Make serious situation FUN!!

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Image (1)

by Akari Matsumoto

Have you ever seen these pictures (1, 2)? You might have seen them when you were in junior high school or high school. These are helpful materials to understand history. Do you know who drew them? The answer is ... Georges Ferdinand Bigot. He is famous as an caricaturist (3).

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Who is Bigot?

He is from France. He come to Japan as お雇い外国人（Oyatoi-gaikokujin - a foreign expert - Ed).

Why was he interested in Japan?

He studied drawing when he was in France. Through drawing he met people who loved Japanese art. And he saw Ukiyoe (Japanese woodblock prints - Ed) at Paris Exposition.

Then he became interested in Japan.

Did he draw political pictures at first?...No!

He began drawing Japanese daily life at first. It was rare thing because at that time Japanese people didn't care about daily life, because it was too usual so they didn't draw it. What he did next was drawing Government and international relations. At that time there were French people who were interested so he drew pictures for them.

As you know pictures help our imagination. In particular, it's hard to understand politics, so his pictures were good for French people. His pictures include humor like funny comics. It makes people have interest.

His thoughts about Japanese politics

He had opinion about Treaty revision (条約改正). Treaty revision is amending situation that Japan admit Extraterritoriality (治外法権) and doesn't have Tariff autonomy (関税自主権) and so on.

Extraterritoriality meant that Japan couldn't judge if foreigners committed crimes, even though it happened in Japan. Japan has to leave it to the country of the person who committed the crime.

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Tariff autonomy means ability to set tax on trade. At that time, Japan didn't have it, so Japan had to follow tax which other countries set. If I were alive at that time, I might think Japan had to do Treaty revision soon, because I’m Japanese and these treaties are unfair for Japan. Japan didn't have right. On the other hand, Bigot didn't think so. Treaty revision might be not good for foreigners, including Bigot. Finally he left Japan.

His work is not famous in his country France but in Japan, his pictures are so important.

By the way, what do you think stereotype of Japanese people is? You might imagine like this picture (4). Japanese is short, wearing glasses, has an overbite, is working hard and so on. People say these images are made by Bigot.

These two are pictures Bigot drew:

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But Bigot doesn't always drew Japanese like these and make fun of Japanese. He loves Japanese and respect Japanese.

I like Bigot

I like art and history. Sometimes, history is complicated especially world history is hard for me. But thanks to his work, his cartoons, I can understand.



















His cartoon makes serious situation like world relationship fun for example he draws country as person (7). It is easy to understand.

↓ Russia,Japan,UK and USA

Image (7)

One disappointing thing is he didn't understand Treaty revision. I hope he would cooperate with Japanese to do Treaty revision.


References

"Georges Bigot". (n.d.) In Wikipedia. Retrieved January 19, 2015, from
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A7%E3%83%AB%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A5%E3%83%BB%E3%83%93%E3%82%B4%E3%83%BC

Naver Matome, (September 19, 2013). Furansu no Fuushigaka, Georges Bigot ga Mita Nihonjin [Meijijidai] [Japanese people as seen by French caricaturist Georges Bigot - Meiji Period]. Retrieved January 19, 2015, from http://matome.naver.jp/odai/2137904355726810601?&page=1

"Sutereotaipu" [Stereotypes]. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved January 19, 2015, from
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B9%E3%83%86%E3%83%AC%E3%82%AA%E3%82%BF%E3%82%A4%E3%83%97

Georges Ferdinand Bigot

By Minami Kikuchi

Have you ever seen Picture A? Probably, most people have seen this picture in the textbook of history. This picture expresses Japan and China which are going to get Korea, and Russia which plans to seize it, in the Sino-Japanese War age. This picture was drawn by Georges Ferdinand Bigot who is famous as cartoonist, illustrator and artist.

Georges Ferdinand Bigot was born in Paris in 1860. His father was a government official and his mother was a painter. Under the influence of his mother, he began to draw a picture when he was very young. He entered École des Beaux-Arts (School of Fine Arts) in 1872 and studied pictures. However, he quit school in 1876 in order to help the family budget. Then, he began work of the illustration. He went to the salon many times, and he got the knowledge about Japanese arts there. He encountered Ukiyoe [Editor's note: woodblock prints] for the first time in Paris Exposition in 1878, and he got interested in them. In this time, he was already well known to many people in France. However, his thought about Japan was strong so he came to Japan in 1882, when he was 21 years old.

In order to know the life of Japanese people, he did not live in a foreign settlement but he lived in the town in which Japanese people live. Moreover, he went to the licensed quarter (遊郭) often in order to know Japanese society. Based on them, he drew and put many caricatures about Japanese politics in the caricature magazine "TÔBAÉ" which was first published in 1887. After that, his work became stable, and he got married to a Japanese woman in 1894. However, after Japan won the Sino-Japanese War, he started to worry about his livelihood because the photograph developed from that time and work of news painter decreased sharply. Moreover, he held distrust for Japanese administration of justice and police. Therefore, he divorced and returned to France in 1899. He remarried French woman immediately after the homecoming and he died because of a stroke in 1927, when he was 67 years old.

He drew the social trend of Japan of those days which Japanese people did not get interested in because it was too natural for Japanese people to make their subject matter. Therefore, his works has become valuable Japanese data now. The picture which he drew about the Sino-Japanese War often appears in the school history textbook which we used. In his work, there are many picture which are put into two or more segments of frames (コマ) and have a story, like Picture B. Someone said, "He brought the style of the long segment comics of Europe to Japan."

He had dissatisfaction with the Japanese government and there were depictions which can be thought to be government criticism in TÔBAÉ. However, I think that he liked Japanese tradition and culture because it is said that he made the Japanese garden at the house in France and looked at it every day. It may be a reason why he was criticizing Europeanism of Japan strongly, although he loved Japanese culture.

Picture A - Sino-Japanese War

Picture B - Sample of Japanese comic style

References

France no huushi gaka, Georges Bigot ga mita nihonjin [The Japanese which is a French caricaturist Georges Bigot looked at.] (2013, September 9). Yuunayun Retrieved 2013, Jan 6 from http://matome.naver.jp/odai/2137904355726810601

Georges Bigot (2010, October 13). Hongo mura dayori Retrieved 2013, Jan 6 from http://blog.bunsei.co.jp/2010/10/13/%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A7%E3%83%AB%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A5%E3%83%BB%E3%83%93%E3%82%B4%E3%83%BC/

Georges Bigot (2013, May 1). LAMBIEK Retrieved 2013, Jan 6 from http://www.lambiek.net/artists/b/bigot_georges.htm