“Choju-Giga” – First manga in the history of Japan

The tradition of telling stories with a series of images in sequence has been a part of Japanese culture for a long time. This is the case of the ” Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga (鳥獣人物戯画)” which translates as “cartoons of anthropomorphic animals”, a series of very famous and somewhat mysterious scrolls of images since there are various assumptions about who and where made these. drawings and for what purpose these patterned scrolls were created. Given its structure and the way it is “read”, it has been named ” the first manga in the history of Japan” on many occasions.

It is a picture scroll consisting of 4 volumes in total, and its total length is about 44 m, but it is not clear what the various caricatures drawn on it are intended to represent. It is a treasure of the Kozanji Temple in Kyoto and was designated as a National Treasure in 1952 .

The author is said to have been a high priest of the late Heian period (794 to 1185) named Toba Sōjō , who specialized in caricatures aimed at humor and satire, but there is no confirmation of this. Due to the difference in the brush strokes of each volume or scroll, it is believed that several painters were involved in creating the drawings on these image scrolls.

In these scrolls all kinds of animals appear, from monkeys that are playing in the water, jumping and swimming in the mountain stream (first scroll), horses, cows, dogs and chickens, there are drawn many fantasy animals such as kirin , dragons and baku (second scroll) to monks and lay people playing with each other by pulling their necks and playing sugoroku (third and fourth scrolls).

Although, as we have said, the purpose of these scrolls of images is still not known with certainty, it is believed that they may have functioned as a bestiary , that is, a compilation or compendium of animals from the area and also fabulous and imaginary ones, since that when seeing the images you can recreate stories or stories, not to mention the animals that are represented as such as well as with an anthropomorphic appearance, perhaps satirizing life in Buddhist temples drawing priests as mischievous rabbits, or as monkeys participating in fairly everyday activities .

The rich facial expressions of the animals and the outstanding skill of the brush strokes are to be admired. The precision in the line and the skilful brushstrokes where the shadows and the faint ink are used to the maximum, you can appreciate the work of skilled people in art, even representing the joy of animals and human beings, that is, the ability to capture that feeling.