Japan Journey!
As I begin my journey to Japan, I will be posting photos, drawings and a journal of what I see and do while there. At this time, I am reading books, preparing all sorts of short talks to give while there, working on my concept and planning interviews with manga scholars and srt historians in Japan. My concept - as it currently stands - is this (though I expect it to change radically as I learn):
THE SECRET HISTORY OF MANGA
AND THE TRANSNATIONAL CHARACTER OF DESIRE
As a fan of Japanese manga and anime, and an academic in Design History and Cultural Studies, I have developed a desire to research and understand the complex, transnational and at the same time intensely Japanese style of storytelling in both images and text. I was very honored to receive a Fulbright Research Grant that has allowed me to come to Japan to research and ultimately, write a book that attempts to explain this remarkably complex history of both the transnational influence, and the unique Japanese innovations that has resulted in a storytelling mode and an aesthetic that has become a worldwide phenomenon.
Japanese popular cultural objects are not only known worldwide, but have actually seeped into mainstream culture in more and less obvious ways. Toys, animation, gaming, and western comics all show the influence of manga and anime, but evidence of this aesthetic can also be found in fashion, graphic design, industrial design, and fine art. Though initially this was considered a trend that would peak and be replaced, this movement, has steadily expanded since it emerged in the late 1980’s (in the US), and has established itself as a substantial and sustaining aesthetic, one that has transformed western design and consumer culture. As a design historian, this work and its persistent and unique appeal for global markets has compelled me to search for the origins of its aesthetic and to unravel the complex web of desire it both produces and provokes.
In recent years globalization and the transnational movement of commodities has become an important topic. Entertainment industries play a crucial role in such movements. For the most part, however, research has focused not only on very recent developments of the new economies and new technologies, but also on the global impact of American entertainment. Manga have become exceeding popular in North America and around the world. In a fairly recent article in a Japanese edition of Newsweek were compelling statistics about the growth of the commercial aspect of anime and manga in the various international markets:
The figures provided for anime ($500 million) and manga ($40 million) sales in the U.S. correspond closely to what ICv2 has reported in the market size articles prepared for our Retailers Guide To Anime & Manga”. While manga sales have grown rapidly in the U.S., sales in France, which make up 12% of a much larger market for comic books, are seven times larger. On the other hand manga sales in Germany are currently about half those in the U.S…. Sales in the U.S. may never even get close to sales in Japan, but the continuing steady growth of manga and anime around the world in markets like France and Italy, which embraced manga years before the U.S. did, would appear to indicate that interest in anime and manga is not a flash-in-the-pan fad, but a trend that will continue on the upswing for some time to come. (www.icv2.com/articles/news/2953.html)
From these statistics, two key issues arise. Primarily, manga, it seems, has been a transnational
movement of art with the implication of a much older history, starting from the emergence of art forms such as
ukiyo-e during the first opening of Japan to the west during the Meiji period. These representations established a style that seems to provide a key to the origins of contemporary manga styles. But there have been much more recent and profound incursions of graphic styles from the west in the immediate post-war period commonly referred to as “occupied Japan.” These incursions demonstrate perhaps a more significant example of this transnational condition, and consequently are essential to an historical understanding of current global circuits. Second, as Thomas Lamarre remarks: “manga might be said to constitute a reverse flow in global circuits: while the impact of American mass culture on today's manga is considerable, it returns to American audiences from Japan with a difference” and that difference constitutes a pivotal movement which demonstrates how new methods and conditions for objects produced in these new economies by the new technologies emerge and develop. It also demonstrates the potential for new transnational aesthetics that become the uniting factor in such movements. Such an account of manga is crucial to understanding the ways in which transnational markets continue to expand and differentiate themselves, and begins to project how utopian images of the global village might become a reality.
In order to approach such questions, I propose to look at manga graphics through an historical perspective, to trace lineages and flows of the art within Japan and from Japan to the world. Both from the standpoint of the images themselves, but also with an eye to other influential graphic objects whose national, commercial and popular cultural position in Japan meant that they have been overlooked as contributing influences on manga styles. The initial question is how and through what cultural ephemera and conditions did the complex manga styles evolve. A thorough history and explanation will provide a broader and richer understanding of the value and secret ubiquity of transnational movements, commonly thought to be the unique representations of one nation, of which the emergence of manga style is simply one example.
