Includes bibliographical references (pages 349-352) and index.
Summary:
This will be the first scholarly book in English (and the most complete in any language) on kamishibai ("paper theater"), a performance/visual/textual art form that was popular on the streets of Japan from 1930-1970, at times eclipsing even the popularity of movies or manga. After providing an introduction to the form and a history of its development in the 1930s, the study turns to an in-depth exploration of the way kamishibai was used for propaganda purposes by governmental and quasi-governmental agencies during Japan's Fifteen Year War, 1931 to 1945. Three chapters analyze a number of wartime kamishibai plays, divided by the demographic segment to which their specific propaganda messages were addressed: very young children, older boys from poor neighborhoods, rural girls, farmers, male urban shopkeepers, widows, etc. Then the findings from those analyses are incorporated into a consideration of the phenomenology and neurobiology of propaganda: how this particular medium with its unique combination of text, image and performance, and its unique circumstances of consumption (always in a tightly-huddled group of friends, neighbors, schoolmates or workmates) functioned in helping to create the propaganda environment that permeated Japan during the Fifteen Year War.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.