Scroll Of The Frolicking Animals. Live!
"Choju-Giga (Choju-Jinbutu-Giga, [Frolicking Animals and People]) consists of four volumes of satirical drawings that have belonged to Kozanji Monastery, Kyoto, since the 12th and 13th centuries. The true artist, or artists remain unknown, but Toba Sojo (1053-1140), who is also known as Kakuyu, is credited with being a main source of the first two scrolls because a painting carrying his name that is similar to this work remains even today. But no existing indisputable evidence supports this belief".
Quote from The Physiological Society Of Japan
These delightful pictures are beyond incredible, showing a lightness of approach only seen in Western art in the marginalia of illustrated manuscripts. There are also Egyptian sketches of anthro animals found occasionally from thousands of years ago, just whimsical as can be. But there is nothing like the Choju - Giga until the rise of cartooning in the 18th century.
From the Smithfield Decretals, c. 1300
These sketches are usually found on rocks and ostraca. Papyri cost money!
But I have never seen something like the Giga, it seems to tell a story and is often called the first manga.
Funny!
Action.
Now, and it was only a matter of time, these scrolls are being animated. Behold a wonder! -
One more -
Studio Ghibli
Our site here has gotten a late start.
Panel 5: the turtle rōnin returns home to find his tanuki wife pregnant and a guilty bird trying to make good his escape.
ReplyDeletePanel 6: yeah, well, I'm no friend of the MacKallikaks, either.
Panel 5 - I've seen Rashomon, and this is just one version of the story.
DeletePanel 6 - Those two animals have plucked branches from a forbidden tree, and they are doomed to run through the sky as the frog yells at them to drop the branches. The MacKallikak realizes the dire warnings of the reptile, the rabbit is having the time of his life and will wind up on the moon, forever pounding rice in a mortar. Sayonara, Usagi!
This proves that "furry" or anthro characters are not new-they have been around since the dawn of time!
ReplyDeleteYes, and the Japanese took that and ran with it. Not just evil foxes like Reynard or Mr. Tod, but 9 tailed magic foxes that could assume human form and were up to no good whatsoever. Life in pre-electricity Japan must have been terrifying. remember the Dawn of Man scenes from 2001? Like that, with flying whirlwind sickle-wielding weasels.
Delete