Manga is a visual form of narrative storytelling, one full of opportunities to engage and extend people’s understanding of the world. Golden Kamuy, currently one of the most popular manga in Japan and increasingly read internationally, reveals a dramatic and inspiring storyline replete with cultural diversity, violence, adventures of survival, love and heart-warming laughter. The compelling storyline reveals the complex history and lifestyles of mainland Japanese settlers and indigenous Ainu people in Hokkaido during the Meiji era.

In this talk, Ōkuma Hakko, editor of Golden Kamuy, will speak about the story behind the creation of this manga and the interactive process of editing it. Kaizawa Tōru, an Ainu artist, will share with us his view on Golden Kamuy and what this manga means for him. Nicole Rousmaniere, curator of the British Museum’s current Citi Exhibition Manga, will talk about her approach to the exhibition, including the use of the image of Asirpa, a young female Ainu character in Golden Kamuy, as the key visual in transmitting her message to a global audience.

About the contributors

Ōkuma Hakko is the editor of the manga series Golden Kamuy by Noda Satoru, published by Shueisha. Since joining Shueisha in 2008, he has worked in the editorial department of Weekly Young Jump. Okuma was involved in the launch of the ground breaking manga website ‘My Neighbour Young Jump’. He is the editor of numerous best-selling manga including the immensely popular One Punch-Man, Himouto! Umaru-chan, Uratarou, Mononogatari, and Akebi-Chan no sailor-fuku.

Kaizawa Tōru is an Ainu artist. His great-grandfather, Kaizawa Utorentoku, was one of two Ainu artists particularly renowned for their artistic skill in the Meiji Era. Whilst valuing the traditions inherited from his great-grandfather, Kaizawa combines them with his own techniques to create original Ainu art which expresses his own personality and ideas. He has won numerous prizes, including the Hokkaido Governor’s Prize at the Hokkaido Ainu Traditional Crafts Exhibition. His work has been exhibited in Japan and abroad, including in the Royal Museum of Alberta, Canada, and the Royal Museum of Scotland. His work is also on display in the British Museum’s Mitsubishi Corporation Japanese Galleries.

Professor Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere was the founding Director of the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures, and is Professor of Japanese Art and Culture at the University of East Anglia. She received her PhD from Harvard University in 1998. She has been the Research Director of the Sainsbury Institute since 2011. She is currently the IFAC Handa Curator of Japanese Arts in the Department of Asia in the British Museum. Her translation of Tsuji Nobuo’s History of Art in Japan was published by Tokyo University Press in 2018 and won the special cultural translation prize from the Japan Society of Translators.

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