The Origins of the Shoujo Art Style
- kamikarmiya
- May 5, 2024
- 9 min read
For a long time in the English-speaking world, discussions of the origins of manga will point back to Tezuka Osamu, the 'Father of Manga', and often then point back to the influence Disney had on his early art. Some sources even credit him with inventing the 'sparkly' large eyes featured in shoujo, such as this archived post by Legacy (cited by Wikipedia on the page for Tezuka): 'Tezuka is largely responsible for the manga convention of depicting characters with big, sparkly eyes.'
If you're passingly familiar with the history of shoujo, this may seem off to you. While Tezuka's Ribon no Kishi (Princess Knight, 1953) is indeed a hugely influential early work of shoujo manga, featuring a fantastical version of Europe, crossdressing, and Takarazuka theatre influences, it seems unlikely that an artist who primarily worked in shounen could be responsible for the staple large, sparkly eyes which mark so many shoujo manga. After all, shoujo magazines have existed in Japan since 1902!
This article on Wikipedia is about an early shoujo magazine, Shoujo Gahou, but also includes a good basic overview of the origins of these magazines. Many more detailed sources are either in Japanese (such as Rachel Thorn's blog posts, Where did Shoujo Manga Come From?) or are academic articles or books which casual readers may not be able to access easily. This article is a very accessible source which gives a basic summary of the history of these magazines.
Shoujo Art Style
While modern shoujo manga only emerged in the 1950s, the art style of shoujo predates it by decades- at least. The full history of shoujo magazines and the type of content they published is worthy of separate discussion, and is a very dense topic; today I specifically want to explore the art. These magazines featured both full-page illustrations and short stories accompanied by black and white illustrations, and if you're at all familiar with ukiyo-e, some of them may seem a bit familiar. I think it's clear that the print culture of early shoujo magazines definitely owes a debt to the world of ukiyo-e; specifically, bijinga, the subgenre which featured portraits of beautiful women.
Left to right: Utamaro 1793, Igawa Sengai 1910, Ikeda Terukata 1900
The narrow, softly-curving lines of the face, the slender dash and curve that represents a nose in subtle lines, and the small mouth we associate with manga art are all features of bijinga. If you search 'bijin' on Ukiyo-e.org, you'll see what I mean. The works of the Taisho period and after, in particular, bear many hallmarks of the art style seen in shoujo magazines.
Images, left to right: Kaburagi Kiyokata print, Shoujo Gahou 1916 issue, Shoujo Sekai 1926
I've also found a few illustrators from shoujo magazines who also produced ukiyo-e:
Fukiya Kouji: magazine illustration, Dream, Purple Scarf
A lot of magazine artists also created ukiyo-e and more classical paintings, and the shoujo magazine was where the lines between classical art, print culture and Western influences converged.
The genre of Jojouga
Deborah Shamoon discusses this in her book on shoujo culture, Passionate Friendship. Being intended for print and popular culture, not the realm of fine art, the illustrations which featured in these magazines took inspiration from many different artistic movements, both in Japan and abroad (Passionate Friendship, p. 59). The two dominant modes of fine art at the time were youga (洋画), Western-style oil paintings, and nihonga (日本画), Japanese-style painting (it's worth noting that, for all its fame nowadays, ukiyo-e was not considered fine art in the past).
Magazine illustrators such as Kashou were influenced by both youga and nihonga and worked at a time of mutual influence and exchange between the worlds of fine art and commercial art. [...] Many of these advertising posters and magazines illustrations took the form of bijinga, or portraits of beautiful women. [..] This emphasis on rich, detailed garments translated well to the commercial demands of magazine illustration, department store advertising, as well as ads for cosmetics [...].
Passionate Friendship, p. 59)
The work of Yumeji Takehisa pioneered the style which came to be known as jojouga (lyrical pictures 叙情画). His art style does not feature the wide eyes of later shoujo, but began the style of sentimental and atmospheric illustrations with young women appearing wispy and ephemeral. He was also the first magazine artist to produce goods such as stationary, letter sets, and postcards, which is a tradition of shoujo art to this day (Passionate Friendship, p. 61).
