https://library.osu.edu/wiki/index.php?title=Jiji_Manga_244
Readers of my other blog about Ohio State’s Manga collection know that we have a large collection of Jiji Manga 時事漫画, published 1921~1931, in the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum. Together with a graduate student assistant, Hyejeong Choi, and other student assistants, I have been working on an index to the issues as part of a wiki project which we call: The Jiji Manga Wiki.
Today we were looking at No. 244, published on December 21, 1925. The full newspaper-sized political cartoon by Kitazawa Rakuten 北澤楽天 (1876-1955) shows a puzzled Santa Claus, wondering how he can possibly fill his bag with the presents that people are requesting.
It is interesting to see what Rakuten imagined as on everyone’s mind around Christmas in 1925:
- A woman in a kimono holds up a banner requesting: “Women’s Suffrage”
- A man in a business suit holds: “A Policy of Mutual Prosperity for Laborers and Capitalists”
- A Chinese man has a scroll saying: “A Peaceful and United Government for the Republic of China”
- An Indian man holds: “An Alliance of Peoples of Color”
- A Western man (Quaker?) holds a scroll: “Armament Reductions by the Powers”
No wonder Santa looked so desparate! That would have been hard for anyone to deliver in 1925/26!
Soon newspapers will be carrying contemporary versions of this cartoon, a holiday perennial. What kinds of requests will the petitioners be bearing in 2010? Santa is definitely going to be scratching his brow once again!
