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Research Article| November 01 2001

Presidential Address: Weapons of the Weak, Weapons of the Strong—The Development of the Japanese Political Cartoon

Peter Duus

Peter Duus

Peter Duus is William H. Bonsall Professor of History at Stanford University and Past President of the Association for Asian Studies. His most recent works include The Abacus and the Sword: The Japanese Penetration of Korea, 1895–1910 (1995); The Japanese Discovery of America: A Brief History with Documents (1997); and Modern Japan (1998).

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Journal of Asian Studies (2001) 60 (4): 965–997.

https://doi.org/10.2307/2700017

Abstract

I Approach my topic—the development of the modern Japanese political cartoon—with some trepidation. Humor is a fragile product that can easily be damaged by academic scrutiny. As Evelyn Waugh once remarked, analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog—much is learned but in the end the frog is dead. Waugh was right. Most analyses of humor cannot be read for amusement. On the other hand, why should they be? If Shakespeare scholars are not expected to write in iambic pentameter, why should students of humor be expected to keep their readers in stitches? As the editor of the International Journal of Humor Studies recently told a reporter, “We are not in the business of being funny” (New York Times, 19 December 2000).

The text of this article is only available as a PDF.

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The Book in Japan: A Cultural History from the Beginning to the Nineteenth Century

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Meiji bunka kenkyūkai

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Namazu-e and Their Themes: An Interpretive Approach to Some Aspects of Japanese Folk Religion

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Political Graphics: Art as a Weapon

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(Kobayashi Kiyochika: Ukiyoe artist of the enlightenment).

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Serika shobo

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.

London

:

Reaktion

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The Indignant Eye: The Artist as Social Critic in Prints and Drawings from the Fifteenth Century to Picasso

.

Boston

:

Beacon Press

.

Isao, Shimizu.

1979

.

Meiji mangakan

(A gallery of Meiji cartoons).

Tokyo

:

Kōdansha

.

Isao, Shimizu.

1980

.

Meiji manga yūransen

(Cruising with Meiji cartoons).

Tokyo

:

Bungei shunjū

.

Isao, Shimizu.

1981

.

Edo no manga

(Cartoons of the Edo period).

Tokyo

:

Bungei shunjū

.

Isao, Shimizu.

1985

.

Meiji manga jiten

(A dictionary of Meiji cartoons).

Tokyo

:

Sanseido

.

Isao, Shimizu.

1991

.

Manga no rekishi

(A history of Japanese cartoons).

Tokyo

:

Iwanami shoten

.

Isao, Shimizu.

1997

.

Kindai manga no byakusen

(One hundred modern cartoons).

Tokyo

:

Iwanami shoten

.

Steele, M.William, .

1996

. “

Representations of Self and Other in Late Tokugawa Woodblock Prints

.”

Asian Cultural Studies

22

(March 1996):

27

–

42

.

Takeuchi, Melinda.

1987

. “

Kuniyoshi's Miriamolo Raikō and the Earth Spider: Demons and Protest in Late Tokugawa Japan

.”

Ars Orientalis

17

:

5

–

38

.

Junko, Yamaguchi.

1981

. “Kaisetsu” (Commentary). In vol.

1

,

Marumaru chinbun

, edited by Eiyu, Yamaguchi.

Tokyo

:

Honpō shokan

,

1981

–86.

Yamaguchi Eiyu, ed.

1981

–86.

Marumaru chinbun

.

48

vols.

Tokyo

:

Honpō shokan

.

Seiichi, Yamaguchi and Shigeru, Oikawa.

1988

.

Kawanabe Kyōsai gigashu

(The comical pictures of Kawanabe Kyōsai).

Tokyo

:

Iwanami shoten

.

Takao, Yoshino.

1980

.

Miyatake Gaikotsu

(A biography of Miyatake Gaikotsu).

Tokyo

:

Kawade shobo shinsha

.

Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 2001

2001

Alcock, Rutherford.

1863

.

The Capital of The Tycoon: A Narrative of Three Years' Residence in Japan

. Vol.

2

.

London

:

Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green

.

Clark, Timothy.

1993

.

Demon of Painting: The Art of Kawanabe Kyōsai

.

London

:

British Museum Press

.

Duus, Peter.

1999

a. “

Japan's First Manga Magazine.

”

Impressions

21

(1999):

30

–

41

.

Duus, Peter.

1999

b. “

The Marumaru Chinbun and the Origins of the Japanese Political Cartoon

.”

International Journal of Comic Art

1

, no. 1 (Spring/Summer):

42

–

55

.

Foucault, Michel.

1980

.

Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972—1977

, edited by Gordon, Colin.

New York

:

Pantheon Books

.

Fujitani, Takashi.

1996

.

Splendid Monarchy: Power and Pageantry in Modern Japan

.

Berkeley and Los Angeles

:

University of California Press

.

Godfrey, Richard.

1984

.

English Caricature: 1620 to the Present

.

London

:

Victoria and Albert Museum

.

Gombrich, E. H.

1963

.

Meditations on a Hobby Horse and Other Essays on the Theory of Art

.

Chicago

:

University of Chicago Press

.

Gombrich, E. H.

1972

.

Art and Illusion: A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation

.

Princeton

:

Princeton University Press

.

Toru, Haga and Isao, Shimizu.

1985

.

Kindai manga (I): Bakumatsu isshinki no manga

(The modern cartoon (I): The late Tokugawa and Restoration Period).

Tokyo

:

Chikuma shobo

.

Hess, Stephen, and Kaplan, Milton.

1975

.

The Ungentlemanly Art: History of American Political Cartoons

.

New York

:

Macmillan

.

Hobsbawm, Eric, and Ranger, Terence, eds.

1984

.

The Invention of Tradition

.

Cambridge

:

Cambridge University Press

.

Huffman, James L.

1997

.

Creating a Public: People and the Press in Meiji Japan

.

Honolulu

:

University of Hawai'i Press

.

Shin'ichi, Inagaki.

1988

.

Edo no asobi-e

(Puzzle pictures of the Edo period).

Tokyo

:

Tokyo shohan

.

Shin'ichi, Inagaki and Toshihiko, Isao.

1991

.

Kuniyoshi no kyōga

(The crazy pictures of Kuniyoshi).

Tokyo

:

Tokyo shohan

.

Iwashita, Tetsunori.

1996

. “Political Information and Satirical Prints in Late Tokugawa Japan: The Popular Image of Government Officials in Utagawa Kuniyoshi's Kitaina mei'i nanbyōryōji.”

Asian Cultural Studies

22

(March):

17

—26.

Japan Punch.

1975

. Tokyo: Yushodo shoten.

Keene, Donald.

1999

. “

Portraits of the Meiji Emperor.

”

Impressions

21

:

17

–

29

.

Itaru, Kimoto.

1989

.

“Marumaru chinbun,” “Kibidango ga yuku”

(The Marumaru chinbun and the Kibidango).

Tokyo

:

Hakusuisha

.

Kornicki, Peter.

1998

.

The Book in Japan: A Cultural History from the Beginning to the Nineteenth Century

.

Leiden

:

Brill

.

Kazuo, Minami.

1997

.

Edo no fushiga

(Satirical art in the Edo period).

Tokyo

:

Yoshikawa kobunkan

.

Kazuo, Minami.

1999

.

Bakumatsu isshin fushiga

(Satirical art of the Bakumatsu and Restoration period).

Tokyo

:

Yoshikawa kobunkan

.

Masayuki, Minejima.

1984

.

Kondō Hidezō no sekai

(The world of Kondō Hidezō).

Tokyo

:

Seiabo

.

Gaikotsu, Mlyatake.

1926

.

