–Professor Van Tarpley
I fell into teaching Manga & Japanese History (HIST 454 / ASIAN 454 – enroll today for Fall 2026!) through the world history/comics studies/nerdy manga lover portal rather than as an expert on Japan. So I traveled to Japan this summer with great curiosity to compare “manga Japan” with the real, vital, complex, modern country. My family spent most of our time in Nagasaki, Beppu, Kyoto, Nara, and Tokyo. Below are a few observations, ranging from serious to silly:
–The heart of any historical inquiry is people, real people, who lived, loved, and breathed. This was brought home powerfully at the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum by the display of a bento (lunchbox) filled with rice that was charred by the explosion of the bomb dropped by an American warplane at 11:02 a.m. on August 9, 1945:
–One of my interests in manga is how religiosity and the supernatural are expressed in everyday life. We visited the Shinto Hachiman Kamado Shrine in Beppu. Due to sharing a name with series protagonist Kamado Tanjiro, this working shrine which claims an origin in 727 CE has become a stop on the “pilgrimage route” of fans of the wildly popular manga Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. Here are ema (offering prayer tablets), many featuring character art, left by visitors/worshippers:
–I love manga about idol (corporately manufactured singing-dancing music group) culture. Unable to procure tickets for popular group AKB48, I dragged my family to a live performance by a mid-level, hard-working idol group called CYNHN. (We weren’t supposed to take photos – our apologies, CYNHN.) This real-life experience matched up remarkably well with manga presentations of idols. The evening was one-third infomercial for the group’s demanding festival-circuit and recording schedule, one-third fan interaction/comedy variety show, and one-third performance. Idols often portray characters of certain set types. Within the first two minutes, based on costuming and vocal characteristics, I guessed the types in CYNHN as: Bubbly Cute, Dependable Big Sister, Ethereal Princess, and Sporty Girl. As it turned out, my only mistake was that Sporty Girl was closer to Rocker Grrl:
–The Tokyo neighborhood of Akihabara is justifiably famous for its embrace of all things pop-culture, manga, and anime. I felt sorry for the costumed young women on the street advertising maid cafes, so I did not try one of those establishments. However, my family loved the cat café we visited (cats are present in many manga):
The manga bookstores in Akihabara are astonishingly large and frequented by people of all ages:
–As a final note, the staircases in actual Japan are much less slippery than the ones in manga Japan. Not once did I see an attractive person on a staircase fall backwards into the arms of another attractive person in a classic meet-cute.
Please see the schedule of classes to join Manga & Japanese History, MW 2:00-3:15 in Fall 2026!