More recommended manga

I have added for following three entries to my recommended manga web page.

Tatsumi Yoshihiro

Drifting Life by Tatsumi Yoshihiro

Seven Seas Entertainment

A fictionalized account of the authors life from August 1945 to June 1960. The work chronicles his rise as a manga artist from his early efforts, contact with Tezuka Osamu (link), struggles with publishers, more to Tokyo, and role in creating the gekiga [link] genre of manga. This is a massive work, at 840 pages the longest single volume manga published in English.

Cultural Details : Postwar life in the Ōsaka area, 1950s Tokyo life, manga industry

Cautions: Mild nudity.

Order Drifting Life from The Right Stuf

Nakazawa Keiji

Barefoot Gen by Nakazawa Keiji

Last Gasp

The classic manga, 4 volumes were first translated into English in the late 1970s by New Society Publishing. The current edition is a new translation of all ten volumes for the first time. This covers from the days before the bombing to the main characters move to Tokyo in the mid 1950s. The author himself survived the bombing of Hiroshima and based this tale on his experiences and those of others. Gen starts out as a happy kid coping with living during WWII with his oparents sister and brother as best a kid can. With the bombing things rapidly change as only he and his pregnant mother survive the bombing. They struggle to do their best in the weeks after the bombing, and over time begin to form friendships with other survivors and from this a group of friends who help each other come into being. The authors anti-militaristic views are presented with force and humor as we see Japan's recovery from the devistation of the war through the experiences of one young man.

Cultural details: Military occupation, Hiroshima, daily life 1945-1955.

Barefoot Gen volume 1 from The Right Stuf

Watanabe Taeko

Kaze Hikaru by Watanabe Taeko

VIZ Media

Kamiya Seizaburo in 1863 joins the Shinsengumi in the hope of taking vengence on the killers of his father and older brother. Small and quick Kamiya passes the test of skill in the use of the sword and is accepted. Okita Soji, a legendary swordsman and one of the founding members of the Shinsengumi, takes Seizaburo under his wing. However Kamiya is not a he but a she who had taken to disguising herself to carry out her mission and some of the men are very enamored with this "pretty boy" who has joined their troop.

Cultural Details: 19th Century Kyoto, bakumatsu, Shinsengumi, 19th Century urban life.

Cautions: Violence, swordplay, nothing sexual shown, references to male male sexuality, references to prostitution.

Order Kaze Hikaru volume 1 from The Right Stuf

Canada on comics and literacy

A new report from the Canadian Council on Learning covering gender reading preferences and comics/graphic novels.

More Than Just Funny Books: Comics and Prose Literacy for Boys

Interesting stuff, worthy of consideration.

Portraits of Modern Japanese Historical Figures

While searching for information on Jirochô of Shimizu I found a great resource of Japanese historical figures from the National Diet Library

Portraits of Modern Japanese Historical Figures

Folks may want to bookmark it for future use.

Failed coup

This week's entries concern a conspiracy from the 17th century, and one of the major players. The conspiracy was never carried out due to information getting to the authorities before the planned event happened.

Keian Jiken 慶安事件

Marubashi Chūya 丸橋忠弥

T + T - T

Time again for food and food related object entries.

Remember that scene in the Ghost Slayers Ayashi supernatural anime where one of the characters is selling a type of noodle on the street and he squirts it out of a squarish device?

Well this is what this week's entries are about.

tokoroten (gelidium jelly) ところ天 or 心太

tokoroten-tsuki (extruder for tokoroten) 心太突き

Entries edited slightly to correct errors. Thanks for the message Ono-san, my sources were vague on some aspects of tokoroten.

Partyin' in December

I had thought of putting this one aside until December but then decided to go ahead and upload it today.

bōnen-kai ("forget the year party") 忘年会

Such parties sound like a good idea. Start planning yours now.

Osaka neighborhood

This week I have an entry for:

Shinmachi (pleasure quarter Ōsaka) 新町

Expect me to have more entries on Ōsaka and Kyōto in the future as I just acquired Ian Martin Röpke's Historical Dictionary of Osaka and Kyoto