Manga Journey: Traces from Edo

Travel through 230 years of Japanese comics at the Hibiya Library Museum, where a trove of the Kyoto International Manga Museum's most interesting historical materials are exhibited throughout autumn. Starting with the popular art of the Edo era and tracing the development of 'people's drawings' all the way up to the early Showa period, 'The Journey of Manga from Edo' includes comical work by ukiyo-e greats like Utagawa Kuniyoshi and Nihonga (traditional Japanese painting) titan Kyosai Kawanabe, whose pieces often ridiculed Japan and Edo's leap toward modernity in the second half of the 1800s and caricatured the mores and manners of the new system and society. Highlighting manga's origins as entertainment for the masses, the exhibition also draws parallels between Edo humour and the comedic appetites of modern Japan.