By Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry
Sachiko Kazama, “Great Dazzle War”, 2017, woodcut print ©️ Sachiko Kazama, Courtesy of MUJIN-TO Production
Manga was once considered to be “low culture” in contrast to “high culture” art, but these days, there are increasing opportunities to view manga and artworks that use manga-derived techniques in art museums. These crossovers have forced us to reconsider the value of manga as a medium and have opened up new possibilities in art. A curator Kodama Kanazawa, who conducts research on manga theory and other fields in contemporary art, introduces eight Japanese artists who cross the boundaries of manga and art along with some examples of their work.
Tiger Tateishi, “A Train in the Andes”, 1997-1998Original source: © Tiger Tateishi, In a collection at Tokyo Station Gallery
Paintings that are manga:
Tiger Tateishi
Tiger Tateishi was born in 1941 in a coal-mining town in Fukuoka Prefecture. Aspiring to be a manga artist, he drew manga and contributed his works to manga magazines since his teenage years. Tateishi began creating avant-garde paintings when he entered a junior art college. His paintings, which depict several scenes on a single surface, were like stories that unfolded with the passage of time. Although Tateishi also worked on manga, illustrations, and picture books, painting was the medium that he pursued throughout his life. This work, titled "A Train in the Andes", was created in his last years.
A person on the train tracks notices a train approaching from a distance.
Since it’s dangerous to stay on the tracks, she moves off to the side.
However, the train that approaches is not what it seemed to be…
This work, which depicts the passage of time, betrays the basic convention of perspective in painting. Through such betrayal, Tateishi depicts a strangely warped sense of time and space on a single surface.
Yuichi Yokoyama, “Sekai Chizu no Ma” (The Room of the World Map), 2013Original source: © Yuichi Yokoyama / East Press
Manga that are paintings:
Yuichi Yokoyama
Born in Miyazaki Prefecture in 1967, Yuichi Yokoyama studied painting at an art university. He then began creating manga as a form of expression that allows him to “draw time.” Although most manga in Japan are first serialized in magazines before they are released as standalone books, Yokoyama has mainly published his works in the form of books such as "Travel", "Iceland", and "Plaza". Each book contains several hundred pages of images drawn painstakingly by Yokoyama with a ruler.
A car carrying men flies out at incredible speed.
Several cars emerge in rapid succession, with alarms blaring.
Nobody can hear the words uttered over this noise.
Some people watch the scene in silence, and the cars drive off.
Like techno music, time is carved out in a steady rhythm as the scene unfolds. Onomatopoetic sounds such as "BEEP", "THUD THUD THUD", and "VROOOOM" cut across the entirety of each scene, resulting in densely packed compositions that incorporate the passage of time and elements of sound. Though each panel is only one scene in the story, each has a sense of completeness and could stand as a painting by itself.
Akino Kondoh, “Ladybirds’ Requiem”, 2004 (Contained in Hakoniwa Mushi)Original source: © Akino Kondo / Seirinkogeisha
Contemporary art using manga and animation:
Akino Kondoh
Akino Kondoh, who was born in Chiba Prefecture in 1980, made her debut as a manga artist while she was enrolled in an art university with the publication of her manga in the avant-garde manga magazine "Garo". She then went on to express her inner world through various media such as animation, drawing, and oil painting and is highly regarded by the contemporary art world.
"Ladybirds’ Requiem" is one of Kondoh’s most representative early works. This scene depicts images of ladybirds caught in the folds of a curtain, the floral pattern of the curtain, and clothing buttons, all of which overlap and cling to the main character.
She also created and exhibited an animation piece under the same title. The overlapping of the images is captured wonderfully in the flowing movement of the animation.
Akino Kondoh, "Ladybirds’ Requiem", 2010, Animation *excerptOriginal source: © Akino Kondo
Akira Yamaguchi, “Narita International Airport: Various Curious Scenes of Airplanes”, 2005, pen, watercwatercolor on paper, 96.5 x 76.5 cmOriginal source: Photo by Kei Miyajima, ©️ YAMAGUCHI Akira, Courtesy of Mizuma Art Gallery
Traditional Japanese expression and manga-esque sensibilities:
Akira Yamaguch
Born in Tokyo in 1969, Akira Yamaguchi studied oil painting at university, but he was influenced by traditional Japanese art and began creating paintings in a style that he developed based on Japanese paintings. The "tessen-byō" (lit., “wire-line drawing,” sharp lines of uniform width) used in Yamaguchi’s paintings are reminiscent of the lines seen in manga. Such similarities may serve to remind us of the close relationship between Japanese art and manga.
This work, a large-scale piece installed at Narita Airport, adopts a painting style reminiscent of the "rakuchū-rakugai zu" (paintings of scenes in and around Kyoto), a genre of painting that was popular approximately four to five centuries ago. Narita Airport is visible through gaps in the clouds.
Taking a closer view, we can see a feature of Japanese culture, the public bathhouse,
as well as a Japanese-style room where a banquet is being held.
