The Ise-e Tradition and Ise Manga

The Ise monogatari (The Ise Stories, aka Tales of Ise, tenth cen.) is the oldest continuously illustrated secular narrative in Japanese history. The present article explores to what extent, and how, contemporary manga artists engage with or use this rich visual tradition, examining three examples, in the seinen (young male-oriented), shōjo (young female-oriented), and gyagu (gag) genres, yet all arguably categorizable as gakushū, or educational, manga. Perhaps surprisingly, only the gag manga artist, Kurogane Hiroshi, takes advantage of the Ise’s long visual history, and the author of the article concludes by drawing parallels with the early modern artistic practice of mitate-e, or visual parody.