Kitazawa Rakuten's "Yukichi Fukuzawa in His Later Years"

"Manga" is listed in dictionaries as an English word. The Cambridge Dictionary defines it as "Japanese comic books that tell stories in pictures." Some may think of the Edo-period "Hokusai Manga" as an example of the term's use in Japan. However, that "manga" is interpreted as sketches drawn aimlessly or at will. The satirical caricatures called "ponchi-e" during the Meiji period—such as Bigot's caricature of the Normanton Incident often seen in textbooks—are understood as the starting point of the caricature that led to Manga. It is said that the term "manga" was first applied to these by the Jiji Shinpo, founded by Yukichi Fukuzawa, with the first instance being a cartoon quoted from a foreign newspaper published on April 27, 1891 (*1).

In the Jiji Shinpo, alongside the editorials often written by Fukuzawa, there was an irregular satirical column called "Mangen" (idle talk). It is natural to assume the character "man" (漫) was associated with this. Initially, the manga section was handled by Fukuzawa's nephew, Shutaro Imaizumi (pen name Ippyo), whose drawing skills Fukuzawa highly valued. In addition to political and social satire, Imaizumi began contributing caricatures to the paper as a breath of fresh air and entertainment through "laughter"; one of these is sometimes called Japan's first four-panel manga. However, Imaizumi was frail and died young. In 1899, Yasuji Kitazawa (pen name Rakuten, 1876–1955) was recruited by the Jiji Shinpo-sha as his successor. He is referred to by many titles, such as the father of modern Japanese manga, the pioneer of story manga, the creator of the first girls' manga, and Japan's first professional manga artist.

Among the many works published in the Jiji Shinpo, the biting political satires in the "Jiji Manga"—which debuted in 1921 as a separate Sunday supplement—are frequently introduced. However, the upcoming exhibition at the Keio History Museum, "Kitazawa Rakuten and Modern Japan: Yukichi Fukuzawa Opens the Door to MANGA" (October 16 – December 13), will focus instead on works that provided laughter as simple entertainment. It is not widely known that Fukuzawa, who believed Japanese "laughter" should be far richer, held a deep interest in it. This drawing depicts Rakuten's impression of Yukichi Fukuzawa in his final years at the Jiji Shinpo-sha, fully expressing his immense presence.

(*1) After this article was published and before the exhibition opened, it was confirmed that the term "manga" had already been used in February 1890. For details, see the essay in the exhibition catalog "Kitazawa Rakuten and Modern Japan."

(Takeyuki Tokura, Professor, Keio University Fukuzawa Memorial Center for Modern Japanese Studies)