Tokaido gojusantsugi manga emaki [A Manga scroll of the 53 stations of the Tokaido].

A humorous, manga interpretation of the 53 stations of the Tokaido, compiled around a century after Hiroshige. Each of the stations was hand painted by a group of 18 artists of the Tokyo Manga Association.

Okamoto Ippei (1886-1948) was a member of the Tokyo Mangakai and the Tokyo Chuo Bijutsukai. Together with 17 leading cartoonists, he compiled this playful edition of 53 stations of the Tokaido. They departed from Nihonbashi On May 1, 1921, where strict precautions were being taken on May Day. The resulting scrolls have been extensively researched by the Ohio State University: “The manga artists hoped to raise the social standing of their craft by indirectly comparing their work to that of venerated woodblock printmakers of the past. Although the style of the scrolls’ watercolors differs considerably from what one might recognize as a “manga” today, the artists’ quick, spontaneous work somewhere on the edge of caricature was an undeniably important steppingstone toward the popular, modern manga style” (Nicholas Castle, OSU University Libraries website).

Okamoto Ippei was the father of Okamoto Taro, one of Japan’s most famous artists of the 20th century. Alongside publishing popular manga books, Ippei contributed comic strips to the Asahi newspaper. The present scrolls convey a lovely sense of a changing Japan, depicting familiar scenery populated with modern techonology and fashion.