Manga, Beyond Ukiyo-e: Aesthetics, Postmoderism and Japan

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Manga, Beyond Ukiyo-e: Aesthetics, Postmoderism and Japan

Submitted by ardith on Wed, 1999-03-10 00:00

Japanese C195: Aesthetics and Hermanutics (UCLA)

March 10, 1999

When the black ships first appeared on Japan's horizon on that day in 1853, the people who watched their approach probably didn't realize the sweeping changes that the arrival of they were going to bring. Those black vessels signaled the end and the beginning of Japan, as they knew it. Historically, Japan had always sought knowledge from other cultures. Japan's creed was learn from the best and improve to Japan through this knowledge. Because of this, China and Korea heavily influenced Japan in several areas, passing on technology, Buddhism and Confucianism and influencing art. Japan managed to remain fairly insulated as the world as she knew it changed around her. While Western powers pounced on Asia, Japan was able to remain fairly unaffected until 1853. Within the hulls of those ominous black ships were Americans who carried with them the seeds of Western thought and the desire to open Japan to the West. They were basically looking for new leverage in the world trading wars, but in their quest, they changed the path of Japan. There were advances in technology and growing political pressures from all sides. Asia was being pressured and pursued by Imperialist nations with the world viewed Asia as the potential source for untold wealth. The only way that Japan could see to avoid the trap of imperialization was to learn all they could from the Western powerhouse countries and improve upon it.

The complex relationship between Japan and the West began long ago. Today, there have been countless cross-cultural exchanges. Most of the time, we pay little attention to how our cultures have been influenced and continue to be influenced by each other, but the patterns of exchange still continue. In an effort to explain themselves to the West, Japan sent scholars to learn about Europe and America and apply that knowledge to Japan. They began to explain themselves through the newly acquired vocabulary gained through the study of philosophy and aesthetics. Through this once-removed analysis of Japan, the government hoped to gain respect and understanding for their country, as well as control the power of human emotions through the study of how emotions were effected by art and literature. Aesthetic categories were created in an effort to encourage this understanding.

Aestheticians entrusted aesthetic categories with the reduction of the chaos engender by particularity to the order of universality. The issue of antinomy of taste remained at the center of debates on aesthetics, informing basic techniques of aesthetic practices such as the reduction of historical "difference" to some sort of categorical specificity. In an effort to explain the diversity of particularity with a common understood language of objectivity, history was presented in specific moments of ideally and representativeness. Ages and cultures started to be described according to alleged major characteristics-whether major authors, styles, or works of the literary canon-or according to general aesthetic categories, in which the richness of historical diversity was reduced to aesthetic principles of alleged ideally. 1

These ideas of aesthetic categories in Japan were not there all along. Interaction with the West demanded their creation during the Meiji Era (starting in 1868). Japan hungered for knowledge, absorbing Western thought (but at times not fully digesting). Society during this period was bombarded with the new knowledge gathered from the West through media and discussion, at first. Later, writers passed on Western influences through their works. Japanese scholars looked at the whole of Japan's past and began to create categories to explain the trends of a period. But examples that did not fit into the were set aside. A guide was being created for Japan's past. The canon of Japanese works of literature began to be build. For the West, Japan was something exotic and different. The images of Japanese aesthetics created by these scholars were the ambassadors of Japanese thought to the West.

The aesthetic categories created mostly were applied to worlds of poetry and literature, but those were certainly not the only forms of expression in Japan. Everyday, the average Japanese person is constantly bombarded by images and sounds. The popular culture of Japan is just as high speed as that of the United States. Who has the time to appreciate any art in this fast paced world? Who really cares? Welcome to postmodernism and flat reality. The world is collectively trying to overcome modernism and find out what this present era is about, trying to understand the world. Today, manga, or Japanese comic books, can open the doors for the West to understand Japan. And maybe Japan can look at herself through the pages of these illustrated stories. Manga is not limited to children's stories of superheroes and villains, as it's American equivalent is many times in the United States. It is much more. Manga has been used to tell tales that have moved a nation. Stories like Barefoot Gen (Hidashi no Gen), by Kenji Nakazawa, touch something within just as deeply as any movie or book. Manga has been raised to something on a level with literature and movies in Japan because of the way it has developed. Manga is diverse. The stories, like books, range from comedy to horror, action and adventure to girl's/woman's (shoujo) romance. Because of their accessibility, most of the populace of Japan can be reached through manga. Letting us look into the minds and hearts of the authors and of the Japanese people themselves, manga, because they are comics, has often been dismissed in the West. The road to making them just as worthy as any poem or work of literature in the eyes of the world has just begun.

