To learn more, click on the "Manga history" tab on the RESOURCES page
sKILLS
ARVZ01.01.01 - Compare the changing purposes served by visual arts throughout history.
ARVZ01.01.02 - Identify the purposes of visual arts historically, by examining works from various time periods.
ARVZ01.01.03 - Compare examples of artwork from various periods that serve communal, social, religious, or political functions.
Manga timeline
11th century
The very first manga technically wasn't a manga, but instead a scroll. A man named Toba Sojo created scrolls for entertainment with many drawings and pictures in the 11th century with his humorous personality. The scroll was 36 feet long and was read left to right, just like manga today.
Toba Sojo's work
18th century
In later years, Toba Sojo's work started to become more and more popular. Early manga gained the names of Toba-e or Toba Pictures because of the humorous drawings that he had created. Eveyone enjoyed the books because of this reason, and many authors included humor into their stories along the way.
Toba Pictures
19th century
By the time the 19th century was developing, another man named Kastushika Hokusai came along and became famous for his ukio-e, or "Floating World Pictures" in English. Although these pieces of work became well known around the world, he really became more famous off of his manga. They are said to be some of the best early examples of humor in Japanese art, and he was the very first artist to use the term "manga" in his work. Soon, his manga started to distribute across Japan.
20th century
As manga started to become more and more popular, it started to spill over to the West. The East and the West started to combine their art styles and ideas, and the authors were enthusiastic about it. A man named Rakuten Kitazowa is considered to be the founding father of modern manga, and his work was displayed at the Omiya Municipal Cartoon Hall, or Manga Kaikan in Saitama City, Japan. Another man named Ippei Okamoto was believed to have been the founder of Nippon Mangakai, which was the first Japanese cartoonists society.
Kastushika Hokusai's Floating World Picture
Katsushika Hokusai's manga
Kitazawa's manga
Modern Day
After all of these years, this is how we ended up with the manga today. Eventually, America started to create their own, and this is why we have a wide variety to chose from and many translated books and anime (which are basically the manga that have been turned into an amazing animated show).
Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan) Book 1
Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan) Episode 5
