One Thousand Years of Manga [Hardcover]

Brigitte Koyama-Richard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 19, 2008

In recent years, Manga has seen phenomenal success, not only in Japan, where it dominates the publishing industry, but also in the West, where it is steadily growing in popularity and influence. As swift and sudden as the popularity of this graphic art form may seem, Manga has, in fact, deep roots in Japanese culture, drawing on centuries-old artistic traditions. As early as the twelfth century, Emakimono scrolls existed, a narrative form in which stories of all kinds—romantic, fantastic, even comic—were told through the combined use of text and illustration. Japanese art continued to change as profound political, social, and economic transformations remade the country in the centuries to follow. Today there is little doubt as to the meaning of the term Manga—nor to the astonishing popularity of the form—but few in the West understand the long artistic history that gave birth to this phenomenon and the social factors that continue to shape it today.One Thousand Years of Manga is both an informative account of the genesis of the form and a visual delight. Through its captivating illustrations and enlightening text, the book situates Manga in its proper context, appreciating it for what it truly is: an integral part of Japanese art and culture that is as rich and revealing as it is popular.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Brigitte Koyama-Richard is a professor at the University of Tokyo, where she teaches comparative literature and art history. She has published several works on Japanese art.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 248 pages
• Publisher: Flammarion (February 19, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 2080300296
• ISBN-13: 978-2080300294
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 1.1 x 11.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #731,004 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Legitimization of Manga, November 11, 2008

By 

A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: One Thousand Years of Manga (Hardcover)

I am not in any way a manga fan, nor knowledgeable about Japanese art, so let that be a caveat. However, I did grow up on Tintin and Asterix, watched a bit of anime as a teen, and still love American and European graphic storytelling. So when this beautiful coffee-table book came across my path, I eagerly spent a few days working my way through it.

Written by a French art historian, the book is really geared toward those with an interest in Japanese art history. The bulk of its pages are dedicated to tracing the history of Japanese narrative art in its role as the ancestor of modern-day manga. The book is thus divided into six main sections: "The Magic of the Scroll" (covering roughly the 12th to mid-19th century), "The Birth of the Japanese Print" (covering roughly the 1850s-1890s), "The Dawn of a New Type of Caricature" (covering roughly the 1870s-1890s, with emphasis on the influence of modernization and contact with the West), "The Rise of the Comic Strip" (covering 1900-1940s, with emphasis on publications), an entire section on Tezuka Osamu covers the "God" of modern manga, which segues into a final section "Modern Manga." This is followed by some interviews and profiles of contemporary manga masters, as well as a timeline and glossary.

Although there is a decent amount of text, the book's main selling point are the beautiful reproductions. Several of the Japanese works and artists will be familiar to those with even a mere passing acquaintance with Japanese art, such as , Hokusai's iconic Great Wave print. What are far more fascinating are the utterly bizarre pieces like Hirokage's "Great Battle of the Vegetables and Marine Animals" (1858), which features an army of well-armed pumpkin and carrot-headed warriors joined in battle with fish-headed soldiers led by an octopus-headed creature blasting some kind of death-ray from its mouth. Another great one is a book illustration from the 1870s showing a group of 15 mice armed with spears and bows capturing and trussing a cat. (The same artist, Kyosai, has several other weird ones, including a depiction of frogs capturing a snake, a spectacular battle scene of two armies of armed frogs clashing across a triptych., and a farting contest.)

When appropriate, examples of Western art (such as the Bayeux Tapestry or Degas' Two Dancers at Rest) are shown in comparison with relevant Japanese works. Similarly, sometimes, modern manga panels are shown next to a classical work in an attempt to highlight similarities. The production values are what one would expect from a fine museum catalog or high-end coffee table book, with vivid colors popping off the heavy pages. The lone exception are about twenty images taken from the Matsumoto Leiji Collection, which, due to some flaw in digitization or production, are quite rough and pixelated. And although the overall design is quite crisp and clean, the text doesn't always sync up well with the illustrations, resulting in a good deal of flipping back and forth. And the translation, while generally good, has its awkward turns of phrase.

The book is an impressive effort to more or less legitimize manga and rescue it from Western stereotypes of it as either lowbrow kiddie fare or sex and violence-laden picture books for weirdos. As a result, the modern manga section highlights educational, biographical, and historical manga, along with the more mainstream popular fare, eschewing any representations of the more graphic material. So, while it's a nice overview of the history of the form, it's hardly a comprehensive one. On the whole, well worth checking out by anyone with an interest in Japanese visual culture -- past or present.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing, February 10, 2009

By 

F. E. Hernández (Mexico) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: One Thousand Years of Manga (Hardcover)

More than just a "how to draw manga" manual, this book is excellent for those who try to understand the way manga works. The autor gives you a complete tour through the history of manga giving you social and political background as well as parallel artistical creations, so you can compare and draw conclutions. If its not enough, Brigitte Koyama tries to explain the history of this secuential art through the lives of their significant representatives, such as Hokusai, Rakuten and Tezuka.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For Manga Enthusiasts, September 11, 2009

By 

Tristan J. Moon "MoonboyTris10" (Greensboro, NC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: One Thousand Years of Manga (Hardcover)

This book completely did me in for 360. When I first saw this book at my local Barnes and Noble I thought what a fancy looking cover, then a person came up to me and said, "I know." Anyway, getting to the specifics of this book...I was really impressed by what I read in this book, who knew that the origins of manga reside in ancient Japan, for the longest I thought it's birth lied Osamu Tezuka (the guy who created Astro Boy, if you don't know who that is he's the character in the bottom left corner of the book's cover), but man was I wrong. Furthermore, I'd like to note that the book covers several manga titles that us manga enthusiasts are aware of such as, Naruto, Dragon Ball, One Piece, etc and several that possibly a lot of us aren't. Long story short, if want a piece of art history added to your bookshelf then this is a great buy.