漫画

Chinese

For pronunciation and definitions of 漫画 – see 漫畫 (“comics; caricature; cartoon; manga; manhwa; manhua”). (This term is the simplified form of 漫畫).
Notes: Simplified Chinese is mainly used in Mainland China, Malaysia, and Singapore. Traditional Chinese is mainly used in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.

Japanese

Japanese Wikipedia has an article on:

漫画

Wikipedia ^ja

English Wikipedia has an article on:

Manga

Wikipedia

Kanji in this term
漫	画
まん Grade: S	が Grade: 2
goon

Alternative spelling
漫畫 (kyūjitai)

Etymology

/manɡwa/ → /manɡa/

Coined in Japan of Middle Chinese‐derived elements, as a compound of 漫(まん) (man, “as one pleases”) + 画(が) (ga, “picture”).^[1]

The sense of a drawing first appears in 1798 in the foreword to Santō Kyōden's picture book 四(し)時(じの)交(ゆき)加(かい) (Shiji no Yukikai), already using the modern shinjitai spelling of 漫画.^[2]

The archaic sense of “Eurasian spoonbill” is attested even earlier in the 1778 medical text 薬(やく)品(ひん)手(て)引(びき)草(ぐさ) (Yakuhin Tebikigusa).

In the late nineteenth century, the term was repurposed as a translation for the English word caricature. This shift was led by artists such as Imaizumi Ippyō and Kitazawa Rakuten to elevate satirical drawings (formerly known as ポンチ絵(え) (ponchi-e)) into a professional art form. It later expanded to encompass sequential “comics” as that medium gained popularity in the early twentieth century.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): [mã̠ŋɡa̠]
Audio: (file)
(Tokyo) まんが [màńgá] (Heiban – [0])^[3]^[4]

(Kyōto) まんが (Kōki – [0])

Noun

漫(まん)画(が) or 漫画(マンガ) • (manga) ^{←まんぐわ (mangwa)^?}

(drawing, painting) a drawing or painting made as one pleases without restraint, such as those by Hokusai
- 1799, Santō Kyōden, 四時交加:
  平常在^㆓舗中^㆒凭^㆑梧、偶漫^㆘画（マングㇵし）夫貴賤士女老少等所^㆖交^㆓加于大路^㆒
  Usually I am in the shop leaning against my desk; occasionally I casually sketch the high and low, men and women, young and old, as they cross paths on the main road.
- 1906, Natsume Sōseki, Kusamakura:
  北斎ほくさいの漫画も全く此この動どうの一字いちじで失敗しっぱいして居いる
  Even Hokusai's sketches completely fail on this one word of ‘motion’.
(art) a caricature (pictorial representation of someone or something for comic effect)
- 1920, Terada Torahiko, 自画像:
  或は其の点に行くと却って日本画の似顔とか或は漫画のカリカチュアの方が見込がありさうに思はれた
  Or perhaps, when it comes to that point, it seemed that Japanese‐style portraits or comic caricatures actually held more promise.
- 1924, Hosokibara Seiki, 日本漫画史:
  漫画は人世の機微に喰ひ入って其実相を穿つを第一義に置き、美を其次ぎに置く丈の相違である
  The only difference is that manga places primary importance on biting into the subtleties of human life and exposing its true reality, placing beauty secondary.
a comic (cartoon story)
(archaic) synonym of 篦鷺 (herasagi, “Eurasian spoonbill”) (Platalea leucorodia)

Usage notes

All comics in general are called 漫画 (manga) in Japanese. In other countries, the romanization manga is typically used for comics produced primarily for the Japanese market.
While the kanji spelling 漫画 is the standard formal orthography, the term is frequently written in katakana as マンガ to refer specifically to the modern pop‐culture medium of comics. It may also be written in hiragana as まんが to impart a softer, more accessible tone, particularly in children’s media or to evoke nostalgia.

Derived terms

漫(まん)画(が)本(ほん) (mangahon), 漫(まん)画(が)本(ぼん) (mangabon)
漫(まん)画(が)家(か) (mangaka)
漫(まん)画(が)字(じ) (mangaji)
4(よん)コマ漫(まん)画(が) (yon-koma manga)

Descendants

→ Cantonese: 漫畫 / 漫画 (maan⁶ waa^6-2)
→ Danish: manga
→ English: manga, mangwa (obsolete)
- → Hindi: मांगा (māṅgā), माँगा (māṅgā), मैंगा (maiṅgā)
→ French: manga
→ German: Manga
→ Hakka: 漫畫 / 漫画 (man-fa, mang-ká)
→ Hokkien: 漫畫 / 漫画 (bān-ōa, bān-ūi, bān-ōe, bàng-gà)
→ Khmer: ម៉ានហ្គា (maan-gaa)
→ Indonesian: manga
→ Korean: 만화 (manhwa)
- → English: manhwa
- → French: manhwa
- → Russian: ма́нхва (mánxva)
- → Ukrainian: ма́нхва (mánxva)
→ Macedonian: манга f (manga)
→ Mandarin: 漫畫 / 漫画 (mànhuà)
- → English: manhua
- → French: manhua
- → Russian: маньхуа́ (manʹxuá)
- → Ukrainian: маньхуа́ (manʹxuá), ма́ньхва (mánʹxva)
→ Mongolian: манга (manga)
→ Portuguese: mangá, manga (Portugal)
→ Russian: ма́нга (mánga)
- → Bashkir: манга (manga)
- → Tatar: манга (manğa)
→ Tamil: மங்கா (maṅkā)
→ Thai: มังงะ (mang-ngá)
→ Ukrainian: ма́нґа (mánga)
→ Vietnamese: mạn hoạ
→ Wu: 漫畫 / 漫画

References

^ Yoshiko Fukushima (2013), Manga Discourse in Japan Theatre, →ISBN, page 19
^ 山東京伝 (Santō Kyōden) (1798), 四時交加 (Shiji no Yukikai) [Four-o'clock Traffic], 鶴屋喜右衛門 (Tsuruya Kiemon) Relevant text shown towards the bottom of the second column from the right in the online copy (in Japanese) in the collection of the 国立国会図書館 (Kokuritsu Kokkai Toshokan, “National Diet Library”) (accessed 2018-11-07).
^ Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN
^ NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute, editor (1998), NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 [NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary] (in Japanese), Tokyo: NHK Publishing, Inc., →ISBN

“漫画”, in 漢字ぺディア [Kanjipedia]‎^[1] (in Japanese), The Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation, 2015–2026
Ineko Kondō, Fumi Takano, Mary E. Althaus, et al. (2002), Shogakukan Progressive Japanese-English Dictionary, third edition, Tokyo: Shōgakukan, →ISBN

[1] Yoshiko Fukushima (2013), Manga Discourse in Japan Theatre, →ISBN, page 19

[2] 山東京伝 (Santō Kyōden) (1798), 四時交加 (Shiji no Yukikai) [Four-o'clock Traffic], 鶴屋喜右衛門 (Tsuruya Kiemon) Relevant text shown towards the bottom of the second column from the right in the online copy (in Japanese) in the collection of the 国立国会図書館 (Kokuritsu Kokkai Toshokan, “National Diet Library”) (accessed 2018-11-07).

[DJR-3] Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN

[NHK-4] NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute, editor (1998), NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 [NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary] (in Japanese), Tokyo: NHK Publishing, Inc., →ISBN

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