"Sazae-san": Japan's greatest comic strip.

[Angelcake the Fox]

In 1946, laughter seemed to be in short supply in Japan. After the humiliating defeat at the hands of the Allies, the Japanese people were forced to rebuild their fallen, war-ravaged country. Times were rough. Many people were poor. Many were starving. The Japanese needed laughter, they needed some escape.

On April 22, a twenty-six year old woman named Machiko Hasegawa would give them the laughter they so desperately needed......and would become one of the most revered and beloved individuals in the world of Japanese comics.

I'm speaking of course of Sazae-san. Debuting in the Fukunichi Shimbun, it would eventually become serialized in the Asashi Shimbun, making Hasegawa-sama move to Tokyo. She would continue to draw the comic until 1974, when she retired to live out the rest of her days enjoying the fruits of her creation.

In terms of popularity, Sazae-san can quite easily be compared to The Peanuts. To this day, it still inspires songs, radio dramas, television shows, and still sells boatloads of books. In fact, by the mid 90s, the books had collectively sold over sixty million copies in Japan alone.

As for the comic itself.......the comic generally was quite topical in nature. In fact, it is one of the best ways Americans can see how the life of the average Japanese played out in the time the comic was being published. Many of the charactes are somewhat poor. They sometimes struggle to feed themselves. It also reflects the changing values of the new generation of Japanese (sometimes called 'the manga generation') as they took the place of the old school values of classical pre-war Japan.

The comic starred a young, liberated woman named Sazae Isono, her husband Masuo Fuguta, her child Tarao, as well as Sazae-san's family: her mothor Fune, her father Namihei, her younger sister Wakame, and her baby borther Katsuo. On occasion, the neighbouring Isasaka family and another branch of the Isono family, consisting Namihei's nephew and his family will show up.

Over time, the appearrance and activities of the characters would come to reflect the changing Japan. Sazae-san, who was originally famous for wearing a non-decorative black dress, would eventually begin wearing pantssuits and even mini-skirts. She would also become a feminist and alot of later plotlines would revolve around humurous situations involving her activites with the local women's group.

The strip and its creator have quite a few accomplishments to their name. For one thing, Machiko Hasegawa was Japan's first successful female manga artist. Her creation has entertained generations of Japanese and inspired many mangaka (some say that Osamu Tezuka was himself a big fan). And on top of that, the comic would inspire the singe, longest running anime in the history of the medium, having begun in 1969 and is still running, with over 1600 episodes in the archives as of 2006.

Kodansha International would release bilingual volumes containing choice strips from the series' history. A few of these volumes are still available.

This comic is a treasure of modern Japan, and is a great way to introduce someone to the modern Japanese world. It also is a humurous yet effective reflection of the turbulent times that the Japanese people lived through in the mid 20th century.

Please, if you ever get the chance, I highly reccomend giving this series a try. It's humurous, original, and very, very uniquely Japanese.

[go]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sazae-san