Desire is the engine that drives transnational movement of styles and objects. Beyond the history of the object, lies the history of desire for this particular style that fuels the current obsession for manga and the Japanese popular cultural style it has influenced, commonly and narrowly specified in the west with adjectives like cartoon-ish, “Asian pop art”, “decorative” or “kawaii.” How does desire for these objects contribute their movement, their markets and their evolution? How did post war Japan’s fascination with American comics, animation and graphic commercial design inform and influence the evolution of this style, and later in this “reverse flow” of desire, become the western fascination with all things Japanese? This condition is now trumped with the emergence of western manga, from both young European and American manga creators whose own styles are redolent with the influence of this “Japanese” style.
My objectives are to trace and mark the various historical back-and-forth movements of the current manga styles, both the well researched and the not well-known (by western readers) sources. I will develop aesthetic markers and indicators to establish the movement and the mode of desire it incurred, to establish a timeline of possible influential graphics, ads, postcards, comics, and other ephemera that would seem to establish a historical relationship of design and desire contributing to current styles. With that lineage in hand, I will look for ways in which desire has interceded and influenced the transformation of objects, and attempt to find evidence to support a notion of the modern formation of aesthetics to be a transnational phenomena.
As a design historian, my work has always been in the popular cultural area of American comic books, comic strips, anime, rock posters and ads. Discovering manga in the early nineties began a fascination that has brought me to focus my work on both manga and anime in recent years. My desire to learn more about manga and its formation has been frustrated by the lack of research in English: both for myself and for students in the US. As my interest has grown, I feel that I am the appropriate scholar to fulfill the need for a more comprehensive and in-depth explanation for this unique and popular art form. This research will be used to write a book based on these objectives.
THE SECRET HISTORY OF MANGA
AND THE TRANSNATIONAL CHARACTER OF DESIRE
More important to note about manga is the attempt to tell a story by organizing illustrations in the imported framework of panels…More interdisciplinary research is needed on this subject, but in my opinion the key is the Japanese (or Eastern) cultural tradition that places words and illustrations in close proximity…such research requires careful theoretical underpinnings, because the distinctive characteristics…reflect the Japanese subconscience and can be identified only by stripping away the influences of the modern history of manga as an imported style…Yet highlighting only those characteristics would slant the debate toward a closed argument…an echo of Orientalism. Manga should be examined carefully…from the perspective that they incorporate both the universal thread of popular culture and the uniquely Japanese forms of expression.
Natsume Fusanosuke, “Japan’s Manga Culture,” The Japan Foundation Newsletter, vol. xxvii/Nos. 3-4, March 2000.
As a fan of Japanese manga and anime, and an academic in Design History and Cultural Studies, I have developed a desire to research and understand the complex, transnational and at the same time intensely Japanese style of storytelling in both images and text. I was very honored to receive a Fulbright Research Grant that has allowed me to come to Japan to research and ultimately, write a book that attempts to explain this remarkably complex history of both the transnational influence, and the unique Japanese innovations that has resulted in a storytelling mode and an aesthetic that has become a worldwide phenomenon.
Japanese popular cultural objects are not only known worldwide, but have actually seeped into mainstream culture in more and less obvious ways. Toys, animation, gaming, and western comics all show the influence of manga and anime, but evidence of this aesthetic can also be found in fashion, graphic design, industrial design, and fine art. Though initially this was considered a trend that would peak and be replaced, this movement, has steadily expanded since it emerged in the late 1980’s (in the US), and has established itself as a substantial and sustaining aesthetic, one that has transformed western design and consumer culture. As a design historian, this work and its persistent and unique appeal for global markets has compelled me to search for the origins of its aesthetic and to unravel the complex web of desire it both produces and provokes.
