Kamishibai(Japanese picture-card show) after World War II (by Shinchan)

When there was almost nothing after World War II, one of the pleasures of the children was to watch the "Kamishibai" (a Japanese picture-card show). It visited the children every week and they enjoyed watching Kamishibai very much. The most favorite for the children was the show with the talk and music.

This picture was taken by the Konica camera I bought for the first time in 1950 (Showa year 25).

Shinchan

How do you feel the sincerity of the childrens face? Fee for kamishibai was only 5 yen. Candies, vinegar seaweed or dried cuttlefish were given to children.

They were enjoying the show with hearing the accordion music played by the player. Programs were mainly stories of adventure and so on.

The costumes or dresses of these children were in good order considering the days after the War.

Shinchan

Dear Shinchan

Thank you for your writing.
Quote:Yes they were properly dressed.
And the wooden fence on the back of photo is recently not in use.

I wonder if the girl on front put on the badge of head of class.

Marchan

Marchan, good evening,

You well found the badge of head of class on the chest of the girl. I understand that you have had such an experience of attaching such a badge in your younger days.

Kamishibais program was inspected by GHQ(General Head Quarters)from 1945 to 1950. That inspection was lifted in 1951.

A famous program before the War [Golden Bat] was revived and broadly welcomed.
The current place where this photo was taken is the Hirano honmachi area, Hirano-ku, Osaka-city.
Historically Hirano was not suffered from the war disaster in the Osaka summer battle or winter battle just before the Tokugawa era. And also Hirano did not suffer from the air raid of the second world war.

In old times the Hirano area was called Hirano village. The village was surrounded by ponds and moats. Outside the village there were rivers rice fields and some other fields. Now there is only one pond left and most of the rest of land are now house land.

The underground is now passing near by. No one now hardly believes that the village was surrounded by ponds and rice fields.

There exist a lot of temples and old houses in the central area of Hirano. There are still historical old towns even now.
The photograph was taken around five years after the War.
We can understand the reason why childrens dresses are a little bit in good order.

Thank you very much.

Shinchan

Dear Shinchan,

It is a nice lovely photograph.
For the first time I saw the kamishibai in 1945 just after my repatriation from Korea. The place of my first experience was Yawata, Ichikawa-city, Chibapref..

We children all gathered at the place on the street when we heard the sound kachi kachi of hard wooden clappers.
Programs were action dramas such as [Golden Bat] and also mother's story with calling tears, and the other one. Totally three programs were common.

Two kamishibai men a day were coming. As I was rather poor, I could not buy any candy. A kamishibai man said to me, "You are always a free loader." I was rather uneasy at that time.

Ragora

Dear Ragora, Good morning,

35 children were seen on this photograph. Among the children on the back raw, almost half of them were free loaders. I believe.

This kamishibai man as you saw in the photograph of kamishibai-1, was playing accordion to draw children.
I am sure that he was playing a song of Red Apple.

Shinchan

Dear Shinchan, good day.

A nice photograph is in your hand. It was taken by yourself?
It is a very nicely taken photograph.

I myself saw Kamishibai. It was the time when I returned
from evacuation and lived in Moriguchi-city, Osaka. So it is probably from 1948 to 1949.

When a kamishibai man came, I returned to my home to get 5 yen? I am not sure how many pictures were there in one program. Anyway I had been looking into the program with my heart beating. A story telling always came to an end at the top of our excitement and he said the story would continue to the next performance.

A kamishibai men were selling millet jelly. We believed the millet jelly could be increased by stirring up with half-split chopsticks. After the kamisibai finished, we children usually did such a plaything .

Karei

Dear Karei, good evening,

The time I myself enjoyed kamisibai was around 1939 to 1940. At that time, a fee for kamishibai was only 10 sen.
At that time some sort of the prize contest was there. That was called [katanuki]. We could expect to get a big rice cracker when succeeded. But it was rather difficult to get that prize. Of course we could get candy as a regret prize.

Shinchan

Dear Shinchan, good day,

It is a nice lovely photograph you have had.
Did [kamishibai] still exist until around 1955? In my memory, I enjoyed kamishibai around 1950 to 1951.

I was eagerly awaiting the time for kamishibai coming. And when hearing the sound of hard wooden clappers I rushed to the place on the street.

I remember the fee for the kamishibai was 5 yen. Having pasted white millet jelly on the chopstick, I enjoyed the story with stirring emotions. Looking back from now, I notice that kamisibai man's way of presentation was very much trained and studied. The imitation of voices and so on were properly fitted for the children's feeling.

The other day (in April 2005) I had a chance to see the[kamishibai] performance done by volunteer people at the Tokyo Koganei Park. But to my regret I could not feel such a happy and nice feeling in my younger days.

Anmitsuhime

Dear Anmitsuhime, good day,

By the Korean war in 1950, Japanese economy developed intensively and the shortage of manpower appeared. After around 1950 the kamishibai business rapidly decreased.

One big reason for this was the television. Around 1952 1953 there were not so lots of television at home. But on the street we could watch big town televisions during the broadcasting time and there were lot of people gathered
in front of town televisions. Especially on pro-wrestling [famous wrestler Rikidozan]'s broad casting time, number of grownup people and also children as well came to in front of televisions to support him.

Afterward in 1959 the Royal marriage was taken place. Around that time, black and white televisions of 14 inchs were pervaded to ordinary homes. So it is not necessary for children to see kamishibai on the street but they could see interesting programs in their home's room.

In that way kamishibai's fate naturally had gone to historical one.

Shinchan