Takabatake Kashou was notable for combining Western influences, such as Art Nouveau, with nihonga and bijinga, to create a new style of illustration suited to the 20th century: 'a reinterpretation of Japanese aesthetics in a global setting'. 'For girls' culture in particular, Kashou brought to the genre of jojouga the exaggerated eye, elegantly stylised form, and detailed clothing as well as a tendency toward androgyny and sameness that would mark both illustration in prewar girls' magazines and postwar shoujo manga' (Passionate Friendship, p. 68).
Image credit: Meiji & Taisho Romantica blog
Nakahara Junichi is really the artist to look to for the origins of modern shoujo. While it's a bit simplistic to credit a sole artist for this style, Nakahara Junichi was unarguably a huge figure in the world of shoujo magazines, and his art went on to influence later generations, including one of the most influential shoujo manga artists (who is not Tezuka, sorry sir).
Images from an issue of Shoujo no Tomo, 1940, featuring Nakahara's art on the cover
In Nakahara Junichi's work, we can see the angles of the face, the delicate and barely-detailed nose, the small bud-mouth, the large, expressive eyes, and, finally, the willowy, slender figure reminiscent of fashion illustration. The descriptions of his works on Ukiyo-e.org describe (correctly, in my opinion) Nakahara Junichi as being 'widely regarded as the inventor of the wide-eyed "manga" looks'. More accurately, his art is the originator of the shoujo art style as we know it today.
Nakahara Junichi also illustrated many short stories and novels which were serialised in shoujo magazines, and his illustrations for Otome no Minato (1937) look almost as if they could have come out of a shoujo manga from a later era.
If you'd like to peruse photographs of antique shoujo magazines, here are a few sources I've found:
I also have one magazine from 1949 in my personal collection, an issue of Shoujo no Tomo. You can see detailed photos in this post.
As you can see, the art styles featured in them varied a great deal; it was works in the style of Nakahara which really went on to influence the later world of shoujo manga.
When Shoujo Became Manga
Takahashi Macoto is the next major figure in the development of modern shoujo. He began work in 1953, illustrating 'emonogatari' (literally: illustrated tales) for the book rental market (kashi-hon). He was heavily influenced by the work of Nakahara Junichi; as a teenager, he first decided to get into magazine illustration and fashionable art after seeing Nakahara's work (Passionate Friendship, p. 90).
Unfortunately, I don't have any images of his early emonogatari work; the first works of his I can show you are his early forays into manga. Published in 1956, Paris-Tokyo was his first manga, and features many of the stylistic elements associated with modern shoujo manga.
Takahashi, inpsired by Nakahara, pioneered the use of emotive backgrounds, non-narrative images, and layering, as well as the big eyes and slim bodies for which shoujo manga is known.
Passionate Friendship, p. 93.
The reliance on non-narrative, lyrical elements reflects the influence of jojouga illustration from prewar magazines.
Passionate Friendship, p. 97.
Takahashi is also associated with what is for casual observers the most salient trait of shoujo manga, the use of hugely exaggerated eyes, which are not only large but feature many highlights, often shaped like stars. Writing on manga in English tends to repeat the misconception that large eyes in manga of all genres derives from Tezuka's fascination with Disney [...] although, as I argued above, Tezuka's use of the exaggerated eye comes from Takarazuka. Takahashi, in contrast, inherited theexagerrated eye from Nakahara and the tradition of jojouga, as evidenced by his use of highlights, which Tezuka did not use.
Passionate Friendship, p. 99
His next major manga, Sakura Namiki (The Rows of Cherry Trees, 1957) continues these stylistic trends. I also can, happily, report that this manga is available to read in English! It doesn't have an official translation, but Lililicious has scanlated it, meaning that English-speaking fans have a rare opportunity to read one of the foundational works of shoujo manga.
