Who would think that Buddha and Jesus would be taking a gap year in downtown Tokyo?
I'm Nicole Rousmaniere I'm the IFAC Handa curator of Japanese arts
Welcome to my corner.
Japanese manga is a very specific way of storytelling
and what's so compelling about it is that it really draws you in
and these stories are everyday stories, they're historical stories
they're fictional stories, they're ghost stories, they're stories that are really from Japan
or Japan's interaction with other countries.
And this really is a potent form that we think fits very well with the British Museum's collecting practice.
The British Museum is not so much about the object itself,
it's about the hand that made that object, it's about what those objects tell us about the culture
it's about what we can communicate through these objects what are people when they're looking at this
what do they see, what do they read and what does it tell us
and manga is a particularly powerful form because it is so visually graphic.
Neil MacGregor, the former director of the British Museum
said I would like a manga of the British Museum, it was amazing that he thought of that
and I went, obviously, to Hoshino Yukinobu. His drawing is exquisite he just makes history come alive
he makes these stories that are just so compelling that you have to read them
and we thought he would be perfect.
It took us a year to to get through but we finally did and in 2009 after a visit to Sapporo
to his studio to tell him about the British Museum we managed to entice him for the first time to England
These are two drawings that Hoshino sensei made for us at the British Museum and are in our collections now.
He created these from the second trip to the British Museum to do further research.
This is a typical gag manga this is Professor munakata looking at the Rosetta stone but the writing is gone
and he's actually turned into the rosetta stone but if you look at this one
I think this one is particularly important, here we have professor Munakata
pointing out across the ocean we're thinking of him perhaps in Japan
pointing out towards us or maybe he's in British Museum pointing out towards Japan
we have our Japanese, part of our Japanese armour right here that's in the collection
the Sutton Hoo helmet is looming large and something has shifted if we look very carefully
we see Britain, we see Europe and what he's saying is through the objects in the British Museum
you see the world. what's different about the British Museum to other museums is you can look at these
treasures from and and really important objects from all different parts of the world
and you find out about yourself. It's not about... you can find out about them
but it's more about kind of an internal exploration so through the objects
we see what we are, we see what other people are and we come out somehow changed
This may be a bit of a surprise but I think you'll enjoy it.
Nakamura Hikaru is a young female artist who's incredibly talented she her series
Arakawa under the bridge talked about a homeless group of people that was living
under a bridge in Tokyo, her other very very hot series which also started in a
different magazine called morning sue this one is published by Kodansha
chronicles Buddha and Jesus taking a gap year in downtown Tokyo they're living in a very small flat
right here and here they're having dinner together and they always wear fantastic t-shirt slogan t-shirts
and go through very many different types of adventures and issues together.
So this series has been quite compelling you can see Jesus and Buddha creating manga together
actually it's Buddha who is really interested in be coming a Manga artist
they have all sorts of different adventures, going to different places
but what I really wanted to explain is how manga can take topics that are taboo
topics that are emotional topics, that are very close to one's heart that you
normally can't speak about and yet they can, through their magic of the line
and through the storylines and also the visual power can really shift your ideas about things
Who would think that Buddha and Jesus would be taking a gap year in downtown Tokyo?
Who would think that they were having this adventure? who would think
that they would have a debate if they see a cockroach in their bedding whether it should be killed or not?
These topics actually can seem ridiculous or spurious but they're actually quite deep
and and they're quite doctrinal Nakamura sensei works with scholars and and does a lot of research
and so her work is quite sensitive it's not provocative in a bad way
what it's trying to do is is make us look and rethink about things
Manga is often about disasters, there are many Mangas about the Fukushima disaster 3/11
but also about Hiroshima many of you may know, Barefoot Gen...
some of these Mangas are incredibly sad, some of them are really painful
but what's more important is that they're cathartic, through them we can release our fears,
through them we can rethink our ideas, through them we have a space to to find our own beliefs
and our own imagination. I believe all of you can find your own Manga,
there is a manga for everyone and what's so exciting about what we're doing at the British Museum
is we're trying to bring this to you and and show you that there is a choice and show you the role
that Manga plays not just in Japan but worldwide and now growingly on the web.
Thank you very much for joining me on our Manga adventure today.
There are many more curators that are doing many different types of adventures
through the British Museum YouTube channel, I hope you'll all subscribe
but first of all I want you to tell us what you would like to see, what is your favorite Manga
and what manga you would like to see the British Museum collect
please write it in on the comment section and subscribe to the YouTube channel of the British Museum, thanks