Publishing companies in Osaka were located in today's Shinsaibashi area. There was a place like Tokyo's Jinbocho in Shinsaibashi. The number of bookshops there in the Showa era was about one third of the number in Tokyo. There were many akahon shops, probably around 100 or so. There were akahon publishing companies, as opposed to major publishing companies such as Shogakukan, Kodansha and Shueisha. Let me show you what an akahon looked like. Apart from picture books for children and manga books, akahon included pocket-size books and records of historical narratives. This particular book is 'Tetsuwan Osho' featuring Miyoshi Harumi Nyudo who was one of the Sanada Jyuyushi (The Ten Heroes of Sanada). This was published in January 1949, so for all we know 'Tetsuwan Atomu' might have taken ideas from this (laughter). This was published from Maruyama Tokodo. The book's author was Masaoka Iruru. It was republished after the war, but the original edition was published during the war in 1943. It was dramatized as a theatrical production after the war by Enoken Ichiza and Enomoto Kenichi's drawings were included in the reprint editions. Incidentally, the cover of the book was designed by Tsuzuki Michio, the mystery writer.

 In this way, akahon publishing included a variety of genres. Some of the sales and distribution of akahon were of course done by agents, but there were also salesmen who directly created clients by carrying samples all around the country. Clients were sent monthly catalogues and ordered by referring to the catalogues. They could get a discount by buying several volumes in a set. If they bought a lot more, they would be granted a bonus. Therefore, in terms of average prices before the war, if the regular price was 30 sen, initial investment could be recovered even if one sold it for 10 sen by getting bonuses and discounts from large scale purchases. Such a book would usually be sold for 15 sen. Thus, since one could get a profit by selling a book with a price marked as 30 sen for 10 sen, the profit would be 5 sen if it were sold for 15 sen.

 In Japan in those days, there were many places with no bookshops. In such places, miscellaneous stores for children sold manga alongside erasers, notebooks and pencils. There were also private akahon sellers. They carried books wrapped in cloth on to a train or ferryboat. The passengers in most cases had a lot of time on their hands so they bought akahons to pass the time if the seller came around saying, 'Only such and such price for this akahon!' They were sold with 20% discount from the official bookshop price. At that time, only prefectural capitals and big cities had regular bookshops, and there were only several thousand bookshops in the entire country (there are 20,000 today). Akahon was also sold in regular bookshops, but it was too troublesome to go to a bookshop and buy it. Besides the bookshops sold them at the official price, so it was easier and cheaper to buy them from private akahon sellers. Kodansha's Shonen Club was rather expensive, and it was cheaper to buy picture books of the akahon publisher Enomotohoreikan. But books sold in standard bookshops were prestigious. It is rather like the high status attached to films shown in the cinema or digitalized broadcasting on television and many DVDs and videos of such films being sold as a result.

　

 Picture story show was entertainment for the masses using the paper media. No significant material of street picture story shows in the pre-war period has been discovered. Picture story shows for propagating national policies were very popular during the war and approximately 450 works were produced. It was very effective to show picture stories of national policy propaganda when appealing to children and the masses. So there was a lot of picture story shows before the war. Picture story shows seem to have originated from tatebanko and nishikikagee which were popular from the end of the Edo period. Tatebanko was a three dimensional paper toy of kabuki stage and a popular paper media entertainment for adults. Nishikikagee was a kind of magic lantern. Some people say that it was an Edo or Meiji version of animation. Nozokikarakuri (moving picture box) was also very popular.

 These were combined to form picture story shows which became illustrated stories when magazines appeared. Explanations written behind the pictures came to be written next to the pictures on the front side around 1935. I think it can be proved that many picture story shows were performed on the streets from around that time. After the war, illustrated stories of 'Ogon Bat' (Goldent Bat) and 'Shonen Oja' (Boy King) which were adapted from picture story shows became great hits. For example, the main attraction of the magazine Boken Katsugeki Bunko, which became very popular after the war and on which Shonen Gaho came to be based later on, was the then popular 'Ogon Bat' by Kata Koji and Nagamatsu Takeo, and the rest of the magazine contained just illustrated stories. When Shogakukan had financial problems after the war, Aiga, the director of the company three generations ago, suggested the idea of publishing illustrated stories books in the hope that they would be successful due to the popularity of picture story shows. However, since Shogakukan was considered to be a publisher of good quality magazines and books for children, the company members reacted, 'How can we publish such picture story shows in our company?' However, Aiga said, 'This is not the time for us to be saying such things. Let's just do it' and they published Omoshiro Manga Bunko (Amusing Manga Library) and Omoshiro Book (Amusing Books) from Shueisha. Shueisha used to be an individual bookstore within Shogakukan. It also published 'Songoku' which was a manga version of Yamane Hifumi's popular picture story show. Adopting popular works of picture story shows into manga and transforming artists of picture story shows into manga authors was a major trend.

