Kamishibai

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A Template:Transliteration (Template:Transliteration artist) in Tokyo.

Template:Nihongo3 is a form of Japanese street theater and storytelling that was popular during the Great Depression of the 1930s and the postwar period in Japan until the advent of television during the mid-20th century. Template:Transliteration were performed by a Template:Transliteration ("Template:Transliteration 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.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref>

Template:Transliteration has its earliest origins in Japanese Buddhist temples, where Buddhist monks from the 8th century onward used Template:Transliteration ("picture scrolls") as pictorial aids for recounting their history of the monasteries, an early combination of picture and text to convey a story.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

HistoryEdit

OriginsEdit

The exact origins of Template:Transliteration during the 20th century are unknown, appearing "like the wind on a street corner" in the Shitamachi section of Tokyo around 1930.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref> It is believed, however, that Template:Transliteration has deep roots in Japan's Template:Transliteration ("pictorial storytelling") art history, which can be traced back to the 12th-century Template:Transliteration scrolls, such as the Template:Transliteration ("Frolicking Critters"), attributed to the priest Toba Sōjō (1053–1140).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The scroll depicts anthropomorphised animal caricatures that satirise society during this period but has no text, making it a pictorial aid to a story.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> It can therefore be considered a direct precursor of Template:Transliteration.

During the Edo period (1603–1868), visual and performing arts flourished, particularly through the proliferation of ukiyo-e ("pictures of the floating world"). Template:Transliteration 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.<ref name=":2">Template:Cite book</ref> In the Meiji period (1868–1912), Template:Transliteration ("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).<ref name=":2" /> The Zen priest Nishimura is also credited to have used these pictures during sermons to entertain children.<ref name=":2" /> Another form of Template:Transliteration 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The artistic and technological developments of the Edo and Meiji periods can be linked to the establishment of Template:Transliteration.

Golden ageEdit

Template:Transliteration, 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> This period is known as the "Golden Age" of Template:Transliteration in Japan.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Template:Transliteration 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 Template:Transliteration 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.<ref name=":3">Template:Cite book</ref> The Depression years were the most prosperous and vibrant for Template:Transliteration: with 1.5 million unemployed in Tokyo in 1930, it provided a great job opportunity for many people.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The early postwar 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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 Template:Transliteration.<ref name=":0" /> Five million children and adults were entertained across Japan daily during the postwar period.<ref name=":1" />

File:Kamishibai artist at kyomizudera 1.jpg

A Template:Transliteration storyteller at Kiyomizu-dera

The Template:Transliteration ("street-corner Template:Transliteration storyteller") parked their bicycle at a familiar intersection and banged their Template:Transliteration ("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 Template:Transliteration, 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> True artists only used hand-painted original art, not the mass-produced kind found in schools or for other communication purposes.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Template:Transliteration (dealers) were sought to commission and rent artwork to narrators for a small fee.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> A mix of "trashy pop culture" and fine artistry, Template:Transliteration 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

There were a variety of popular stories and themes in Template:Transliteration, which are now seen in contemporary manga and anime, including one of the first illustrated costume superheroes in the world, Template:Transliteration ("Golden Bat") in 1931, superheroes with secret identities like Prince Ganma (whose alter ego was a street urchin) and the popular genre of Template:Transliteration or "drama pictures".<ref name=":3" /><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Many prolific manga artists, like Shigeru Mizuki and Sanpei Shirato, were once Template:Transliteration artists before the medium went out of vogue in 1953.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

File:Shimizu Taemon died at his post Kamishibai.jpg

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

Template:Transliteration 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.<ref name=":2" /> It was much easier to employ woodblock printing to depict the complex characters of the Japanese language.<ref name=":2" /> Such use was often related to propaganda.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

DeclineEdit

The popularity of Template:Transliteration declined at the end of the Allied Occupation and the introduction of television, known originally as Template:Transliteration ("electric Template:Transliteration") in 1953.<ref name=":0" /> With television bringing larger access to a variety of entertainment, many Template:Transliteration artists and narrators lost their work, with the former turning to drawing Template:Transliteration, bringing new talent and narrative to this growing genre.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Although this Japanese art form has largely disappeared, its significance and contributions have allowed Template:Transliteration to be attributed as an origin for manga.

Modern usageEdit

File:Kamishibai performance - 2022 April 23 - Asakusa Tokyo.webm

Kamishibai performance in Asakusa, 2022

As part of the Toyota Production System, Template:Transliteration 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.<ref name=ONEPOINT>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Template:As of, Template:Transliteration storytelling was being conducted as part of an ongoing campaign to promote world peace. Maki Saji (a Buddhist nun) created a Template:Transliteration 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

A number of manga and anime have been produced that borrow from or call back to Template:Transliteration tropes and presentation. These include Template:Transliteration, an Template:Transliteration manga by Suehiro Maruo based around the titular Template:Transliteration character archetype,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and Template:Transliteration, an anime that uses a Template:Transliteration style to tell myths and urban legends.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Additionally, some older works that would later become popular manga or anime, such as GeGeGe no Kitaro, originally started as Template:Transliteration programs.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

ReferencesEdit

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External linksEdit

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