JFLA Lecture Series

Explore the roots of MANGA!

Action in Print:
Visual Narrative in Edo-Period Popular Literature

Chūshin teifu: I-ro-ha bunko (Faithful retainers & chaste women: a basic library). Author: Ryūentei Tanehisa; illustrator Utagawa Kunoiyoshi. Edo (Tokyo), 1860.
Ebi collection. Image courtesy of the Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University.

Date & Time:
Wednesday, February 20, 2019 7pm

Venue:
JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles, Hollywood and Highland, Level 5
(6801 Hollywood Blvd.,Los Angeles, CA 90028)
*Please take elevator to Level 5. JAPAN HOUSE is located at the Southeast corner of Hollywood & Highland on the 5th floor.

Admission:
FREE

Light refreshments will be served after the lecture.

In this lavishly illustrated talk Dr. Ellis TINIOS will introduce illustrated popular fiction produced for a mass audience in Japan in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries—a varied body of printed material worthy of wider appreciation. The techniques employed by ukiyo-e artists to construct compelling visual narratives will be explored through a close reading of a volume from a serial novel illustrated by Utagawa Kuniyoshi. The speaker will also consider the motives of those who have tried so hard—and so unsuccessful—to find direct Japanese precedents for contemporary MANGA in Edo-period illustrated fiction and medieval handscrolls.

About Lecturer:

Dr Ellis Tinios is Honorary Lecturer in History at the University of Leeds, faculty member of the Rare Book School, University of Virginia, and Visiting Researcher at the Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University. His primary research interest is the illustrated book in early modern Japan. His work encompasses bibliography, book design, the mechanics and economics of book production, and the marketing, advertising, sale, consumption and afterlives of books.

Recent publications include: Understanding Japanese Illustrated Books: a short introduction to their history, bibliography and format, co-authored with Suzuki Jun (Brill, 2013); Japanese Prints: Ukiyo-e in Edo, 1700-1900 (British Museum Press, 2010, reprinted with revisions, 2014); and ‘Japanese Illustrated Erotic Books in the Context of Commercial Publishing, 1660-1868’ in Japan Review: Journal of the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (No 26 (2013) Special Issue: Shunga).

Parking and traffic information:
Please be advised that the traffic near Hollywood & Highland will be heavier than usual and a series of road and sidewalk closures will be in effect due to preparation for the Academy Awards. Please use the Highland Avenue entrance to park in the structure.

This event is co-organized with the Yanai Initiative at UCLA with a cooperation from JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles.