| dc.description.abstract | In 2011, Tokyo National Museum held an exhibition entitled “BUDDHA—The Story in Manga and Art,” in which the original drawings of the manga Buddha by Tezuka Osamu (1928-1989) were juxtaposed with some Buddhist sculptures. It inspired me to think about the possibility of comparing manga with Buddhist sculptures and other art works. In fact, in addition to this work, Tezuka also depicted many images of Buddhist sculptures during his four-decade career. These images spanned different creative periods, appeared in different subjects, and were presented in diverse styles. It indicates that the images of Buddhist sculptures in Tezuka’s works are so significant that they are worth more discussion. This thesis collects as many as possible the images of Buddhist sculptures in Tezuka’s manga and discusses the following issues: the changing in style, the sources of these images, and the characteristics of Tezuka’s Buddhist sculptural images.
The style of Tezuka’s Buddhist sculptural images changes in different periods. It is simple and flat at first, and becomes elaborate and realistic. Then, in the third stage, it is simple and clear. During the period from the late 1960s to the early 1970s, Tezuka’s works are most realistic, exquisite and dramatic, and the Buddhist images were depicted as paintings rather than ordinary manga. The style of this period is very special in Tezuka’s whole creative career.
From the late 1960s, Tezuka began to include famous Buddhist sculptures into his manga. By comparing a lot of plates from Japanese text books and art historical books, I found that Tezuka often picked Buddhist sculptures that are assigned as National Treasures or Important Cultural Properties. These images are most famous and likely to be familiar to the Japanese public. It is possible that the readers could recognize the images quickly and feel close to them. By this way, Tezuka arouse reader’s reading interest and curiosity.
The stylistic features of Tezuka’s Buddhist sculptural images from the late 1960s to the early 1970s are most attractive. We find the stylistic source from “gekiga” trend which rose in the late 1950s. Tezuka’s Buddhist sculptural images had a lot in common with those of Mizuki Shigeru (1922- ). When the mainstream of the manga circles was leaded by new trends, Tezuka adopted the popular styles actively and responded with competitive consciousness rather than falling behind too long. In this period, Tezuka published in the media that did not take commercial value for the first concern, and he could create in higher experimental and artistic form. This showed that Tezuka was eager to raise manga to artistic level.
This thesis points out four characteristics of Tezuka’s Buddhist sculptural images: first, Tezuka often used cinematic devices in terms of changing viewpoints and zooming. Second, he frequently chose famous Buddhist Sculptures assigned as National Treasures or Important Cultural Properties of Japan. Third, he integrated intellectual contents into manga, but the pictorial images were still the main focus. Fourth, he often conveyed ideas of strong critical and enlightening senses and this indicates that he values the educational function of manga.
This thesis considers that even though Tezuka learned from gekiga, he chose what he wanted rather than fully accepting the style in vogue. He integrated desirable parts into his works, and presented as what with Tezuka’s own features. | en_US |