History of Manga, 1920-1930 AD
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Kamishibai
Books
Magazines
Newspapers
After the fighting of wars leading up to 1923, the Japanese people are feeling more flush for money. So, they are hit especially hard when the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 levels Tokyo and is then followed by a severe depression. Interest in kamishibai soars as unemployed men take up traveling story telling as a way to make some money. Some of the later magazine illustrators begin their careers by painting kamishibai illustrations.
From the Kamishibai entry.
Sanehiko Yamamoto, founder of Change magazine in 1919, goes on to found 1 Yen Books, which then starts a boom in sales for cheap books, AKA: enpon.
From the Birth of a Million Seller entry.
Kodomo no Kuni (Children's Country) starts up, providing an outlet for illustrators Takei Takeo and Yumeji Takehisa to publish manga (probably just yonkoma (4-panel strips)) as well as illustrations for text-based stories. We now witness the increase in illustrations for girl's magazines, with artists like Takei and Yumeji being joined by Katsudi Matsumoto and Jun'ichi Nakahara. Jun'ichi dominates the covers of Shojo no Tomo for 5 years before going on to start up two of his own girl's magazines in the 1940's. Illustrations appear more often now, both as filler for blank pages and to accompany the various stories and articles. (List of magazines., Birth of a Million Seller, Shojo no Tomo artist's list.)
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| Takei Takeo, with the cover of Kodomo no Kuni, from Gekkan Bijutsu, used for review purposes only. | Masao Katou, from Gekkan Bijutsu, used for review purposes only. | Sudou Shigeru, from Gekkan Bijutsu, used for review purposes only. | Katsudi Matsumoto, with his "Kurin-chan" character, from Gekkan Bijutsu, used for review purposes only. |
Suiho Tagawa, creator of "Norakuro, Private Second Class", sees his debut as a manga artist in 1927, but he doesn't really hit it big until a few years later.
Ippei Okamoto, editorial cartoonist for Asahi Shimbun, takes a global tour, and returns to Japan with a number of western newspaper strips, including "Mutt and Jeff" and the "Katzenjammer Kids" for Japanese syndication.