One Thousand Years of Manga

One Thousand Years of Manga is written by Brigitte Koyama-Richard. 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 kinda romantic, fantastic, even comics 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 facto