 Another trend was appointing manga authors from akahon manga. Tezuka Osamu began his career in the akahon manga industry in Osaka and his debut work was 'Shintakarajima' (New Treasure Island). When he took 'Shintakarajima' to publishing companies in Tokyo, however, many of them did not take him seriously. This was because in those days publishing companies in Tokyo did not suddenly take on newcomers. People who wanted to become manga authors usually had 3 options. First was to take a correspondence course; second was to become an established manga author's disciple; and third was to get into a publishing company and start by drawing sketches. Anyone who appeared out of the blue saying that he wanted to draw a long piece of work like Tezuka was not taken seriously.

 In those days, there were no advertisements for newcomers and unsolicited manuscripts were not welcome. Not many pages in a magazine were allocated to manga either. In children's magazines before the war, there were only a total of about 20 pages allocated to manga. Even the famous 'Norakuro' only had 8 pages per edition. If one went to publishing companies and presented a long piece of manga, they would not readily publish it. Moreover, there was a shortage of paper just after the war, and number of pages in a magazine was usually fixed at 16 or 24.

 However, manga books were published in Osaka at that time, so the publishing companies needed works consisting of several pages. Authors like Tezuka met this requirement. Moreover, publishing companies in Osaka, especially those in the akahon business, were simply concerned about the sales and hardly considered whether or not their products were good for children's education. They rather heedlessly published all kinds of things with an attitude that it was alright as long as the children were happy and the books sold well. Under these circumstances, Tezuka wrote many works in the Osaka akahon manga industry and captured young fans. These children then started writing letters to the magazine departments of major publishing companies asking, 'Why are works of Tezuka Osamu not published?' As a result, the editors could no longer ignore Tezuka's presence. There is a well known story that when Tezuka Osamu was first sent from Osaka to the editorial department of Manga Shonen to interview Ishida Eisuke, Kato Kenichi, the chief editor, let him inside, saying, 'Oh, so you are Tezuka, come in.' Kato probably knew Tezuka's name and had taken notice of him but did not know how to contact him because Tokyo and Osaka were far apart in terms of both distance and market. From another point of view, however, we could say that Tezuka was able to draw freely because he was in Osaka. If he had hastily gone to Tokyo, he would probably have had to adjust to the manga style of Tokyo. He worked in Osaka for 3 to 4 years from around the time he drew 'Shintakarajima' in 1947. During that time, he had the chance to create and present his own world of long feature manga through trial and error.

 There was also a multiple structure in terms of distribution that applied to akahon publishing which I have already mentioned. The rental library market thrived in the early 1950s. Wakagi Shobo was a rental library publisher in Tokyo. It began by publishing for Tetsudo Kosaikai (Railway Cooperatives) but also published books for rental libraries. There were approximately 3,000 rental libraries in the whole country (mostly in city centers). This meant that at least 3,000 copies would be sold. 15,000 copies of popular manga would be sold since each library stocked around 5 copies. In practice, there were first-hand, second-hand and third-hand shops. Markets were set up for purchasing used books cheaply, since the shelves would get full and some books would no longer be required. There was a system in which used rental books would be stocked in second-hand and third-hand shops. There were approximately 100 akahon publishing companies in total in Tokyo and Osaka, and these were also involved in publishing rental books. Authors who had developed their skills in this market became exciting newcomers for the major publishing companies in the center that published manga magazines. Saito Takao and Umezu Kazuo appeared as newcomers in the comic boom among rental manga books in the mid-1950s. They became the driving forces in the rapid rise of Shonen Magazine in the early 1960s. The role of nurturing newcomers was eventually taken over by monthly manga magazines, such as Garo and Com, and subsequently by third rate erotic comics. Talented manga artists, for example, Ishii Takashi and Nojo Junichi, emerged from there. Hence, in those days, major publishing companies could discover new manga authors from rental libraries or sign up authors contributing in the monthly manga magazine Garo. Thus the advantage of a double market was that any number of authors could be supplied and there was no need for publishing companies to nurture authors themselves.