In recent years globalization and the transnational movement of commodities has become an important topic. Entertainment industries play a crucial role in such movements. For the most part, however, research has focused not only on very recent developments of the new economies and new technologies, but also on the global impact of American entertainment. Manga have become exceeding popular in North America and around the world. In a fairly recent article in a Japanese edition of Newsweek were compelling statistics about the growth of the commercial aspect of anime and manga in the various international markets:
The figures provided for anime ($500 million) and manga ($40 million) sales in the U.S. correspond closely to what ICv2 has reported in the market size articles prepared for our Retailers Guide To Anime & Manga”. While manga sales have grown rapidly in the U.S., sales in France, which make up 12% of a much larger market for comic books, are seven times larger. On the other hand manga sales in Germany are currently about half those in the U.S…. Sales in the U.S. may never even get close to sales in Japan, but the continuing steady growth of manga and anime around the world in markets like France and Italy, which embraced manga years before the U.S. did, would appear to indicate that interest in anime and manga is not a flash-in-the-pan fad, but a trend that will continue on the upswing for some time to come. (www.icv2.com/articles/news/2953.html)
From these statistics, two key issues arise. Primarily, manga, it seems, has been a transnational
movement of art with the implication of a much older history, starting from the emergence of art forms such as
ukiyo-e during the first opening of Japan to the west during the Meiji period. These representations established a style that seems to provide a key to the origins of contemporary manga styles. But there have been much more recent and profound incursions of graphic styles from the west in the immediate post-war period commonly referred to as “occupied Japan.” These incursions demonstrate perhaps a more significant example of this transnational condition, and consequently are essential to an historical understanding of current global circuits. Second, as Thomas Lamarre remarks: “manga might be said to constitute a reverse flow in global circuits: while the impact of American mass culture on today's manga is considerable, it returns to American audiences from Japan with a difference” and that difference constitutes a pivotal movement which demonstrates how new methods and conditions for objects produced in these new economies by the new technologies emerge and develop. It also demonstrates the potential for new transnational aesthetics that become the uniting factor in such movements. Such an account of manga is crucial to understanding the ways in which transnational markets continue to expand and differentiate themselves, and begins to project how utopian images of the global village might become a reality.
In order to approach such questions, I propose to look at manga graphics through an historical perspective, to trace lineages and flows of the art within Japan and from Japan to the world. Both from the standpoint of the images themselves, but also with an eye to other influential graphic objects whose national, commercial and popular cultural position in Japan meant that they have been overlooked as contributing influences on manga styles. The initial question is how and through what cultural ephemera and conditions did the complex manga styles evolve. A thorough history and explanation will provide a broader and richer understanding of the value and secret ubiquity of transnational movements, commonly thought to be the unique representations of one nation, of which the emergence of manga style is simply one example.
Desire is the engine that drives transnational movement of styles and objects. Beyond the history of the object, lies the history of desire for this particular style that fuels the current obsession for manga and the Japanese popular cultural style it has influenced, commonly and narrowly specified in the west with adjectives like cartoon-ish, “Asian pop art”, “decorative” or “kawaii.” How does desire for these objects contribute their movement, their markets and their evolution? How did post war Japan’s fascination with American comics, animation and graphic commercial design inform and influence the evolution of this style, and later in this “reverse flow” of desire, become the western fascination with all things Japanese? This condition is now trumped with the emergence of western manga, from both young European and American manga creators whose own styles are redolent with the influence of this “Japanese” style.
My objectives are to trace and mark the various historical back-and-forth movements of the current manga styles, both the well researched and the not well-known (by western readers) sources. I will develop aesthetic markers and indicators to establish the movement and the mode of desire it incurred, to establish a timeline of possible influential graphics, ads, postcards, comics, and other ephemera that would seem to establish a historical relationship of design and desire contributing to current styles. With that lineage in hand, I will look for ways in which desire has interceded and influenced the transformation of objects, and attempt to find evidence to support a notion of the modern formation of aesthetics to be a transnational phenomena.
As a design historian, my work has always been in the popular cultural area of American comic books, comic strips, anime, rock posters and ads. Discovering manga in the early nineties began a fascination that has brought me to focus my work on both manga and anime in recent years. My desire to learn more about manga and its formation has been frustrated by the lack of research in English: both for myself and for students in the US. As my interest has grown, I feel that I am the appropriate scholar to fulfill the need for a more comprehensive and in-depth explanation for this unique and popular art form. This research will be used to write a book based on these objectives.
posted by Frenchy at 11:23 AM
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