On 16 October, Professor Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere delivered a Third Thursday Lecture giving valuable insights into her most recent curatorial project entitled “Art of Manga” at the de Young Museum, which is part of the Fine Art Museums of San Francisco. The exhibition opened to the public on 27 September, and will remain on view until 25 January 2026. The display is centred on an impressive number of 689 individual manga works (genga), created from the 1970s onwards and is accompanied by a vibrant event programme, including among others a discussion with leading Japanese manga and literature experts, a conversation and book signing with Tagame Gengoroh, and cosplay days.
In her lecture, Professor Coolidge Rousmaniere explained her curatorial journey as a guest curator at the de Young Museum, which focused not only on the rich history, range, and impact of manga, but also on its visual storytelling as an art form. Her talk was structured into four parts: First, she drew on the challenges during the curatorial process, which were caused by the strict copyright laws that protect manga illustrations. Following this, she moved to the significance of manga on a global scale, while also shedding light on the particular role of Japanese manga in France. After that, she elaborated on the differences between the The Citi exhibition “Manga” (2019) at the British Museum and “Art of Manga” at the de Young Museum. Lastly, Professor Coolidge Rousmaniere brought attention to the Japanese manga artists (mangaka) who are at the heart of the exhibition: Chiba Tetsuya, Akatsuka Fujio, Takahashi Rumiko, Taniguchi Jiro, Yamazaki Mari, Araki Hirohiko, Yamashita Kazumi, Tagame Gengoroh, Yoshinaga Fumi, Oda Eiichiro, and Tanaami Keiichi.
Professor Coolidge Rousmaniere started her talk with a view behind the scenes that revealed the significant efforts that have gone into assembling the artworks for “Art of Manga.” She exemplified it with the cover art of the catalogue that is published alongside the exhibition: A collage composed of image slices, each showing a character created by the manga artists featured in the exhibition, emphasizing their equal significance. By presenting the long credit line that was necessary solely for the cover, she shared that working on an exhibition that centres around original manga illustrations presents serious challenges, because of the strict copyright restrictions and protections enforced by publishers. What further contributes to the difficulty is the large amount of piracy that leads to illegally distributed materials. This concern is also entangled with the rapid development of artificial intelligence, which is hurting the manga industry and the artists behind the works.
Turning to the importance of manga on a global scale, Professor Coolidge Rousmaniere illustrated how manga has resonated with generations across the globe, by introducing different perspectives, thought provoking aspects, and social commentaries. As one of the examples that are also represented in the exhibition, she introduced One Piece (since 1997) by Oda Eiichiro (born 1975), which is the best-selling manga series in history, and broke numerous World Guiness Records. By showcasing artworks of captain Monkey D. Luffy and his adventurous pirate group created by Oda Eiichiro himself, the exhibition further dives into the hopes and challenges that revolve around the “three Fs” that are paramount to Luffy’s story: food, friends, and freedom.
Moving to France’s deep relationship with manga, Professor Coolidge Rousmaniere elaborated on the importance of Franco-Belgian comics (Bandes dessinées) for the French culture. Indeed, Japanese manga too have a long-standing significance in France, which further reflects in the acceptance and high number of French translations of Japanese works. By emphasizing that manga are “not only entertainment,” she also clarified that they are encompassing subjects that matter to society, such as aging, care homes, or environmental matters, and explore a diverse range of educational or cautionary topics by graphically depicting them. To exemplify the deep connection between French comics and Japanese manga, she addressed the manga series ICARO (1997), which was created by the influential French comic book artist Jean Giraud aka Moebius (1938–2012) and Japanese manga artist Taniguchi Jiro (1947–2017).
Following this, Professor Coolidge Rousmaniere moved on to the difference between “Art of Manga” at the de Young Museum and The Citi exhibition “Manga” at the British Museum. The exhibition at the British Museum was co-curated by her in 2019, alongside Professor Matsuba Ryoko and Uchida Hiromi. This exhibition in London featured over 50 different manga artists and was met with outstanding success. Strikingly, the major difference between the two exhibitions at the British Museum and the de Young Museum is bound to the nature of both museums: While the British Museum is a history museum (hakubutsukan) and uses objects as a springboard to give a closer look at the culture and the conditions of the creator’s environment, the de Young Museum is an art museum (bijutsukan) that focusses on manga works and their artistic impact. As a result, the exhibition at the British Museum highlighted the history of manga and, among others, how they have been accessed across different periods. Furthermore, it integrated a manga bookstore reading section with QR codes for free content, which proved to be one of the most popular sections of the exhibition.
Contrary to the exhibition at the British Museum, “Art of Manga” at the de Young Museum approaches manga as an art form and displays the drawings that are the base of the publications. It has been three years in planning and focusses on the understanding of each artist and their worlds, enabling a deep dive into their imaginaries and visual narratives, by showing nearly 700 original art works in Japanese with translations accessible through QR codes. Professor Coolidge Rousmaniere’s curatorial approach was based on three pillars: The visitor’s experience with the drawings, the narrative beyond the manga frame that transforms the exhibition space through visual elements, and an experiential pillar that includes vending machine-dispensed capsule toys (gashapon), a reading room, and bespoke manga merch. Additionally, it includes a free exhibition on manga production, exploring how manga are created beyond the illustration stage. Each artist is shown slightly differently in every section, which Professor Coolidge Rousmaniere demonstrated by presenting visual impressions of the exhibition rooms and examples of drawings that are shown in them. The artworks cover a broad range of topics and characters by, for example, depicting different spaces and how they transform, narrating the topic of sexuality, investigating alternative realities, questioning the meaning of time and culture, or by portraying a character’s passion for food, which enables the readers to explore different worlds.
Professor Coolidge Rousmaniere ended her lecture with the moving short manga Museum of Palmyra (2016) by Yamazaki Mari, which was commissioned for the exhibition “LOUVRE No. 9 – Manga, the 9th Art” (2016) at the Mori Arts Center Gallery in Tokyo. It is a homage to Professor Khaled al-Asaad, a Syrian archaeologist, who was beheaded due to his refusal to reveal the location of the Palmyra antiquities. The story unfolds through the story of a Syrian man who resides as a refugee in Paris. The last scene shows the young man going to the Louvre and seeing a sculpture of the goddess who revealed herself to him in Palmyra as a child, which finally brings a smile to his face. This emotional and visually compelling scene without words, alongside the other rich examples that were shown in the lecture, clearly underlined the power of manga: The ability to act as a narrative vessel for exploring topics that would perhaps remain silent without their visual language.
Dr. Clara Momoko Geber-Mérida
Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Fellow 2025-2026