[Manga] Yamakawa Naohito: “Choukoudou Shujin” and “Koohii mou ippai”
Cover image of the Jan 2010 issue of Comic Beam showing an illustration of "Choukoudou Shujin" by Yamakawa Naohito.
Choukoudou Shujin [澄江堂主人]
News reached me that the manga artist Yamakawa Naohito [山川直人] is launching a new series entitled Choukoudou Shujin [澄江堂主人] on the monthly manga magazine Comic Beam.
When I looked at the illustration on the left, my gut reaction was: “This is just what Chūzenji Akihiko would look like if Yamakawa-sensei were to draw a portrait of him.” Then my second thought was: “Well, since Chūzenji Akihiko was modeled in part after Akutagawa Ryūnosuke, maybe this manga is inspired by Akutagawa after all.” After researching on the internet a bit, it turns out that my gut feeling was right, “Choukoudou Shujin” was indeed one of several literary names by which Akutagawa Ryūnosuke was known.
Details on this manga seem to be scarce at the moment, but I am pleased to see Yamakawa-sensei continuing with his unique trademark medieval-engraving-like drawing style from his previous works such as -
Koohii mou ippai [コーヒーもう一杯]
This is a 5-volume manga series comprised of individual short stories that all have to do with coffee one way or other. Each of them is bittersweet with a philosophical bent. I have always thought this would be the sort of manga that the writer Murakami Haruki [村上春樹]* would have drawn if he were a manga artist. (Or least Murakami in his The Elephant Vanishes phase. I have fallen behind on his more recent works such as 1Q84 but have been told that his artistic/literary style had changed a lot.)
Anyway, my favorite story by far in Koohii mou ippai goes like this:
A man comes home one day and finds the cat he used the keep two years ago waiting for him. The cat has grown up and is apparently running his own successful business. The cat wears a suit and has a handful of employees by his side. They exchange news while drinking coffee, and the cat finally reveals that it has come to watch a movie called Coffee and Cigarette with him. The man is of modest means and has no DVD player, so the cat dispatches one of his underlings to fetch a DVD player at once, and the two of them sit down to watch the movie. During the movie, the man notices that the cat has fallen asleep. The cat apologizes and the man reckons that the cat must be tired from overwork. The man remembers that two years ago, the cat was still only a child, and he wonders what would be the human equivalent of two years in a cat’s life…
I think it is a unique story that illustrates basically the same concept as Shinkai Makoto’s Byousoku 5 Centimeter – that people live and grow at different speeds. On a personal level, it is a theme that I feel more profoundly than anything else. (I often feel like that cat when I meet with people from the past.)
In any case, I recommend Yamakawa-sensei’s works without reserve. Even if you cannot read Japanese, the unique, engraving-like artstyle is a still pleasure to look at. There is always a touch of the fantastical in the artwork, just like the stories themselves. Here are some random pages I scanned after the jump:
* Murakami Haruki is also a coffee lover, had ran a coffee shop in the past, and written about his experiences as a coffee shop owner in his essay collections.
Interesting. It seems that this Comic Beam is one of the most interesting magazines. It features even Imuri (イムリ) by Miyake Ranjou (三宅乱丈), which I’ve found to be a fascinating fantasy/SF tale. (You can see the title on the cover above!)
Ridiculus:
Thanks for pointing that out. You sure know a lot more about the fantasy/SF genre than I do. ^-^ “Imuri” sounds very interesting indeed. How did you come across this manga series?
Well, I was introduced to it by Asahi Shimbun’s Comic Guide – by a translation of it, actually.
http://wordweary.wordpress.com/2007/10/08/imuri-by-miyake-ranjou-translation-of-an-asahi-shinbun-review-by-minami-nobunaga/
And then, when Japan Media Arts Festival announced their winners on December 3rd, in the manga category Imuri won the Excellence Prize.
Ridiculus:
I have read some reviews by that reviewer of Asahi Shinbum before, and thought her reviews a little bland… But then blandness seems to be a common trait among reviewers in Japan. If they criticize too much, their paper may lose ad revenue from those publishers.
BTW, how is the Ubume book going?
“I have read some reviews by that reviewer of Asahi Shinbum before, and thought her reviews a little bland…”
I thought that too, so I didn’t take the review too seriously. But then, when the winners at the Festival were announced, I began a search and what I found impressed me.
Regarding Ubume, eh, complicated stuff, but I like it because of it even more. I will speak of it when I finish the book and find time to put my thoughts into some semblance of order. The cover clearly shows that the publisher has wanted to ride on the popularity of Ringu, but is absolutily misleading. Besides, Kyougoku’s covers are beautiful enough, and it’s shame that his own designs have not been used.
Loups-Garous has been announced for the next year (in America), with a changed (and far uglier) cover, too.
But for me, the biggest news of the last two months is that Kurodahan Press has published an anthology of kaidan tales in English, first in a planned series of three volumes.
http://www.kurodahan.com/mt/e/catalog/jp0007cate.html
Look at the names involved! Fantastic!
Ridiculus:
Re Ubume. No problem, take your time. ^-^
Thanks a lot for the link. It seems that the kaidan collection is handled by people who know what they are talking about. And the names involved!
I’m identifying here.
Either I’m having serious deja vu or I recall some of these scans. It is a really interesting style.
Cheerios.
Ryan A:
I think I should stress that it is only my personal impression though. If you read the story yourself, you may have other first-hand impressions that is just the opposite. There are more than one way to look at a story like that.