- ChLA International Committee
ChLA 2016 International Panel Abstracts
With two weeks until the 43rd Children's Literature Association's annual conference, the ChLA International Committee is pleased to present the abstracts for the 2016 International Panel focusing on Japanese Children's Literature. Please join us Friday, June 10th in Executive AB from 2:00-3:15pm to hear these thrilling papers!
Artistic Tradition in the Development of Japanese Picturebooks
Fumiko Ganzenmueller, International Youth Library and
Junko Yokota, National Louis University
The artistic origins of modern picturebooks in Japan can be attributed to identifiable sources of traditional art. This presentation will offer a brief overview of the historical development of illustrations in Japanese picturebooks, notable books that served as landmarks in this development, and illustrators who have been particularly noteworthy in their roles as leaders in defining the field.
Beginning with the earliest of illustrated stories, “Emaki,” were illustrated on scrolled paper, and reached their peak in the 12th century. Sometimes longer than 10 meters, they were either separated by blocks of text, or presented as a continuous sequence of scenes. A variation known as “Nara Ehon” was developed during the mid 15th century to the early 16th century as a series of sequenced images divided into blocks and folded back and forth on continuous paper. Developed during the 17th century, Tanroku-bon were rare editions of woodblock-printed illustrated books. The content included traditional arts such as Noh singing sources, puppet theatre texts, narrative literature and folklore (Ganzenmüller, 2006, 2008). Later, the “kusazoshi” rose in production, including folktales such as “Momotaro/Peach Boy,” “Shita-kiri Suzume/Tongue-Cut Sparrow” and others that continue in popularity today (Shima, 2006). Such predecessors of the modern picture book in Japan relied on the appeal of traditional art to influence the development of illustrations in books (Ganzenmüller, 2009).
During the Edo period (17th to mid-19th centuries) the content of these prototypes of modern picture books were handed down through simple picture books with printed woodcut illustrations. Modern artists of picture books have shown how those earlier materials influenced their work. In 1967, Segawa, Yasuo was named the Grand Prix winner of the Biennial of Illustrations Bratislava. His book, Taro and the miraculous bamboo shoot used elements of brush strokes, lines, and characteristics of Emaki. The works of Akaba, Suekichi, masterfully depicts traditional Japanese stories. An illustrator who began his picturebook career after WWII at age 50, he was named, in 1980, the winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Award. His use of Japanese papers with uniquely sensitive properties made illustrations “live and breathe” and incorporated geographical specificities as well as respond to the climate and culture. Other illustrators and their influence will also be introduced: Kajiyama, Toshio; Anno, Mitsumasa; Iwasaki, Chihiro; and Murakami, Yasunari are among the illustrators whose contributions to the development of modern picturebooks were foundational.
This presentation will present a very brief overview of early history of children’s books in Japan. Additionally, predecessors of modern picturebooks will be introduced. This will be followed by a discussion of the development of Japanese picturebooks as genre and format.
“New” Nostalgia of Mamoru Hosoda’s Animated Films
Shino Sugimura, Kyoritsu Women's University
Mamoru Hosoda is one of the most well-known Japanese animation creators. It will not be exaggerating to say that he is definitely leading the Japanese animation after Hayao Miyazaki announced his retirement, though he means he would no longer undertake to make a long animated film. Actually it is possible for the audience to notice some similarities among the works of the two creators. They often represent the Japanese countryside and the people living there at the older ages in their works and show their awe and admiration for the nature. The spirits of the nature are literally animated as creatures, monsters, or gods in their fantastic worlds. However, Hosoda’s way to locate these wonderful characters in his world is different from Miyazaki’s. In this session, how Hosoda revives some aspects of the nature and animism in their works, comparing The Boy and the Beast (Bakemono-no-Ko) released on July 11, 2015 in Japan with some of Miyazaki’s works.
Miyazaki revives and recreated the countryside or sometimes the wilderness which was developed, destroyed, and changed into the suburbia partly with his own attachment and nostalgia for his home country in his works such as My Neighbor Totoro (Tonari-no-Totoro, 1988), Princess Mononoke (Mononoke-Hime, 1997), and Spirited Away (Sen-to-Chihiro-no-Kamikakushi, 2001). In his fantastic world, he gave the voice to some creatures which signify the spirits of the nature buried under the developed area to accuse the arrogance and the unruly desire of human beings and to advocate the coexistence of the nature and what they call “civilization”.
Hosoda also succeeds to some of the nostalgia for the lost nature and culture. However, he rather locates the lost world paralleled the urban area than burying it under the suburbia and letting the spirits revive like ghosts. In Shibuya, one of the centers of Japanese youth culture, we will see how Hosoda makes it the portal to enter the parallel world located just next to the everyday life of the young generation in the 21st century.
Animated Animal Trauma: An Activist Response to the Disaster of Fukusima, 2011
Helen Kilpatrick, University of Wollongong
An under-explored aspect of Japan’s triple disaster of March 2011 (3/11), especially in picture books, is the effect that the catastrophe has had on the lives of animals in the region, particularly farm animals. The award-winning picture book, The Farm of Hope (Kibô no Bokujô, 2014) by Naoki Prize-winning author Mori Eto and illustrator Yoshida Hisanori, offers an exception to the standard conventions of anthropomorphic symbolism often found in post-3/11 (and other) narratives for children. The semi-fictional story draws attention to animals as feeling beings which need human care and respect. It narrates the experience of a cattle-farmer who cannot leave his now commercially worthless stock to be slaughtered by officialdom. Mori’s simple dialogue combines with Yoshida’s naïve-style illustrations to skillfully 'animate' issues of life, death and caring. In its consideration of the animals left to founder in the 20 kilometre exclusion zone established by authorities, the book offers a poignant protest and brings to light both civil rights issues and animal ethics. By addressing notions of what it is to be compassionate in an almost impossible situation, the book challenges its audience to consider what it is to live and care in a post-disaster, post-nuclear environment.
This paper will explore how the book animates empathetic attitudes to life by posing conceptual and ethical challenges to human priorities through its focus on animals. Stories which encourage empathy are important in a world of constantly increasing disaster, trauma, suffering and death. By prompting compassion for the suffering of animals, this kind of trauma literature for children offers an important imaginative model for forging new forms of community, and for individual and social well-being. I will explore how representations of animal trauma help evoke empathy which encourages emotional resilience and well-being within an increasingly precarious world.
For more information about our distinguished panelists and the 2016 International Committee panel, please visit our conference page. We look forward to seeing you in two weeks in Columbus!
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