Why we Japanese love comic?

Oh! Im still shaky about how to use this blog system!

Many of my international friends ask me "why the Japanese loves comic books, even the adults?"

a bit about Japanese Writing

Let me explain why we love Manga, analyzing our writing system.

Some says, its because of the way we use our brain when we "read".

Do you have any idea about our writing system?

We got Kanji and Hiragana&Katakana).

(This is what foreigners call "nightmare"of learning Japanese writing.)

Kanji is called as "character," kind of a pictogram, that represents both "meaning" and "sound."

Hiragana and Katakana are syllables, which only represent "sound" of a word.

The difference between hiragana and katakana is not so clear(Actually there are some, but not this time.)

Kanji=pictograms (character)

Hiragana&Katakana=syllables

it's all about BRAIN function!

So, how this writing explains our passion for comic?

alright, i need your patience...

Some recent studies in the field of brain science give us an insight.

We are using different parts of brains simultaneously when we read Japanese writing.

For Kanji, we use the brain part that recognizes "picture."

For Katakana, we use the brain part that processes "words", which is the same part for processing English alphabets.

When we read, .we are using two parts at the same time.

So, it is a natural process for us to look at "picture" and "words, "which is the basic structure of Manga(comic).

No wonder we feel so smooth about manga type of representation, and prefer "comic books" to no-picture-books.

I think this special feature of our writing system (or our reading system? )can provide explanation not only for "our passion for comic" but also for some other (what people consider) "weird" japanese customes....hopefully.

was it clear?

Tokyo Oriental Girl

thank you for visiting my blog! wow! I started it!

Here, I want to share my thoughts about "culture,""history,"and "art."

oh la la, but its not that like pure academic type of thoughts. its more like,

you know, free thoughts, often not well organized.

anywayz, my name is angel, a Japanese girl. i studied about ancient "daemon", Pazuzu when i was in college and grad school, so i decided to take a name from the antinom of deamon.

I got BFA and MA in art history, so my interest seems to focus on art and related subjects....maybe....well not sure....actually.....NO NO NO there are so many so many so many fun things' going on in Tokyo!

Can I be just concentrated on a genre of sophisticated works of art?

Can I be stuck in a museum?

no way!

"Art" of course always stimulates my curiousity, but it is not the only thing that sparks my mind. Pop culture, subculture, people, fashion, TV, manga, everything happening here makes me excited and inspired.

A reason why I am writing in English is, I assume, there are more people who are trying to understand japanese culture outside of japan than within japan.

So let me share my analysis on "modern" Japanese culture, OK?

ANGEL