Le immagini non illustrano il testo,
i testi non illustrano le immagini.
(Roland Barthes)
(21)

Sei in grado
di ascoltare il
suono di due
mani quando le
battiamo.

Ora dimmi,
qual è il suono di
una mano sola?

(87)

Antico stagno,
si tuffano le rane,
rumor d'acqua.

(Basho)

(156)

Steli di iris
ai piedi intreccerò
come lacci di sandali.

(Basho)

(157) ( )

I would recommended this book to all the people on here who read manga. Okay, the only manga I actually read is Tezuka, but I liked this book because this is more about the making of a manga. You begin to appreciate all the early manga too. It's an art form that over here in the states kind of gets distorted. Good manga doesn't have to have robots and overly excited characters.

This comic is a travel memoir though more than about manga. I've never been to Japan, but I feel like I was there with the photo-like ages and his descriptions. It could be that this is by a foreigner too and not someone from Japan. He lived there for sometime it shows, so it was interesting reading about his views vs. Japan's views.

One reason I bought this is because I was browsing in the book store and saw not only Tezuka, but also Mishima, Tanizaki, and Miyazaki. All of things I love about Japan. I really liked what he said about Mishima too, pointing out how his is a complex mind. This book goes into a bunch history too. ( )

What a wonderful immersion in the Japanese world, through the eyes of an amazing Italian, Igort, the famous comic artist and illustrator that I found out about when I picked this book in February this year in Dussmann, in Berlin.

He touches on things that are widely known outside of Japan, from the meticulousness of the Japanese and what Iki means, to stories about Hokusai, Mishima, and even Miyaazaki, whom he met on an afternoon that he calls the most carefree of all his life. But he also touches on things I haven't heard much about, like Japanese directors of B movies that he was very fond of or the story of Sade Abe, a prostitute with a tragic story.


The book is in itself a beautiful object, with fabulous drawings. ( )

Nippon mon amour, sul filo della memoria. Avvolgente. ( )

Japanese Notebooks is a graphic memoir by Igort, an Italian comics creator, who has traveled to Japan twenty times, lived there for a time and worked in its manga industry for ten years. It's a testament to his life long love affair with Japan. Igort shows how he learned to live and work in Japan, found inspiration from the cultural activities that he participated in, as well as how the comics industry operates there.

This is a beautifully illustrated book. Most of the drawings have been done in color and show the author immersing himself in Japanese culture and life. When he arrives in Tokyo he must adjust to living in the tiny 150 square foot apartment that he was given to live in. He then has a three and a half hour job interview. Later he realizes that in Japan the interviewee should be the first person to stand up, signaling the end of the interview. In the west, its the opposite. The Japanese person interviewing him thought that he was trying to negotiate a larger salary by not ending the interview. In his free time Igort visited Buddhist temples, tea shops, gardens, a sumo wrestling training place and book stores. He discussed with this Japanese co-workers the samurai code, films, literature and manga, all subjects that he illustrates in the book.

The author writes so lovingly about Japan that it makes the reader want to jump on a plane and visit the country too. If that is not possible, there is this armchair traveler book called Japanese Notebooks. ( )