Hikkashi

(A history of slips of the brush).

Tokyo

:

Asakaya shoten

.

Shigeru, Oikawa.

1992

.

Saigo no ukiyoeshi: Kawanabe Kyōsai to sono hankotsu bigaku

(The last Ukiyoe artist: Kawanabe Kyosai and his subversive aesthetic).

Tokyo

:

NHK Books

.

Okamoto, Rei.

1999

. “Pictorial Propaganda in Japanese Comic Art, 1941–1945: Images of the Self and Other in a Newspaper Strip, Single-Panel Cartoons, and Cartoon Leaflets.” Ph.D. diss.,

Temple University

.

Ono Hideo, ed.

1926

.

Yokohama shinpōMochiogusa shinbun. Kōko shinbun

(Early Meiji newspapers: The Yokohama Mochiogusa shinbun and the Kōko shinbun).

Tokyo

:

Meiji bunka kenkyūkai

.

Ouwehand, C.

1964

.

Namazu-e and Their Themes: An Interpretive Approach to Some Aspects of Japanese Folk Religion

.

Leiden

:

Brill

.

Philippe, Robert.

1982

.

Political Graphics: Art as a Weapon

.

New York

:

Abbeville Press

.

Tadayasu, Sakai.

1978

.

Kaika no ukioyoeshi: Kiyochika

(Kobayashi Kiyochika: Ukiyoe artist of the enlightenment).

Tokyo

:

Serika shobo

.

Screech, Timon.

2000

.

The Shogun's Painted Culture: Fear and Creativity in the Japanese States, 1760—1829

.

London

:

Reaktion

.

Shires, Ralph E.

1976

.

The Indignant Eye: The Artist as Social Critic in Prints and Drawings from the Fifteenth Century to Picasso

.

Boston

:

Beacon Press

.

Isao, Shimizu.

1979

.

Meiji mangakan

(A gallery of Meiji cartoons).

Tokyo

:

Kōdansha

.

Isao, Shimizu.

1980

.

Meiji manga yūransen

(Cruising with Meiji cartoons).

Tokyo

:

Bungei shunjū

.

Isao, Shimizu.

1981

.

Edo no manga

(Cartoons of the Edo period).

Tokyo

:

Bungei shunjū

.

Isao, Shimizu.

1985

.

Meiji manga jiten

(A dictionary of Meiji cartoons).

Tokyo

:

Sanseido

.

Isao, Shimizu.

1991

.

Manga no rekishi

(A history of Japanese cartoons).

Tokyo

:

Iwanami shoten

.

Isao, Shimizu.

1997

.

Kindai manga no byakusen

(One hundred modern cartoons).

Tokyo

:

Iwanami shoten

.

Steele, M.William, .

1996

. “

Representations of Self and Other in Late Tokugawa Woodblock Prints

.”

Asian Cultural Studies

22

(March 1996):

27

–

42

.

Takeuchi, Melinda.

1987

. “

Kuniyoshi's Miriamolo Raikō and the Earth Spider: Demons and Protest in Late Tokugawa Japan

.”

Ars Orientalis

17

:

5

–

38

.

Junko, Yamaguchi.

1981

. “Kaisetsu” (Commentary). In vol.

1

,

Marumaru chinbun

, edited by Eiyu, Yamaguchi.

Tokyo

:

Honpō shokan

,

1981

–86.

Yamaguchi Eiyu, ed.

1981

–86.

Marumaru chinbun

.

48

vols.

Tokyo

:

Honpō shokan

.

Seiichi, Yamaguchi and Shigeru, Oikawa.

1988

.

Kawanabe Kyōsai gigashu

(The comical pictures of Kawanabe Kyōsai).

Tokyo

:

Iwanami shoten

.

Takao, Yoshino.

1980

.

Miyatake Gaikotsu

(A biography of Miyatake Gaikotsu).

Tokyo

:

Kawade shobo shinsha

.