Manga

ARTH 321-History of Design

OBri-Ann Forde (0078863)
September 22, 2016
Ms. Sten - Nicholson

HISTORY OF DESIGN

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Manga

The Sketchbooks We Love

Telling stories through multiple images has been a part of Japans culture since Even long
before Superman ever put on a cape according to About Entertainment. Manga are
Japanese comic books that are very well known all over the world. Before these illustrations were
known as manga they were paintings in temples done by buddhist priests in the 13th century.

One of the very first artist to create such paintings was Toba Sojo, a painter-priest who
illustrated the after life of the Buddhist priesthood through representing the priests as rabbits and
monkeys partaking in silly events like farting contests. Even though his illustrations never had text
that showed sound effects or that the animals were talking, it was still easy to follow the story as
the as one painting continued onto the next when the scrolls were unrolled from right to left. To
this day reading manga from right to left is still continued.
Tobas influences on manga was later on celebrated through the series Toba pictures or
Toba-e, which is a collection of humorous 18th century style images bound together in books.
The name Manga came to being because of the artist Katsushika Hokusai who is very well
known for his block print images of 36 Views of Mount Fuji and his manga sketchbooks. His

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manga included images of

men making funny faces,
sticking chopsticks in their
noses and even blind men
examining an elephant. At
first his sketches were meant
to be used as references for his
students to lear n from,
however these manga were
instead distributed throughout
Japan.
Manga was not only inspired by certain artists but also
certain genres of Japanese art and cultures. Some genres
such as Shunga and Yokai.
Shunga is a sexual genre of Japanese prints which often
include metaphors for genitals using long eggplants or
mushrooms to depict large penises in the act of sexual
intercourse. This perverted style has a strong influence on
contemporary manga, hentai ( ESPECIALLY HENTAI),
or any sexually explicit manga.
Yokai are mythical japanese monsters which are
a very popular trend found in manga. Tsukioka
Yoshitoshi is very well known for creating the most
popular horror prints which includes, Yokai, ghosts or
even warriors comitting seppuku ( which is the act of
cutting the stomach/abdomen, this was a suicide
ritual done by the Japanese samurai) and crime
stories based of true stories.
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By the 20th century manga began to change as it

started to become influenced by Western Culture.
Artists began to mix the style of Western comics
with Japanese styles. Rakuten Kitazawa was one of
the artist who was more than happy to create these
new manga hybrids. He created the very popular
comic strip Tagosaku to Mokube no Tokyo
Kenbutsu (Tagosaku and Mokubes Sightseeing in
Tokyo). He is known to be considered the founding
father of modern manga.

By the 1st World War manga made its

debut to other places outside of Japan as the
Japanese planned
to

extend their

culture outside of Japan. They created a popular magazine with

included illustrated stories for young readers. By the 1930s the
magazines began to feature heoric tales of Japanese soldiers
preparing for battle. One of these heroes is Norakuro (Black Stray)
the dog who was created by Suiho Tagawa, as well as Ganbatte
which were manga that instilled values of sacrifice and valor in
their readers as the Japanese prepared for conflict and sacrifices
ahead.

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Manga made its way to US thanks to the high need for comics to cover all audiences,
including girls. The problem with their comics was that
they were made by men for men and because of this
found difficulty capturing a high rate in female readers.
However Japan had them covered, with their Shojo
manga. Shojo manga also known as comics for girls is
a genre of manga mainly targeting the female
population of Japan. Even from the time a girl learns
how to read in Japan shojo manga became her new
found friend. Shojo manga has stories that can go from
sweet and romantic to dark and dramatic, and is also
wide in its age range, their is a manga for every female,
whether they are children, teenagers , in college ,
mothers or wives, or even carrer women. It was so well
known that more than half of Japans women under 40
read shojo manga regularly.
By the mid 90s these girl power inspired manga were
distributed all over the US in bookstores and comic shops.
Manga soon became so popular that even international artist
wanted to create their own. This was when OELM ( Original
English Language Manga) was born. These manga are created
by artists outside of Japan who targeted Western audiences.
These manga are done in english and have different names,
such as

Amerimanga, neo - manga or nessei comi (which

means second generation comics)

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In conclusion Japanese manga were first comical drawings done by priests on scrolls to
entertain themselves. It later evolved into books with wider genres, genres which helped it to
extend to other nations such as the US.

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Bibliography
manga.about.com/od/historyofmanga/a/mangahistory1.htm
https://depts:washington.edu/ub/studpp/srproj/HistoryAimaeos.ppt

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