And now for something completely different — Shôchan no bôken [the adventures of Sho-chan].
Shôchan no bôken Is a vintage MANGA character created in Japan. His first adventure appeared in 1923. He is a youngster, perhaps middle school age, Shochan is described as a “youth journalist” whose assignments take him around the world and get him into all kinds of predicaments. Shochan’s boon companion is a talking squirrel named Risu who helps the boy navigate the magical kingdoms they visit.
[Note: In English may be found with various spellings, sometimes hyphenated.]
Readers first meet Shochan walking by himself in the mountains, when he comes upon a squirrel trapped underneath a branch. "Poor thing!" the boy exclaims, "Don't cry!" and rescues it. To thank him, Risu offers to take the boy to some "interesting places." The squirrel leads Shochan to a hollow tree, the entrance to another world.
Adventures ensue.and many — perhaps most — of their adventures include encounters with other talking animals. The pair frequently come to the aid of animals and in turn enlist their aid, from friendly barnyard animals to wild birds, squirrels, mice, eagles, and even a camel.
Further adventures follow after the fold, but first let’s pause for a brief advertisement from the management with the rulz:
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All the images here are from the Spencer Collection at the New York Public Library Digital Collections, one of the foremost collections of Japanese illustrated books in the West. Given that this is the Peeps, I have randomly selected drawings featuring animals. There are apparently no translated editions, so we will just have to guess about the adventures of our intrepid heroes.
The adventures are fantastical, sending the pair up mountains or into raging rivers, into royal courts, into military circles, into Shinto monasteries, into fantastical lands and even into heaven where the pair are saved by a falling star. Shochan skis, rides horses, goes to school. He is comfortable in city and country and wilderness. They engage in traditional society and activities, yet Shochan is a thoroughly modern boy in a stylish Western-style wardrobe. The traveling companions fly planes, ride trains, and are even driven in a chauffeured limo.
The comic first appeared on January 25, 1923 on the children’s page of the Osaka newspaper Asahi Graph. They were the brainchild of the Ashi Simbun Publishing Company, a publisher of children’s books. The creators were Katsuichi Kabashima (1888-1963), a pioneering Japanese comic book artist and woodblock illustrator, and writer Oda Nobutsune (aka Oda ShÅ�sei) (1889-1967).
The authors divided the story into four panel segments, which were printed daily and then collected and published in colored comic books for children. The comic was short-lived. The strip ended in 1925 when the artist left the Asahi staff. Nevertheless, they were wildly popular and generated an array of themed products, including toys and Shochan’s signature red hat.
The huge appeal to children and the merchandising that followed was a sign of the emerging modern mass culture in the early 20th century Japan during the short-lived vibrant democracy of the Taisho period (1910-1926) with its fledgling working class and feminist movements. While Shochan was not intended to be political, it can be read as both a nod to the Sho (the imperial family) and traditional literary elements while at the same time being thoroughly modern. It was, in fact, primarily commercial — which makes it very modern indeed.
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