Week 1

Ukiyo-e or "pictures of the floating world" greatly influenced modern day manga and anime in Japan; from its visual style of line, contrast and broken formats to even its content of daily life mixed with fantasy, ukiyo-e's tradition lives on. It is apparent that besides traditional Japanese art, American pop-culture was also a great influence on early manga artists during the 1950's. This amalgamation of western culture and native traditions bore something completely new to the visual art world. Interestingly, this same cultural blending occurred during the inception of ukiyo-e during the Edo period of Japan...Japan for the first time began openly accepting European visitors into its borders. Dutch artists and printmakers especially impacted Japanese visual choices during the 17th century. So impressed by these works, the Japanese began copying paintings and studying Dutch books-untranslated- at an enormous rate.
Vanishing point perspective, use of light and shadow, accurate representational subject matter were all frequently used in western style art during this time. Traditional Japanese paintings and prints, however, paid little attention to the main subject(sometimes the subject was not even physically present in the composition) and did not emphasize exacting details. The perspectives were often skewed to mimic those of traditional 3-panel screens, creating disorienting shifts in perspectives and awkward dimensions. In the years leading to the Edo-period, Japanese artists began combining the two styles and these results can be seen in works by Hokusai, Hiroshige Ando and so on...Sharp contrasts between foreground and backgrounds, enlarged subjects and an emphasis on representation all took from both Dutch and Japanese paintings.
Sooooo, after WWII, some 350 years later, a conquered, post-apocalyptic Japan, took into itself those influences most admired of its conqueror. School aged boys, like Osamu Tezuka, tended towards American animation and comics. Like his predecessors of Japanese artists, Tezuka and his peers began copying anything and everything from American animation. These styles, Dutch, Traditional Japanese, and something decidedly American, continued to form and reshape into what we recognize today as anime.
It's one thing to know what happened but more exciting and nourishing to know why it happened...There are many reasons and speculations but the underlying factors of Japanese sociocultural norms can't be overlooked. In Japan there are two well accepted terms for a persons persona. Honne refers to a person's inner self, their true desires and feelings. These may be contrary to what is expected by society and are meant to be kept away from public view. Tatamae literally means "facade". This is a persons outer self, or how one may act in public. These choices and actions are not always in keeping with honne, but must be done to keep a certain image. Because Japan doesn't function based on any strict religious text, such as the bible or Koran, these two social personae can be seen as a natural outcome of a society trying to create peace and order. While to an American the idea that these two terms are outwardly known and accepted by an entire nation of people may seem odd, stifled or socially constricting, to the Japanese it is simply necessary. Art has in modern times been most closely associated with the side of people one could call Honne, as in, it speaks to us in a guttural, base way, hopefully avoiding any social stifling in our reactions. Ukiyo-e, considered modern art, was created for pleasure. Mostly purchased by middle class men such as merchants and traders, ukiyo-e was a luxury item purchased as an escapism from everyday life. It created the opportunity for entertainment even in ones own home(the best place for one to express honne). This idea helped ukiyo-e flourish. These same ideas can easily be applied to the popularity of anime in Japan. It is (relatively)cheap, mass-produced, combines elements of everyday and fantasy and can be used as an escape from the expectations of tatamae in ones own home.
While the terms honne and tatamae are a Japanese invention, these social phenomena are not singularly occurring. In America we don't glorify these identities, but in fact often hide that we have dueling perceptions, opinions and desires. We not only hide our honne, but hide that we even have a honne at all. This fragile reality we have created that as Americans we are strong in ourselves, assured that we are righteous and morally esteemed, we as Americans are forthright, honest and explicit, has created a culture of false exteriors, a facade-as Kelts quotes from Yashiro Katsuoka in Japanamerica, "'America is the true tatamae society'." Perhaps this connection to a country once called the "far-east" is the real reason anime has become so popular in America. At a time when our government's power has become so overwhelmingly expansive, its control over its people so minutely detailed, so strangling unbeatable, a desire for fantasy and escapism increased.