Pop Japan

The Japanese word manga consists of two characters in the Japanese alphabet. The first one, man, means whimsical or impromptu, while the second character, ga, means pictures. Literally, manga means whimsical pictures that has evolved to the most phenomenal comics in the world.

Manga was first used in the 18th century, as a term used to refer to the picturebook entitled Shiji no yukikai. The book was published by Santou Kyouden. In the 19th century, Aikawa Minwa published the Manga Hyakujo and the Hokusai Manga books, which contained sketches from Japan's most celebrated ukiyo-e artist, Hokusai.

The term has now been used worldwide to refer to Japanese comics, to differentiate from the other comics produced from other countries. In addition, anime, which is somehow an evolution of the manga, is used to refer to Japanese animation.

Photo by Kasuga. Licensed under Creative Commons. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en)

Tags: anime, manga, man, whimsical picture, ga, shiji no yukikai, santou kyouden, aikawa minwa, manga hyakujo, hokusai manga, japanese comics, japanese animation, ukiyo-e