc. He's definitely come a long way from his days as a Tezuka-wannabe in Cyborg 009.

Summary: Hotel is one of Ishinomori's more influential series in Japan, featuring the daily activities and mishaps of the staff and customers at Hotel Platon. The artwork is good, the characters don't all look alike, and the stories give an honest glimpse into how the hotel business operates. This is an "adult" title, so if you're under 18 you can't read it. Otherwise, highly recommended to those not offended by occasional displays of naked bodies.

The History of Manga, Intro

2009-12-04T13:54:00.000-08:00

(Ryoko's Strange Case Files)

It's interesting how things work. I started out a little over one year ago just wanting to find places I could visit for free because they were on the route for my rail pass (between Shinjuku and Noborito). But, I was limited to how far around the stations I could reach on foot, and to only stations on my route. Plus, I wanted to get in more exercise, so I put in a special order for a cross bike in my size. Once that arrived last December, I started looking for even more places to visit, now in a wider radius that included much of the area west of Tokyo, from Oume to Takao and down around to Kawasaki. But, the overlap between what I visited and the manga I wanted to read wasn't very great. That is, I was visiting art galleries, anime museums and so on, but reading manga titles that were more recent, like Ryoko's Strange Case Files, Geobreeders, Wilderness and Soul Eater.

(Tezuka exhibit poster)

Last Spring, I was given some old copies of Tezuka's collected manga, containing various chapters from Black Jack, Tetsuwan Atomu, Dororo and Don Dracula, but even then, when I visited the Tezuka exhibit at the Edo-Tokyo Museum, I didn't feel much pull to look at older manga. It wasn't until the Kawasaki Museum ran the "Shonen Sunday and Shonen Magazine DNA" exhibit during the summer, along with the descriptions of the 100 influential titles that ran during the first 50 years of both magazines, that I started to realize that I didn't really understand the history of manga all that well. Wanting to find more anime and manga-related places to visit, I re-started working on my list of manga and anime museums and galleries, and then visiting them on my bike in order to take photos and write up descriptions. At this point, I started actually wanting to find and read some of the older manga series being described in these galleries.

(DNA exhibit poster)

The "DNA" exhibit had a model of Tokiwa Manor, and that model spurred me to do a net search on just what "Tokiwa" was. That's when I became interested in getting copies of the manga from each of the Tokiwa Manor artists (Ishinomori, Fujio Fujiko, Akatsuka Fujio), in part because there was so little information on some of these artists in Japanese, much less in English. And, as I hit more galleries and related exhibits and events, the more the same names started popping up. But, with the "Manga Shonen" and "Shojo no Tomo" exhibits, new sets of names also started recurring, and the depth of manga history kept getting greater as well. Tezuka got his start running in shojo magazines, so when did shojo magazines start and what exactly are "shojo magazines"? Along with Tezuka there was Machiko Hasegawa, but who came before her? Some of the pieces came together when I visited the Katsudi Matsumoto gallery, and I decided to buy the gallery book.

(Katsudi book)

Up to the Katsudi gallery, I refrained from buying the souvenir books from the museums because I considered them overpriced and they just contained all of the exact same materials displayed in the exhibits. But the Katsudi book had a lot of additional materials, and after spending so much time talking to Katsudi's son I felt like I should buy something before I left and the gallery book seemed like a reasonable choice. However, when I got home and started paging through it, I found the names of artists and magazines that had popped up in the other exhibits. This got me to thinking that I was making a mistake in not getting these exhibit books for future reference, so I returned to the Hongo Bunkyo museum for the "Authentic Account: Manga Shonen" book, and the Worker's Welfare Hall in Ikebukuro for the "Heroes of Tokiwa-Sou". Going through those books made me realize further that I'd screwed up in not getting them at the time, especially the now-unavailable Tezuka book at the Edo-Tokyo museum. The only other exhibit still running that had a book I could pick up was "Shojo no Tomo" in the Yayoi gallery.

(Yayoi Gallery)

I wanted to hit four galleries in the same day (GoFA, Origami Kaikan, Yayoi-Yumeji and GAoh!) each for different reasons. But it was a cold, miserable rainy day and my schedule got thrown off. I spent way too much time on foot between galleries, getting soaked, and ran out of time to get to the "Ah! Megami-sama" artwork sale at GoFA. So, I wasn't feeling that happy when I got to Yayoi-Yumeji only to discover that the Shojo no Tomo exhibit book was 4000 yen ($46 USD) and I only had 3000 yen on me. So, I went through every book on Yayoi's shelves, trying to find something that I did want to buy, only to settle on a copy of the museum's 200-page monthly magazine, Gekkan Bijutsu (Monthly Artwork) for 1900 yen. Disappointed, I made the trek back home (after 5 hours in and out of the rain; mostly in) and didn't look at the magazine until the following day. I just wanted to find out how little material in it was related to "Shojo no Tomo", when I discovered that the September issue had a massive section on Junichi Nakahara, one of the chief Shojo no Tomo cover artists, plus overviews of 10 other illustrators that did work for Shojo no Tomo and some of the other shojo magazines from 1910 to 1950. On top of which, I learned that the publisher of the 4000 yen book at Yayoi was actually the Junichi Nakahara press. And that I now held in my hands information missing from the various English online sources, including a partial time line of when various shojo magazines started up and folded. Score!

So, I went from just wanting places to sight see a year ago to having the history of manga consume my reading time. I'm also noticing that even with all of the information on manga history currently available in English from wikipedia, that there are a lot of holes, some inconsistencies or contradictions, and no "single narrative". Naturally, books from people like Fred Schodt are more comprehensive and useful than the hodgepodge known as "the internet", but paper-based books are hard to search quickly, and rapidly become obsolete. I'd like to be able to assemble a better online resource myself, but it's not something I'm going to do for free.

In the meantime, I'm going to start up a new thread of blog posts that contains bits and snippets of what I'm able to put together from the exhibit books that I have now. This will alternate with my other, regular mish-mash of posts.

And, I'm going to make damn sure that the next time I go to a museum exhibit covering anime or manga history that I buy the book at the same time.