During the Meiji Era, in an effort to become more "westernized," there was a movement to learn Western art techniques. The government went full speed ahead with this, brining over Fontanesi to teach the Barbazon School of art to talented Japanese students. But this was not considered an accepted path by all. Okakura Tenshin was decidedly against Japan adapting to the West in the area of art.

The nature of art is born out of the characteristics of a race, the climate of the land, and the conditions of social institutions. It cannot be transplanted into a different era, nor can it be used in a different country, since it belongs exclusively to specific time and people. 2

Japan was unique. Why should they turn to the West for everything? And the fact was, Barbazon was a dying school in Europe. It was not avant-garde, but of the establishment. Japan was trying to import a style and forcibly create its own avant-garde, but Europe had been developing in a totally different direction.

Europe was fascinated by Japan. The culture of Asian countries was so very removed from what they were used to. But what captured the attention of Europe were Japanese woodblock prints. Ukiyo-e was all the rage in Europe, very much influencing the emerging Impressionist Movement during the 1800's. 3
Van Gogh, Monet and others were experimenting with the vibrant colors and painting style of Japanese prints. In Japan, they had been very popular amongst the merchant and common townspeople during the Edo Era's peace and prosperity. 4 Printing was cheap and the products sold well, much like manga is today. There was just something about the prints that made them accessible to the masses. The most popular of the prints were ukiyo-e. They depicted illustrations of the "Floating World," a term that was used to describe the air that of uncertainties in life and the subsequent search for sensual pleasures to sweeten one's feeling of hopelessness. 5
"Like so much of old Japanese art, ukiyo-e projected a sparse reality: without dwelling on anatomy and perspective, they tried to capture a mood, an essence, and an impression." 6
In addition to ukiyo-e, there was toba-e.

Toba-e is named in honor of a Buddhist monk known as Toba (A.D.1053-1140). These works were often humorous. One of the most famous examples is the hilarious Chojugiga, or "Animal Scrolls," a 12th-century satire on the clergy and nobility. They were printed again and again to entertain townspeople. 7 The tradition of Japanese prints changed with westernization. Manga developed from these prints in a sort of hybrid between Western comics and Japanese prints whose flavor was distinctly Japanese. But why is manga so popular? American comic books have been reduced to children's fare, not allowed to grow as literature or art very much. The stories are often unsophisticated and childish. But manga is not relegated to the side just because they are comic books.

The real hallmark of manga is storytelling and character development. After World War II, a single artist-Osamu Tezuka-helped revolutionized the art of comics in Japan by decompressing story lines. Influenced by American animation in particular, instead of using ten or twenty pages to tell a story as had been common before, Tezuka began drawing novelistic manga that were hundreds, even thousands of pages long, and he incorporated different perspectives and visual effects-what came to be called "cinematic techniques." Other artists in America, such as Will Eisner, had employed camera-like effects a decade earlier, but combining this technique with the decompression of story lines was new. 8

It is true that there are manga that are not sophisticated. There are manga that are bad in that they do not seem to have any value whatsoever story wise. Manga is sometimes not well drawn. Japan, taking a concept like comic books and transforming it into something unique, is a prime example of postmodernism. Appropriating something and tinkering with it to make it something all together new is not unusual to Japan. But this concept is just now being truly explored in the rest of the modern (or postmodern) world.

But pop-culture in Japan has become very youth oriented and traditions are falling by the wayside, as people desire to be in with the trends that spread in Japan and around the world. But the people in Japan still share the enjoyment of manga. Young and old read it, giving them something that connects them all. The combinations of images and words have the ability to tell stories in such a way that it is comprehensible to the audience immediately. The desire for instant access is becoming larger with the media machine and the opening of world culture. The concept of what is culture and history has, therefore, changed with the rise of postmodernism.

