Below is a link to a wonderful article about the origins of manga and a lost art in Japan known as Kamishibai. Kamishibai was live storytelling on the streets of Japan for children and adults. Kamishibai included the showing of fantastic illustrations as the narrator sometimes performed his stories. Sometimes those illustrations were even original pieces of art. It's one of these wonderful lost arts that has diminished due to our modern age of entertainment thru tvs, computers etc... wonderful article but at the same time somewhat sad...Of course I would be in quite a state of bliss to be able to hear him tell/show an Ougon Bat story...live.

http://www.pingmag.jp/2006/11/06/kids-l ... lling-man/

great article, thanks for posting it...
those illustrations are amazing!!

this is awesome. this link made me look up a whole lot of other stuff. a tangent that lasted probably two hours. this guy is awesome and I want to go to his house and buy candy from his wife.

My friend who i'm staying with in Machiya remembers seeing Kamishibai in the late 70's and early 80's. He told me Machiya back in the day, was one of the first wards to have Kamishibai. What an amazing article...

that was a nice read, thanks for sharing......i wish i could experience his artistry firsthand.