Emonogatari

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{{Nihongo|Emonogatari|絵物語|4=picture story}} is the Japanese term for a narrative story that contains a very high proportion of illustrations.{{Cite web |last=Holmberg |first=Ryan |date=2011-11-17 |title=Emonogatari in the Age of Comics, 1948-1957 |url=https://www.tcj.com/emonogatari-in-the-age-of-comics-1948-1957/ |access-date=2025-05-10 |website=The Comics Journal |language=en-US}} Alternatively, it could be said{{by whom|date=May 2025}} to be a picture book with a larger amount of text{{Cite book |last=Suzuki |first=Shige (CJ) |url=https://www.google.com.br/books/edition/Manga/3_x9EAAAQBAJ?hl=pt-BR&gbpv=1&dq=emonogatari&pg=PA58&printsec=frontcover |title=Manga: A Critical Guide |last2=Stewart |first2=Ronald |date=2022-09-22 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-350-07236-7 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Lunning |first=Frenchy |url=https://www.google.com.br/books/edition/Mechademia_7/bA41EAAAQBAJ?hl=pt-BR&gbpv=1&dq=emonogatari&pg=PT110&printsec=frontcover |title=Mechademia 7: Lines of Sight |date=2012-10-30 |publisher=U of Minnesota Press |isbn=978-1-4529-3331-3 |language=en}} or a manga where the pictures and text have been separated. The boundaries between these genres are extremely vague, and it is not uncommon for the same work to change from an emonogatari to a manga, or vice versa, during its serialization.{{cn|date=May 2025}}

The term {{lang|ja-Latn|emonogatari}} can be seen in works such as Ippei Okamoto's Chinsuke Emonogatari (Ryoyu, 1917) and Manga Emonogatari (Collection of Elementary School Students, Bungeishunju, 1929). However, during the war, there were also examples of the use of {{lang|ja-Latn|emonogatari}} instead of manga to improve the impression made by censors.{{Cite book |title=マンガの昭和史 |publisher=武田ランダムハウスジャパン |year=2008 |page=30 |isbn=978-4-270-00383-1}} It was especially popular around and after the time of World War II. In most cases, the illustrations and text are both written by the same artist, and some works even have speech bubbles in the illustrations, so the work is sometimes considered a type of manga.{{cn|date=May 2025}}

Its origins date back to an editor at the magazine Shōnen Club who proposed a form of reading material called a "magazine {{lang|ja-Latn|kamishibai}}", to {{lang|ja-Latn|kamishibai}} writer Yamakawa Soji, and Yamakawa wrote the rough outline of the story as a {{lang|ja-Latn|kamishibai}} to be read by oneself. The first clearly identifiable work dates from the 1930s ("Shonen Club" magazine, July 1939 issue, Senbu no yuchi (宣撫の勇士;"The Warrior of Pacification").{{cn|date=May 2025}}

Emonogatari writers are often also kamishibai artists, illustrators, animators and manga artists. Representative authors include Sōji Yamakawa and Shigeru Komatsuzaki.Osamu Tezuka, who created the foundations of Japanese manga expression, and anime creator Hayao Miyazaki also left behind works in the form of emonogatari. Although the golden age of emonogatari was a short period in the 1950s and 60s, it is said to have influenced the "gekiga" (dramatic comics) that appeared in the 1960s and 70s.