Although there is not any specific suppression involved, people are no longer moved by the concept that history reaches anywhere, or that it should achieve something. In this sense, [Sakabe Megumi] feel[s] that the notion of the "end of history" is infiltrating everywhere. Furthermore, this is related to a "consumer society." Here [Sakabe] feel[s] that people do not produce anything material, but simply create difference = information. And the Japanese start feeling that this point they have nothing more to learn from the West, and that [they] are rather the vanguard. 9

History being dead is they cry of a lot of philosophers looking at the world today. Postmodernism and the death of history go hand and hand. But how can history be dead?

Practically the entire industrialized world is suffering from the bombardment of information. If we are, as a society, just receiving information, without it meaning anything, what is the point of it all? This lack of concern with anything but the immediate can be more than a little disturbing. Has society been desensitized by the media? By information? Post modernity seems to be about society trying to reach itself, to find itself within the entire information blitz and make something that they can use. I guess it all boils down to the appropriation of culture and finding meaning on your own. But how are you supposed to find meaning in the hodgepodge of images?

Postmodern Japan is a system without structure floating on a flow of bits of mass-information, which are not destined to accumulate and be piled up as the bases of further research in the future. On the contrary, these items of mass-information constantly run away and disappear one after another like objects dropped into the current of a river. Like the Ise Shrine, Japan's post-historical historicity is not based on anything, but floats on its own self-referential loop which defies any attempt at historical construction (including my own). 10

In the end, though, culture always has meaning. Maybe the bombardment of information is dizzying now, but we can look back later and see what the confusion was really about. Japan does consume media like nothing else. Everywhere, images and sounds reach out to get attention.

Manga is only one of the sources of this massive campaign to get the attention of the populace. When all of this information just becomes noise, there is a communication breakdown and meaning is totally lost. To consider a comic book the source of great meaning is so very postmodern.

Ultimately, the popularity of both anime [Japanese Animation] and manga outside of Japan is emblematic of something much larger-perhaps a postwar "mind-meld" among the peoples of industrialized nations, who all inhabit a similar (but steadily shrinking) physical world of cars, computers, buildings, and other manmade objects and systems. Patterns of thinking are still different among cultures, and different enough for people to be fascinated by each other, but the areas of commonality have increased to the point where it is easier than ever before to reach out and understand each other on the deepest levels of human experience and emotion. 11

We all share something in common with each other today. With the world being as connected as it is, it is hard not to. Still, there are a lot of cultural differences that we must overcome. Japan has traditions and cultural characteristics that are totally foreign to the West. Even today, there are a lot of misunderstandings between the cultures. To find a level of understanding between people, there has to be an understanding of the causes and effects of actions. There are many levels in a culture that you have to try to comprehend before you can truly understand them.

But there is an even more important reason to read manga. One of the most confusing aspects of Japanese society for foreigners is the dichotomy that exists in public discourse between tatame, or "surface images and intentions," and honne, or "true feelings and intentions." This custom of tailoring one's statements or actions to the situation exists in nearly all societies, but in ultra-crowded Japan, especially, it helps people harmonize with others and compartmentalize their public and private selves. It is also one of the main reason Japanese people constantly feel they are "misunderstood" by foreigners, and-conversely-that foreigners often find Japanese people somewhat "inscrutable." 12

This seems to be totally different and incomprehensible to some in the West. But Japanese culture is one of hierarchy. The language is riddled with levels and there are thousands of ways to say "no" without saying it. To get into the mind of a culture, you have to go to what the popular culture is consuming. In Japan, that has been manga. In the pages of manga, you can find everything from historical stories, like Rurouni Kenshin by Watsuki Nobuhiro which focuses on a former Ishinshishi swordsman ten years after the beginning of Meiji, to tales of homosexual male romances written for women like Fake by Matoh Sanami. Sometimes, manga is re-appropriated by being rewritten in novel form, changing the medium entirely. These manga-based novels are usually having the same characters and expand the story where the manga left off. Manga is also appropriated by people within the culture as doujinshi. Dojinshi is a type of manga where established manga is taken by fans who create their own stories with the characters. All of this is very much removed from what, even now, some westerners think of as Japan. They remember the traditional images of the sakura falling in spring. Images ingrained by Japanese Aesthetics.

