Manga Before Manga: Japanese Art from the Collection

Journey through centuries of Japanese storytelling to discover the roots of modern manga. Offering historical context for the more than 600 drawings in Art of Manga , this Spotlight installation traces traditions and techniques that shaped the contemporary art form. Twenty-one works from the Brooklyn Museum collection reveal how Japanese artists have used line and form to convey emotion, power, and even sound and motion for more than 900 years. Manga Before Manga celebrates the richness of Japanese narrative imagery, populated by brave heroes, star-crossed lovers, and supernatural beings from literature and legend. Look out for themes and characters that still appear in manga today. You’ll also encounter a 15th-century handscroll featuring graphic devices that foreshadow today’s speech bubbles for dialogue. Find out when the word manga first appeared in the titles of illustrated books, and see a famed example by Katsushika Hokusai. From hand-painted scrolls to glazed porcelain, the works on view show the many ways Japanese artists have told stories through images—and the lasting influence of those approaches on the comics and graphic novels beloved around the world. Museum Spotlights are intimate installations of noteworthy collection works, recent acquisitions, and loans, presented to encourage deeper conversations about art, history, and justice.