History of Manga, 1000-1500 AD

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Kamishibai and e-maki

In the 12th century, Buddhist monks wanted to teach moral precepts to the masses, who in turn were largely illiterate.  To assist in this practice, various scenes were drawn on scrolls, and the priests would tell stories.  These scrolls were referred to as "e-maki" (picture scrolls).  At this point, they were probably all produced using woodblocks, rather than hand drawn with inks or paints.  Otherwise, making copies would be fairly time-consuming.  Over time, e-maki would evolve into "kamishibai" (paper drama).  In kamishibai, travelling story tellers use a box that holds painted picture boards.  As the teller relates the story, he pulls out one picture board to reveal the next one (but this comes much later).

During this time period, we have the famous "Tale of Genji", one of the first illustrated scrolls dating to about 1130 AD.  It combined illustrations with text.  From this point on, e-maki stories for the public would get more popular.  The wiki entry talks about "otoko-e" and "onna-e", which were pictures for a male or female audience.  While onna-e focused on court life and romance, otoko-e recorded famous battles.  One such example is the 1160 AD "Siege of Sanyo Palace".

Up to this point, scrolls and printing were still too expensive to mass produce.

From the Kamishibai entry.

Panel from the Tale of Genji scroll, from the wiki entry, used for review purposes only.