After the arrival of the West, Japan was irrevocably changed. Traditions are still present, but they are being drowned out by the new world culture.

Today it would be impossible to find anywhere in Japan, no matter how hard you search for it, the kind of typically Japanese Lyricism of autumn that Ozu [in his film] describes. This is because the traditional community and its customs are probably collapsing more rapidly in Japan that in any other part of the world. 13

The collapse of tradition has happened all around the world. Japan, who has clung on to these traditions tenaciously is just experiencing it more now than ever. With the advances of technology like Internet access and the like, the world is just so much more accessible. Eventually a global culture will emerge from this accessibility. Japan has been very entrenched in traditions and customs. It is very much part of the Japanese mystique that the West is so fascinated with. Kimono and kabuki are images that are so ingrained in the Western psyche as what Japan is about. There are so much more than those images.

Ultimately, however, the real triumph of Japanese manga lies in their celebration of the ordinary. As American comic artist Ben Stelfreeze once commented to me, "Comics in the United States have become such a caricature. You have to have incredible people doing incredible things, but in Japan it seems like the most popular comics are the comics of normal people doing normal things." 14

The beauty of manga is that they help us understand what makes Japan what it is. Manga are a window to the common man in Japan. The popularity is due to the fact that many can see a little of themselves in the characters. There are stories that have great humanity and meaning and images that make you laugh and forget what is going on in the world for a little bit. Within manga, you can find what Japan is really about.

I think in the end, manga can help bridge the gap between East and West. Japanese Aesthetics were created during Meiji so that the West could understand Japan and Japan could understand herself. Ultimately, though, through manga, gimps into what is honne for Japan can be found. From the black and white pictures of the comic books that saturate the culture, the psyche of the ordinary people of Japan can be gleamed. "...In London in 1995, sociologist Sharon Kinsella remarked that manga were on the verge of becoming the equivalent of "tea ceremony" to the Japanese government." 15 How the world views itself is changing because of the large amount of communication all around the world. There is a desire for understanding and more of a common knowledge about other cultures of the world.

More likely, however, manga will give a fare truer picture of Japan, warts and all, than "highbrow" tea ceremony or Zen ever could. As a from of popular culture, comics of all nations tend to be tightly woven with local culture and thought. In translation, manga-especially-can be both a medium of entertainment
and a Rosetta stone for mutual understanding. 16

For thousands of years, Japan has enjoyed the black and white images of toba-e and the feelings invoked from ukiyo-e. Through the combination of art and words, these images have evolved into manga. Japanese culture today is bombarded with manga everywhere. The stories range from the obscene to the heart wrenching, the hilarious to the horrifying. All are pieces of Japan. The images, the stories can touch you as much as any movie or book. Or frighten you as any horror story. (More so at times because of the images involve.) Hundreds of manga are bought everyday by Japanese, read and discarded. There is joy in that short moment of escape. Manga is about everyone, really. There are so many different stories that show different sides to Japan. Yet, you could just toss them aside to be recycled the next day. Recyclable literature: postmodernism at its finest.

Bibliography

Inaga, Shigemi, "To Be a Japanese Artist in the So-Called Postmodern Third Text 33 (Winter 1995-96): 17-24 (Reader 2 p. 693)

Marra, Michele. Modern Japanese Aesthetics: A Reader. Reader 1 Introduction.

Okakura Kakuzu "A Lecture to the Art Appreciation Society," Reader 1.

Sakabe Megumi, "Edo Exegesis and the Present,"Reader 1.

Schodt, Fredrik L. Dreamland Japan: Writings on Modern Manga. (Berkeley, CA: Stone Bridge Press. 1996).

Schodt, Fredrik L. Manga! Manga!: The World of Japanese Comics (Japan: Kodansha International. 1996).