is a form of Japanese street theater and

storytelling Storytelling is the social and cultural activity of sharing stories, sometimes with improvisation, theatrics or embellishment. Every culture has its own stories or narratives, which are shared as a means of entertainment, education, cultural pr ...

that was popular during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

of the 1930s and the post-war period in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

until the advent of television during the mid-20th century. were performed by a (" 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. has its earliest origins in

ese

Buddhist temple A Buddhist temple or Buddhist monastery is the place of worship for Buddhists, the followers of Buddhism. They include the structures called vihara, chaitya, stupa, wat and pagoda in different regions and languages. Temples in Buddhism repres ...

s, where Buddhist monks from the 8th century onward used ("picture scrolls") as pictorial aids for recounting their history of the monasteries, an early combination of picture and text to convey a story.

History

Origins

The exact origins of during the 20th century are unknown, appearing "like the wind on a street corner" in the

Shitamachi and are traditional names for two areas of Tokyo, Japan. Yamanote refers to the affluent, upper-class areas of Tokyo west of the Imperial Palace.Iwanami Japanese dictionary, 6th Edition (2008), DVD version While citizens once considered it as ...

section of Tokyo around 1930. It is believed, however, that has deep roots in Japan's ("pictorial storytelling") art history, which can be traced back to the 12th-century scrolls, such as the ("Frolicking Critters"), attributed to the priest

Toba Sōjō (1053–1140), also known as for his priesthood, was a Japanese artist-monk, and the son of Minamoto no Takakuni. Kakuyū was a high priest of Tendai Buddhism. He was advanced to in 1132 and then in 1134. In 1138, he became the 48th (the ...

(1053–1140). The scroll depicts anthropomorphised animal caricatures that satirise society during this period but has no text, making it a pictorial aid to a story. It can therefore be considered a direct precursor of . During the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was character ...

(1603–1868), visual and performing arts flourished, particularly through the proliferation of

ukiyo-e Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes from history and folk ta ...

("pictures of the floating world"). once again became popular during the later 18th century as storytellers began to set up on street corners with an unrolled scroll hanging from a pole. In the

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

(1868–1912), ("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 ''Shadow Puppets'' is a science fiction novel by American author Orson Scott Card, published in 2002. It is the sequel to '' Shadow of the Hegemon'' and the third book in the Ender's Shadow series (often called the Bean Quartet). It was original ...

of Indonesia and Malaysia). The Zen priest Nishimura is also credited to have used these pictures during sermons to entertain children. Another form of was the Japanese-modified

stereoscope A stereoscope is a device for viewing a stereoscopic pair of separate images, depicting left-eye and right-eye views of the same scene, as a single three-dimensional image. A typical stereoscope provides each eye with a lens that makes the ima ...

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. The artistic and technological developments of the Edo and Meiji periods can be linked to the establishment of .

Golden age

, cartoons, and comics became substantially popular during the

of the 1930s and after the Japanese surrender to the Allied Forces in August 1945 at the end of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. This period is known as the "

Golden Age The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the '' Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages, Gold being the first and the one during which the G ...

" of in Japan. produced and narrated over this period give insight into the minds 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 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. The Depression years were the most prosperous and vibrant for : with 1.5 million unemployed in Tokyo in 1930, it provided a great job opportunity for many people. 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. A strong publishing industry emerged from the demand for comics, but outside of this industry, the desire for cheap entertainment further stimulated the demand for . Five million children and adults were entertained across Japan daily during the post-war period. Kamishibai artist at kyomizudera 1

The ("street-corner storyteller") parked their bicycle at a familiar intersection and banged their ("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 , a miniature wooden

proscenium A proscenium ( grc-gre, προσκήνιον, ) is the metaphorical vertical plane of space in a theatre, usually surrounded on the top and sides by a physical proscenium arch (whether or not truly "arched") and on the bottom by the stage floor ...

which held the illustrated boards for the narrator to change as he narrated (and provided sound effects for) the unscripted story. True artists only used hand-painted original art, not the mass-produced kind found in schools or for other communication purposes. (dealers) were sought to commission and rent artwork to narrators for a small fee. 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 principal 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. A mix of "trashy pop culture" and fine artistry, blended the traditional linear style of Japanese painting with the heavy

chiaroscuro Chiaroscuro ( , ; ), in art, is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to achi ...

of Western painting, contrasting light and dark to give the figures depth and dynamism. There were a variety of popular stories and themes in , which are now seen in contemporary manga and anime, including one of the first illustrated costume

superhero A superhero or superheroine is a stock character that typically possesses ''superpowers'', abilities beyond those of ordinary people, and fits the role of the hero, typically using his or her powers to help the world become a better place, ...

es in the world, ("Golden Bat") in 1931, superheroes with secret identities like Prince Ganma (whose alter ego was a street urchin) and the popular genre of or "drama pictures". Many prolific manga artists, like

Shigeru Mizuki was a Japanese manga artist and historian, best known for his manga series ''GeGeGe no Kitarō''. Born in a hospital in Osaka and raised in the city of Sakaiminato, Tottori, he later moved to Chōfu, Tokyo where he remained until his death ...

, were once artists before the medium went out of vogue in 1953. 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 Movable type (US English; moveable type in British English) is the system and technology of printing and typography that uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document (usually individual alphanumeric characters or punctuation m ...

. In the Japanese language of complex characters, it was much easier to employ the woodblock printing. Such use was often related to

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...

Decline

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

Modern usage

As part of the

Toyota Production System The Toyota Production System (TPS) is an integrated socio-technical system, developed by Toyota, that comprises its management philosophy and practices. The TPS is a management system that organizes manufacturing and logistics for the automobile ...

, 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. , storytelling was being conducted as part of an ongoing campaign to promote world peace. Maki Saji (a

Buddhist nun Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gr ...

) created a based on the story of one of the many children,

Sadako Sasaki was a Japanese girl who became a victim of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States. She was two years of age when the bombs were dropped and was severely irradiated. She survived for another ten years, becoming one o ...

, 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 The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT, is an international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation ...

at the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...

in New York, where she performed to promote a world in harmony and free of nuclear arms. A number of manga and anime have been produced that borrow from or call back to tropes and presentation. These include , an manga by Suehiro Maruo based around the titular character archetype, and , an anime that uses a style to tell myths and urban legends. Additionally, some older works that would later become popular manga or anime, such as '' GeGeGe no Kitaro'', originally started as programs.

References

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' (SFE) is an English language reference work on science fiction, first published in 1979. It has won the Hugo Award, Hugo, Locus Award, Locus and BSFA Award, British SF Awards. Two print editions appeared ...

Manga's story starts with kamishibai
{{Authority control Buddhist folklore Japan in non-Japanese culture Japanese culture Japanese folklore Performing arts in Japan Storytelling Japanese words and phrases