Manga Kamishibai: The Art of Japanese Paper Theater

by Eric P. Nash, Frederik L. Schodt (Introduction)

Before giant robots, space ships, and masked super heroes filled the pages of Japanese comic books--known as manga--such characters were regularly seen on the streets of Japan in kamishibai stories. Manga The Art of Japanese Paper Theater tells the history of this fascinating and nearly vanished Japanese art form that paved the way for modern-day comic books, and is the missing link in the development of modern manga.
During the height of kamishibai in the 1930s, storytellers would travel to villages and set up their butais (miniature wooden prosceniums), through which illustrated boards were shown. The storytellers acted as entertainers and reporters, narrating tales that ranged from action-packed westerns, period pieces, traditional folk tales, and melodramas, to nightly news reporting on World War II. More than just explaining the pictures, a good storyteller would act out the parts of each character with different voices and facial expressions. Through extensive research and interviews, author Eric P. Nash pieces together the remarkable history of this art and its creators. With rare images reproduced for the first time from Japanese archives, including full-length kamishibai stories, combined with expert writing, this book is an essential guide to the origins of manga.

Genres: Nonfiction, Japan, History, Comics, Manga, Pop Culture, Art

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before manga kamishibai ('paper drama') men would travel from place to place. First they would sell candy and the children who bought candy would get the best seats. They would then insert the story boards into a stage on the back of a bike and remove them one by one as the story was told while they acted out the drama using different voices for all the characters. Many artist who would go on to produce manga got their start in kamishibai. A rare glimpse into a form of entertainment that is almost extinct.

[D · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not so sure how I feel about this. On one hand, this is a whole new area of illustrative storytelling for me and it was nice to read about kamishibaiya AND see illustrations along with the general idea of the stories they came from. (Pop culture galore!)

On the other hand, 'doujinshi' (as in self-published manga) was listed in the glossary as 'coujinshi'. 'Uncle Kamishibai' was translated as 'Ojisan Kamishibai' instead of 'Kamishibai-ojisan' (honorifics come after??). Too many references to existing Western pop literature and comics WITHOUT going in-depth about how Western art and literature has influenced the art of Kamishibai in Japan. I'm not asking for in-depth analysis, it's a coffee table book, after all and it's mostly illustrations, BUT I would like to read more than 'This illustration is reminiscent of so-and-so's Spiderman comics during this particular time period'.

What does that even mean? Are the elements similar because one of them inspired the other? (Actually kinda getting the feeling of 'Lots of this came from Western ideas and aesthetics.' with the suggestion of 'The West did it first.' And that's kinda irritating?)

It's like a whole bunch of statements without supportive argument. Idk.

All in all, probably a good introduction to the whole art of illustrative storytelling in Japan. I just don't feel like it's comprehensive enough or researched very well. Sorry.

[Tosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Manga Kamishibai" is a fascinating book and document of another era in Japan. Basically it is a series of hand-drawn drawings/paintings that tell a story. Then the person travels from one neighborhood to another, telling these tales (including the images) to children. The economic aspect is for the children to buy the candy - but this is art/performance at its best. And so organic.

[Erina27 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Très complet !

[Erica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will admit right up front that mostly I looked at all the pictures, and only read about 1/4 of the text. This is not the author's fault - It is a lot of adult-level reading, and I just couldn't handle that at the moment.

Mostly Nash is telling the history of the Kamishibai (paper-theater) that flourished in Japan between about 1920 and 1955, when television replaced it. For manga & anime enthusiasts, some of the names will be familiar, and there are peeks at a few origins of early manga & anime characters. But the history is fascinating even if you aren't one of those fans.

Excellent reproductions are tantalizing and made me want to see each one - each kamishibai story, and all the words, too, in a book. Why weren't they made into books? This is not a question that is asked or answered in the text. One noticeable aspect of kamishibai is that there seem to have been stories geared for different ages. Kids stories were often folk tales or government/school "educational" stories, but there were plenty of historical tales and romances for older audiences. Some were intense and/or political, and this caused friction with the government.

Anyway, it's definitely worth browsing through, even if you get frustrated at not hearing the stories themselves.

[Nicholas Driscoll · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lots of interesting history, lots of great art, but very weak writing, sometimes almost incoherent. The author also seems to like using obscure vocabulary just to try to impress readers. While the book claims to include some kamishibai stories, in reality most of the "stories" consist of the author including kamishibai paintings in narrative order and commenting on what is obviously going on in the pictures, and then making a lot of art-student commentary. I was often confused about how the kamishibai paintings supposedly connected, and it didn't seem that Nash knew, either.

It's a shame, because the topic is really fascinating, and now I know that Japan has perhaps the world's oldest superhero, Golden Bat! Fascinating, fascinating topic. Disappointing execution.

[Rolando José Rodríguez De León · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muy buen libro, me encantaron la cantidad de ilustraciones y es un indispensable para conocer la historia de los cuenta cuentos japoneses.

[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't know anything about kamishibai going into this book, so it was highly educational for me. This book is worth the read based on the images alone. It's very interesting to see kamishibai images and stories from as far back as the 1930s. However, the author's writing was not great. The same sentences seemed repeated in multiple places, the order of explanations was weird, and the overall layout was off. For example, sometimes a page would end in the middle of sentence and the next five pages would be a series of full-page images showing a kamishibai story that was mentioned a bit earlier or would be mentioned a bit later.

[Drew Canole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful artbook with tons of images of Kamishibai all the way up untik TV eventually kills the Kamishibai star.

The captions often just describe the content of the image as though readers of this are blind. Some do have some nice information about how the painting was composed.

I would have liked for the book to include full stories instead of just a few select images, and have the captions tell the story.

"Children of the Bomb" was a heartbreaking chapter about Kamishibai artists responding to the atom bomb and its aftermath.

Good coffee table book.

[Matthew Schacht · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting read. Lovely illustrations