Akira Yamaguchi, “No Item Day”, 2017 (Created for "The Doraemon Exhibition")Original source: © YAMAGUCHI Akira, © Fujiko-Pro, Courtesy of Mizuma Art Gallery
Yamaguchi also creates manga-like forms of expression, such as the comic essay "Suzushiro Nikki" [The Radish Diary]. This work uses the popular manga Doraemon as a motif to express new content thought up by Yamaguchi in brilliant brushstrokes. His technique of painting with varying shades of ink resembles traditional ink painting.
Sachiko Kazama, “Great Dazzle War”, 2017, woodcut printOriginal source: Photo by Kei Miyajima, ©️ Sachiko Kazama, Courtesy of MUJIN-TO Production
Woodblock print expression and manga-esque dynamism:
Sachiko Kazama
Born in Tokyo in 1972, Sachiko Kazama has continued to challenge social-political themes through the medium of woodblock printing. Her dynamic black-and-white compositions aptly express the uneasy atmosphere of the society we live in. At the same time, the people and scenes depicted in her work somehow possess a touch of humor and tell many stories of their backgrounds.
Jiraiya, a character from Japanese folklore who uses supernatural powers and rides atop Gama (a giant mythological toad which appears in folktales across Japan), appears to symbolize a world of fantasy. Using magic, he launches an attack.
Between the waves, we can see the Family Computer (also known as Famicom or Nintendo Entertainment System/NES) console that was all the rage in the 1980s.
People in suits desperately try to shield themselves from Jiraiya’s attack. They use a pension book and calculator as shields.
Seated in a row to their left are junior high school students. They sit supported by a timetable that shows the days of the week and their class schedule. These appear to be symbols of a controlled society.
Ryo Hirano, “FANTASTIC WORLD”, 2016Original source: © Ryo Hirano / LEED Publishing Co.,Ltd.
Exploring a world where anything is possible:
Ryo Hirano
Born in 1988, Ryo Hirano has continued to illustrate mysterious worlds in which people, animals, aliens, and creatures of unknown definition are shown together, mainly through animation and manga.
"Fantastic World" is a work of manga that was released as a web comic before it was published as a paper book.
Ryo Hirano, “FANTASTIC WORLD”, 2016Original source: © Ryo Hirano / LEED Publishing Co.,Ltd.
In a world where the center of the earth is hollow, characters emerge one after another in various shapes and forms, such as teeth and machines. By remaining faithful to the “grammar” of manga built up through the history of the medium, Hirano effortlessly draws readers in and engages them emotionally in the stories of these atypical characters. We even shed tears at the drama of friendship between the human Biko and the tooth-shaped character Ha-chan.
Ryo Hirano, “UTOPIA_TV”, 2020, The exhibition scenery of “HIBERNATION 1: Healing Spring A Film & Moving Image Festival The Latest in Independent Animation” (Towada Art Center, Aomori)Original source: Photo by Kuniya Oyamada
Hirano also occasionally holds artistic exhibitions. At the "Healing Spring" exhibition hosted by Towada Art Center in 2020, he contributed to a spatial exhibit featuring his works, including soft sculptures and animation films. In this space, he transcended the two-dimensional space of anime and manga to freely express his worldview by crossing over into multiple mediums.
Saori Oyaizu, “A Lonely Alien”, 2018Original source: ©️ Saori Oyaizu
Manga’s latest form:
Saori Oyaizu
Born in 1995, Saori Oyaizu is an artist behind a new format of manga. This work, titled "A Lonely Alien", was created as a motion comic, or a manga with added sound and movement. Rather than a traditional frame layout meant to be read from the upper right to the lower left, she constructed the manga to be read starting in the center and gradually progressing outward along the edges. Manga has evolved through the work of many creators up until the present, and this is one of its latest forms.
Saori Oyaizu, “A Lonely Alien”, 2018Original source: ©️ Saori Oyaizu
Tsubasa Yamaguchi, “Blue Period”, Vol.1, 2017, KodansyaOriginal source: © Tsubasa Yamaguchi / Kodansha
Incorporating the sensibility of painting
Tsubasa: Yamaguchi
The final work to be introduced is a manga that expresses the world of art. The main character of Tsubasa Yamaguchi’s "Blue Period" is a male high school student who is taking the entrance examination for Tokyo University of the Arts, said to be Japan’s most difficult art university to get into.
Tsubasa Yamaguchi, “Blue Period”, Vol.1, 2017, KodansyaOriginal source: © Tsubasa Yamaguchi / Kodansha
The protagonist, who initially has no interest in art itself, gradually awakens to the excitement, freedom, and depth art has to offer and decides to continue down this path as he acquires the techniques of painting.
Whereas fine art has, relatively speaking, freely incorporated and expressed manga, fewer attempts have been made to depict the world of fine art in manga. In this work, we are invited by the manga panels to enter into the viewpoint of the protagonist, through which we can vicariously experience the richness of the painting process.
Text: Kodama Kanazawa
Edit: Sayuri Kobayashi, Natsuko Fukushima + Yuka Miyazaki(BIJUTSU SHUPPAN-SHA CO., LTD.)
Supervisor: Hirohito Miyamoto(Meiji University)
Production: BIJUTSU SHUPPAN-SHA CO., LTD.
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