The History of Japanese Comic Books
According to statistics from the website, Japan Magazine and Book Publisher’s and Editor’s Association from 1961 to 2006, total sales of published material in Japan is two trillion five-hundred billion yen, of which manga sales account for nearly one quarter. This means publishing manga has been major industry supporting a Japanese economy. In addition, this statistics show us that it took a long time to reach this large numbers and to grow the long history of Japanese comic book for 900 years. The history of Japanese comic book can be divided into three ages; from the Kamakura period to the Edo period, from the Meiji period to the end of the Taisho period, and the period after the WWⅡ.
The first age of Japanese comic book is the medieval period. The typical examp
le of manga artwork in this era is Taba Soji. This artwork influenced the development of modern Japanese comic books. According to the statement from the website whose name is About.Com (1), animal which is painted in Taba Soji, satirized life in the Buddhist priesthood by drawing priests as mischievous rabbits, monkeys engaging in silly activities including farting contests, and even depicted the Buddha himself as a toad. Moreover, there are no word balloons or sound effects, but only the illustrations of animals. It achieved to show readers the progression of events which was happening one after another as the scroll is unrolled from right to left. At present, this is the common way to read comic books all over the world.
The second age of Japanese comic book is the modern era. Ponchi-e or Ponchi-style picture began to appear as the typical feature of Japanese artists and magazines at this time. Ponchi means satirizing political figures ironically. These kinds of artwork were strongly influenced from the British art style. According to the Website, About.Com (1), in 1862, the first foreign magazine was published by Charles Wagner in British military base which was located in Yokohama. Soon after that, Ponchi-e became the origin of satirical artwork and widely spread the satirizing artwork in Japan.
The last age of Japanese comic book is the present age. In recent decades, the most famous Japanese manga artist is Tezuka Osamu. His biggest achievement was creating the large amount of narrative manga which are similar to the films and linking between the each frame that tells the story. According to the website, The Network Museum and Magazine Report and Japan Media Art Plaza (1), in mid-1980s, thanks to the advance of Japanese comic books to Europe and Asia, the scale of Japanese comic market remarkably expanded. European comic critics highly evaluated his work and said that the recent Japanese comic books are more “cinematic” than that of American and European. Frame syntax in European comics is relatively underdeveloped while the contents are sophisticated. This is the reason why the many amount of Japanese comic books are widely spread not only in the Asia, but also in Europe.
In conclusion, there are three representative divisions in the history of Japanese comic books and each era has typical example of artwork such as Taba Soji, Ponchi-stylel picture and Tezuka’s artwork. These each feature was grown and created throughout the Japanese historical and social background which related to social unrest and prospered cultural exchanging with European countries. From this Japanese historical point of view, going through the development about history of Japanese comic books is the same meaning of understanding the Japanese history and interchanged history between Japan and European countries.
According to statistics from the website, Japan Magazine and Book Publisher’s and Editor’s Association from 1961 to 2006, total sales of published material in Japan is two trillion five-hundred billion yen, of which manga sales account for nearly one quarter. This means publishing manga has been major industry supporting a Japanese economy. In addition, this statistics show us that it took a long time to reach this large numbers and to grow the long history of Japanese comic book for 900 years. The history of Japanese comic book can be divided into three ages; from the Kamakura period to the Edo period, from the Meiji period to the end of the Taisho period, and the period after the WWⅡ.
The first age of Japanese comic book is the medieval period. The typical examp
le of manga artwork in this era is Taba Soji. This artwork influenced the development of modern Japanese comic books. According to the statement from the website whose name is About.Com (1), animal which is painted in Taba Soji, satirized life in the Buddhist priesthood by drawing priests as mischievous rabbits, monkeys engaging in silly activities including farting contests, and even depicted the Buddha himself as a toad. Moreover, there are no word balloons or sound effects, but only the illustrations of animals. It achieved to show readers the progression of events which was happening one after another as the scroll is unrolled from right to left. At present, this is the common way to read comic books all over the world.
The second age of Japanese comic book is the modern era. Ponchi-e or Ponchi-style picture began to appear as the typical feature of Japanese artists and magazines at this time. Ponchi means satirizing political figures ironically. These kinds of artwork were strongly influenced from the British art style. According to the Website, About.Com (1), in 1862, the first foreign magazine was published by Charles Wagner in British military base which was located in Yokohama. Soon after that, Ponchi-e became the origin of satirical artwork and widely spread the satirizing artwork in Japan.
The last age of Japanese comic book is the present age. In recent decades, the most famous Japanese manga artist is Tezuka Osamu. His biggest achievement was creating the large amount of narrative manga which are similar to the films and linking between the each frame that tells the story. According to the website, The Network Museum and Magazine Report and Japan Media Art Plaza (1), in mid-1980s, thanks to the advance of Japanese comic books to Europe and Asia, the scale of Japanese comic market remarkably expanded. European comic critics highly evaluated his work and said that the recent Japanese comic books are more “cinematic” than that of American and European. Frame syntax in European comics is relatively underdeveloped while the contents are sophisticated. This is the reason why the many amount of Japanese comic books are widely spread not only in the Asia, but also in Europe.
In conclusion, there are three representative divisions in the history of Japanese comic books and each era has typical example of artwork such as Taba Soji, Ponchi-stylel picture and Tezuka’s artwork. These each feature was grown and created throughout the Japanese historical and social background which related to social unrest and prospered cultural exchanging with European countries. From this Japanese historical point of view, going through the development about history of Japanese comic books is the same meaning of understanding the Japanese history and interchanged history between Japan and European countries.
0 件のコメント:
コメントを投稿