While Takahashi Macoto no longer draws manga, he still paints in the shoujo style, and his works are hugely popular to this day among women. His paintings continued to adorn the covers of shoujo magazines in the 60s, and the style which he developed in this era epitomises the art style of 60s shoujo.
For a more detailed look at art from 60s shoujo, please see this post where I show photographs of my 1964 issue of Shoujo Friend. It also features a cover with art by Takahashi.
Another ukiyo-e artist who dabbled in manga is Maeda Masao; I was very surprised, when looking at his works, to find a few shoujo manga prints mixed in among his many illustrations of Genji Monogatari scenes:
Beyond the sparkly eyes, another major feature of shoujo from this era is the round faces. I suspect that in part this may be because the burgeoning field of manga was still largely the domain of young readers; the target demographic was girls in elementary school, rather than the middle school and up set who would be the target audience of many new manga to come in the 70s and onward.
Since I'm primarily discussing art style, I'll only briefly mention that this was the era when a new generation of female mangaka came onto the scene, and their works were marked by a huge shift in tone. While plenty of manga from the 60s had dealt with intense romance and social themes (such as the works of Mizuno Hideko), the famous shoujo manga of the 70s took this even further. The Year 24 Group are well known for advancing a new type of shoujo manga, with a huge emphasis on psychological themes, sexuality and gender, and social issues as themes in their works.
I posit that this is also why the art style became more mature and dramatic. Tales featured characters who were young adults, not children, and they were drawn with narrower faces (to denote maturity) and willowy figures; rather like the illustrations of Nakahara Junichi all over again.
In the works of Ikeda Riyoko in particular I think you can see the stylistic traditions of modern shoujo being laid out. Onii-sama he (Dear Brother, 1974) is a manga which I would specifically point to as being very indicative of what shoujo manga would look like in future decades.
The 80s, meanwhile, was a decade where I'd argue that the style which characterised the 70s was shifting; the trend continued to move back towards more willowy characters, and the face shape began softening into the curves we see in late 80s and 90s titles.
Left to right: Attacker You (Nakayoshi 1984 October), Apple Dream (Nakayoshi 1984 October), Noroi no Kurojuuji (Nakayoshi 1987 April issue), Tokimeki Tonight (1982-94)
I suspect that for a lot of women in their 30s, the shoujo manga of the 90s was the style of their childhood; I know that's the case for me. Many 90s shoujo titles were finally translated into English and regularly made available in bookstores in the tail-end of the 90s and the early 00s; titles like Sailor Moon, Marmalade Boy, Red River, From Far Away, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Cardcaptor Sakura, Saint Tail, and many more made up the girlhoods of a much more international audience now. Audiences in other parts of the world started seeing manga translations and anime dubbing much earlier, but that's a topic for another day.
Left to right: Sailor Moon (1991-7), Waltz wa Shiroi Dress de (1990), Red River (1995-2002)
I personally would consider the art style of shoujo to have 'matured' or 'settled' a bit in the 90s. While shoujo from the 00s and 10s certainly have seen more stylistic shifts, they all build upon the style popularised in the 90s.
Left to right: Harukanaru Toki no Naka de (1999-2010), Vampire Knight (2004-13), Akatsuki no Yona (2009-ongoing), Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 6 (2015)
This style has been imported to both other parts of Asia (you can see 'shoujo' manhua from China and Taiwan, and the categories and styles of shoujo and shounen were also adopted in Korean manhwa; as well, modern anime-style donghua in China often draw heavily on the shoujo aesthetic), and to the rest of the world. Manga, in particular shoujo, is drawn by many artists in South America, Tokyopop has a lineup of 'International Women of Manga' which primarily features shoujo, and Italian comics for girls such as W.I.T.C.H. and Winx Club bear significant influence from shoujo. I'd like to discuss these examples in more detail in the future, but I think it can be said that shoujo as an aesthetic and genre has become a global phenomena. In the absence of anywhere near as robust a girl-focused media movement in the West, it can hardly be a surprise!
Comments