Kamishibai is a form of Japanese street theater and storytelling that was popular during the Great Depression of the 1930s and the post-war period in Japan until the advent of television during the mid-20th century. Kamishibai were performed by a kamishibaiya who travelled to street corners with sets of illustrated boards that they placed in a miniature stage-like device and narrated the story by changing each image.
A kamishibaiya (kamishibai artist) in Tokyo.
A kamishibai storyteller at Kiyomizu-dera
Boards for the story "Shimizu Taemon Died at his Post"
Illustrated handscrolls, emakimono , or emaki (絵巻) is an illustrated horizontal narration system of painted handscrolls that dates back to Nara-period Japan. Initially copying their much older Chinese counterparts in style, during the succeeding Heian (794–1185) and Kamakura periods (1185–1333), Japanese emakimono developed their own distinct style. The term therefore refers only to Japanese painted narrative scrolls.
Detail from the Genji Monogatari Emaki, a classic 12th century emakimono of the imperial court
Detail of calligraphy of the Genji Monogatari Emaki, on richly decorated paper
Example of a complete scroll of an emakimono, the Ippen Shōnin Eden (seventh scroll, 1299, Tokyo National Museum). Reading direction is from right to left. Traditionally, the reader never fully unwinds the roll, but unwinds it with one hand while rewinding it with the other, learning the story piecemeal.
Illustrated Sutra of Cause and Effect [fr], 8th century