The Brush that Lives Between the Coins and the Clouds George Akiyama---1971

The Brush that Lives Between the Coins and the Clouds George Akiyama---1971
George Akiyama is a cartoonist who has continued to confront human desire, hypocrisy, and weakness. His masterpiece "Zengeba," set in Japan at the end of its rapid economic growth, chillingly depicts the reality that money dominates human relationships and happiness. The story of the protagonist, driven by poverty, who willingly chooses any means to reach the top, reveals the essence of a society distorted by the shadow of growth and evokes both discomfort and sympathy in the reader.

Floating Clouds" is a humanistic tale set in an inn town in Edo, centering on the protagonist, Kumo, who goes about his life with an easygoing ease. While borrowing the trappings of a period drama, it weaves in irony toward today's competitive society and normative consciousness, and presents the virtues of a way of life that accepts everyday life as it comes.

Around 1971, Japan was simultaneously experiencing the end of the student movement, the emergence of pollution and overwork deaths, and the expansion of TV commercialism. In the manga world, gekiga and seinen (young men's) magazines were on the rise, and there was a growing demand for realistic depictions of society. Akiyama developed a style that blended extreme violence with detailed psychological depictions and eschewed simple theories of right and wrong.

While his contemporary Go Nagai exaggerated sex and violence, Takao Saito realistically depicted social structures and professionals, and Shotaro Ishimori developed science fiction rich in allegory, Akiyama focused on money and human karma, and managed to combine laughter and sadness on the same page. Akiyama's writing style had reached the realm of "human comedy" that vividly depicted the contradictions of the times.