Drawn from the Street: The Politics of Poverty in Postwar Manga

In 2019, HoMA acquired the 1975 hand-drawn short story “Vagabond Plain” by acclaimed alternative manga artist Tadao Tsuge, who was inspired by his personal experiences to illustrate the social crisis of postwar Japan. This exhibition features this milestone graphic narrative, accompanied by reproductions of street photography by Moriyama Daidō and Tōmatsu Shōmei, highlighting the problems of urbanization and socioeconomic disparity in Japan during the Allied Occupation—a story that was largely overshadowed in the media by what is known as the “economic miracle.”

Also in the exhibition are “Vagabond Plain” precursors—Japanese woodblock prints and woodblock-printed books from HoMA’s collection that are honest depictions of poverty and houselessness from the 17th to early 20th centuries.

Tsuge’s sophisticated work focuses on a lower-class neighborhood, making art historical allusions to early European modernism (the paintings of Vincent van Gogh) and war photography (a portrait of General Douglas MacArthur) in addition to Japanese street photography.

Drawn from the Street reveals how Japanese manga responds in an emotionally evocative manner to socioeconomic concerns that are of increasing concern in Hawai‘i and the rest of the world.

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Tsuge Tadao (born 1941) . Vagabond Plain (Burai heiya), detail. Japan, January 1976. Hand-drawn comic art (genga); ink on paper. Purchase, 2019 (2019–5–28)  Honolulu Museum of Art.