Toba Sojo - Choju Giga

Toba Sojo Facts

 

Toba Sojo (1053-1140), Japanese painter-priest, is believed to have painted the Animal Caricature, or Choju Giga, scrolls, which are considered among the finest examples of Japanese narrative scroll painting.
Toba Sojo, whose true name was Kakuyu, was a Japanese nobleman of the Heian period who became a Buddhist abbot. According to tradition, he is thought to have painted the famous set of scrolls representing caricatures of animals and people (in the Kozanji, a monastery near Kyoto). Modern scholars no longer accept this attribution uncritically and are inclined to believe that while he is indeed the author of the first two scrolls, which were probably painted during the second quarter of the 12th century, the two remaining scrolls are probably the work of an anonymous follower of the artist who worked during the early 13th century, the beginning of the Kamakura period.
The type of painting found in these scrolls is derived from the tradition of Buddhist monochrome ink painting that flourished during the Heian and Kamakura periods and was employed to depict the Buddhist deities in their proper iconographic form. At the same time the Animal Caricature scrolls may also be regarded as one of the most outstanding examples of the school of Japanese painting known as Yamato-e, which specialized in depicting narrative scenes taken from Japanese history and from literature such as the Heiji Monogatari and the Tale of Genji as well as stories and legends of famous Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines.
Since the scrolls are not accompanied by a text and have no unity of subject matter, the exact meaning of the paintings is not known. However, it is said that the first scroll, which is artistically by far the finest, represents a veiled attack on the corruption of the Buddhist clergy of the time. A worship scene showing the seated Buddha in the form of a large frog with a monkey in priest's garb and rabbit and fox attendants would support such an interpretation. Other sections of this scroll show the animals wrestling, swimming, and frolicking, all rendered in a free, humorous spirit. The later scrolls, although they also depict some animals, primarily show the human figure rendered in a similar satirical manner.
The scrolls are painted in black ink on white paper. Particularly fine are the first two scrolls, those believed to be by Toba Sojo, which show a mastery of brushwork and a remarkable animation. This pictorial tradition, although ultimately derived from China, where it had flourished since Han times, was introduced into Japan during the 6th century and had continued to be popular in the Buddhist monasteries. Depending on line rather than color, the Japanese painters of this school employed a remarkable economy of means and expressive power which are very typical of the best of the painting of the Far East.

Further Reading on Toba Sojo

The best publication of the scrolls is Hideo Okudaira, Choju Giga, Scrolls of Animal Caricatures, adapted into English by S. Kaneko (1969). For a more general discussion of Japanese scroll painting see Kenji Toda, Japanese Scroll Painting (1935), and Dietrich Seckel, Emakimono: The Art of the Japanese Painted Handscroll (1959). □

Encyclopedia of World Biography. Copyright 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

Todays EPQ Lesson

Basically I am going through different articles on the internet looking for research on a Buddhist priest called Toba Sojo, who was the man who started making "hilarious" animal drawings that amused the people in his village, which the idea of creative drawing (manga).

Toba Cojo

History of Manga
It has often been said that the "father" of manga is Rakuten Kitazawa, a 20th century manga-ka. However, the origins of manga go back much further than the 20th century.  Manga's humble beginnings date back to the 11th century where a Buddhist priest and painter named Toba Sojo, expressed his extremely whimsical sense of humor in what is known as animal scrolls or Choju Giga.  These paintings are often satirical and can be slapstick in nature and depicted a humorous focus on the Buddhist priesthood. Another feature of this period is that there were few words to go along with the action being depicted.
Another creator, Shimoboku Ooka, built upon Toba's Choju Giga and, instead, used an accordion style format for presenting the images.  However, like Toba, he used few words to go along with any action shown.
The term "manga" did not begin to be regularly used until the 19th century when Katsushika Hokusai, a floating wood pictures artist (known as ukiyo-e) coined the term to describe his drawings in his sketchbook.  He used the term "manga," meaning "playful sketches."
Modern manga was, again, influenced by Rakusen Kitazawa in the early 20th century.  There had been restrictions on such materials that were being lifted and this isolated country was beginning to see outside influences, such as those from the West, infiltrate Japanese society.  Needless to say, these influences of Western culture began to appear in the manga we know today.  Much of Rakusen's work is on display at the Omiya Municipal Cartoon Hall or Manga Kaiken.  Another influential early modern manga-ka, Ippei Okamoto, created Hito No Issho (Life of a Man).  His main contribution is the institutionalization of the manga-ka as artists by the creation of Nippon Mangakai, the first Japanese cartoonist society.
Manga in its current form mixes Western comic formats and style with Japanese ideas and ideals such as honor, pride, service, respect for elders and others, and humility, to name a few.  The person often most credited for what manga is today is Osamu Tezaka.  Manga enthusiasts should know that Osamu created the now-classic manga, Astro-Boy, in 1952, and it is still very popular today in Japan.  Astro-Boy memorabilia is still shown in many manga/anime fairs, such as the Tokyo Anime Fair in 2010, as it became the first anime or animation of a manga.  A US manga fan can often find Astro Boy either on e-Bay or can import this title through Amazon or through book chains such as Barnes and Noble and Borders, where there are locations on the Central Coast. Osamu's work greatly influenced the manga artistic styles of current manga-ka:  Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball series), Tite Kudo (Bleach), Masashi Kishimoto (Naruto), Kazuki Takahashi (Yu-Gi-Oh!), and Eiichiro Oda (One Piece) to name a few.

Research: An Article About The Origins of manga

Toba’s Choju Giga: Telling Stories With Scrolls

The tradition of narrative art or telling stories with a series of sequential images has been a part of Japanese culture long before Superman ever put on a cape. The earliest examples of pre-manga artwork that influenced the development of modern Japanese comics are commonly attributed to Toba Sojo, an 11th-century painter-priest with a whimsical sense of humor.

Toba’s animal scroll paintings, or choju giga satirized life in the Buddhist priesthood by drawing priests as mischievous rabbits, monkeys engaging in silly activities including farting contests, and even depicted the Buddha himself as a toad. While there are no word balloons or sound effects in Toba’s paintings, they do show a progression of events, happening one after another as the scroll is unrolled from right to left. This tradition of reading images from right to left continues today in modern manga.

In later years, Toba’s influence on manga was acknowledged with the introduction of Toba-e or “Toba pictures,” an 18th century style of humorous images bound in books, accordion style. Created by Shimoboku Ooka, Toba-e relied on visual humor and used few words.

The Funnier Side of Hokusai

Another influential artist in the development of modern manga was Katsushika Hokusai, the famous 19th century ukiyo-e ("floating world pictures") artist and printmaker. While Hokusai’s iconic woodblock print images of 36 Views of Mount Fuji are known the world over, his manga sketchbooks are also some of the best early examples of humor in Japanese art.
Hokusai was also the first artist to use the term "manga" or "playful sketches" to describe his humorous images. Hokusai’s manga includes irreverent images of men making funny faces, sticking chopsticks up their noses and blind men examining an elephant. Originally intended as sketches for his students to copy, Hokusai manga were distributed throughout Japan.