Kamishibai

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A kamishibaiya (kamishibai artist) in Tokyo.

Kamishibai (Japanese: 紙芝居, "paper play") is a form of Japanese street theater and
storytelling that was popular during the Depression of the 1930s and the post-war period in
Japan until the advent of television during the twentieth century. Kamishibai was told by a
kamishibaiya ("kamishibai narrator") who travelled to street corners with sets of illustrated
boards that they placed in a miniature stage-like device and narrated the story by changing
each image.[1] Kamishibai has its earliest origins in Japanese Buddhist temples where Buddhist
monks from the eighth century onward used emakimono ("picture scrolls") as pictorial aids for
recounting their history of the monasteries, an early combination of picture and text to convey
a story.[2]

Contents
 1History
o 1.1Origins
o 1.2Golden age
o 1.3Decline
 2Modern usage
 3See also
 4References
 5External links

History[edit]
Origins[edit]

The exact origins of kamishibai during the twentieth century are unknown, appearing "like the
wind on a street corner" in the Shitamachi section of Tokyo around 1930.[3] It is believed,
however, that kamishibai has deep roots in Japan's etoki ("pictorial storytelling") art history,
which can be traced back to the twelfth century emaki scrolls, such as the Choju giga
("Frolicking Critters") attributed to the priest Toba Sōjō (1053–1140).[4] The scroll depicts
anthropomorphised animal caricatures that satirise society during this period but has no text,
making it a pictorial aid to a story.[5] It can therefore be considered a direct precursor of
kamishibai.

During the Edo period (1603–1868) there was a flourishing of the visual and performance arts
particularly through the proliferation of ukiyo-e ("pictures of the floating world"). Etoki once
again became popular during the later eighteenth century as storytellers began to set up on
street corners with an unrolled scroll hanging from a pole.[6] In the Meiji Period (1868–1912)
tachi-e ("stand-up pictures"), similar to those in the Edo period, were told by performers who
manipulated flat paper cutouts of figures mounted on wooden poles (similar to the shadow
puppets of Indonesia and Malaysia).[6] The Zen priest Nishimura is also credited to have used
these pictures during sermons to entertain children.[6] Another form of etoki was the Japanese
modified stereoscope imported from the Netherlands. Much smaller in size, six engravings of
landscapes and everyday scenes would be placed one behind the other on top of the device
and lowered when required so that the viewer, who looked at them through a lens, could
experience the illusion of space created by this device.[7] The artistic and technological
developments of the Edo and Meiji periods can be linked to the establishment of kamishibai.

Golden age[edit]

Kamishibai, cartoons, and comics became substantially popular during the Great Depression of
the 1930s and after the Japanese surrender to the Allied Forces in August 1945 at the end of
the Second World War.[8] This period is known as the "Golden Age" of kamishibai in Japan.[9]
Kamishibai produced and narrated over this period gives insight into the mindset of the people
who lived through such a tumultuous period in history. Contrary to the hardships imposed by
the depression, in 1933 there were 2,500 kamishibaiya in Tokyo alone, who performed ten
times a day for audiences of up to thirty children, equalling a total of one million children a day.
[10] The Depression years were the most prosperous and vibrant for kamishibai: with 1.5
million unemployed in Tokyo in 1930, it provided a great job opportunity for many people.[11]

The early post-war period was particularly hard on the citizens of Japan who wanted to rebuild
their lives in a rapidly changing environment. Comics became popular in newspapers and
magazines, depicting scenes of everyday life injected with humour.[12] A strong publishing
industry emerged from the demand for comics, but outside of this industry, the desire for
cheap entertainment provoked the establishment of new comic outdoor storytelling,
kamishibai.[1] Five million children and adults were entertained across Japan daily during the
post-war period.[3]
A kamishibai storyteller at Kiyomizu-dera

The gaito kamishibaiya ("street-corner kamishibai storyteller") parked their bicycle at a familiar
intersection and banged their hyōshigi ("clapping sticks") together to announce their presence
and create anticipation for the show. When the audience arrived they would sell sweets to the
children as a fee for the show, which was their main source of income. They would then unfold
a butai, a miniature wooden proscenium which held the illustrated boards for the narrator to
change as he narrated (and provided sound effects for) the unscripted story.[13] True artists
only used hand-painted original art, not the mass-produced kind found in schools or for other
communication purposes.[14]

Kamishibai kashimoto (dealers) were sought to commission and rent artwork to narrators for a
small fee.[15] The creation of these boards was similar to that of an American comic book
company, with each person separately doing the colouring of a panel. The principle illustrator
would make pencil sketches that were then done over with thick brushes of India ink.
Watercolour paint was then applied to delineate the background and foreground, an opaque
tempera paint was then added on top and lastly a coat of lacquer to give it shine and protect it
from the elements.[16] A mix of 'trashy pop culture' and fine artistry, kamishibai blended the
traditional linear style of Japanese painting with the heavy chiaroscuro of Western painting,
contrasting light and dark to give the figures depth and dynamism.[17]

There were a variety of popular stories and themes in kamishibai, which are now seen in
contemporary manga and anime, including one of the first illustrated costume superheroes in
the world, Ōgon Bat ("Golden Bat") in 1931, superheroes with secret identities like Prince
Ganma (whose alter ego was a street urchin) and the popular genre of gekiga or "drama
pictures".[10][18] Many prolific manga artists, like Shigeru Mizuki, were once kamishibai artists
before the medium went out of vogue in 1953.[19]

Boards for the story "Shimizu Taemon Died at his Post"

Kamishibai was also utilized as a source of communication to the masses, an "evening news" for
adults during the Second World War and the Allied Occupation (1945–1953). There are theories
about the acceptance of drawing as a means to communicate in Asian nations more so than in
Western nations which can be linked to the different printing technologies utilized in each
regions histories. In the West, text and image eventually became separated because of the
Gutenberg method of moveable type.[6] In the Japanese language of complex characters, it was
much easier to employ the woodblock printing.[6] Such use was often related to propaganda.
[20]

Decline[edit]
The popularity of kamishibai declined at the end of the Allied Occupation and the introduction
of television, known originally as denki kamishibai ("electric kamishibai") in 1953.[1] With
television bringing larger access to a variety of entertainment, many kamishibai artists and
narrators lost their work, with the former turning to drawing gekiga, bringing new talent and
narrative to this growing genre.[21] Although this Japanese art form has largely disappeared, its
significance and contributions have allowed kamishibai to be attributed as an origin for manga.

Modern usage[edit]
As part of the Toyota Production System, kamishibai boards are used as a visual control for
performing audits within a manufacturing process. A series of cards are placed on a board and
selected at random or according to schedule by supervisors and managers of the area. This
ensures safety and cleanliness of the workplace is maintained and that quality checks are being
performed.[22]

Kamishibai storytelling is currently[when?] being conducted as part of an ongoing campaign to

promote world peace. Maki Saji[23] (a Buddhist nun) created a kamishibai based on the story of
one of the many children, Sadako Sasaki, who suffered as a result of the atomic bomb raid on
Hiroshima in 1945. In May 2010, she was a delegate at a Meeting of the Treaty on the Non-
Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons at the United Nations in New York, where she performed to
promote a world in harmony and free of nuclear arms.