Kanta Ishida, writer for the Yomiuri Shimbun (newspaper) in Japan, analyzes different theories and tries to nail, ar at least approach, the first manga in history. Over at the Suntory Museum in Japan, more than 100,000 people went to see the Choju-Jinbutsu-Giga Emaki (”Scrolls of Cartoons of Birds, Animals, and People”  exhibition. Many visitors came after hearing a theory that these scrolls from the 12th and 13th centuries are the first examples of manga. Nevertheless, mangaka Seiki Hosokibara found another scroll, the Shigisan Engi Emaki, as the first manga innuendo in history.

Ishida argues that “there is no connection between the traditions of Choju Giga (the scrolls above mentioned) and contemporary manga, including the domestic works we are familiar with in our daily lives and the foreign works that have increased with the growing number of manga fans worldwide.” He suggests that the scrolls sould be treated as a different section of Japanese painted art, and not to be mixed with the first traditional manga, like Astroboy.

This is a nice attempt on finding and giving answers to a lot of questions left in the old times. What could be next? Finding out that Vikings roaming through the 7 seas, making contact with the Americas before the Spanish colonization? That’s crazy-talk! 

[ANN]