Meiji, Taisho, Showa
My favourite Japanese era is Taisho, as you might know. Without this short period of social radicalism, political turmoil, democratic experiments and general cultural craziness, the early 20th century history of Japan would look unbearably monolithic. Of course, the other epochs have their charm, as well as their dark sides, but they lasted much longer (Meiji 1868-1912; Showa 1926-1989). In Suehiro Maruo’s darkly surrealist short comic below, the three older eras - dressed in old-fashioned high school uniforms - gang up on the yet unborn Heisei era.
The Same Hat blog is a new discovery, an English-language blog that posts translations of unique and bizarre Japanese comics. One of its main stars, Suehiro Maruo, is strongly inspired by the aesthetics of the 1920’s and 1930’s, as well as the pulp fiction woodcuts of the Meiji period (his official website’s name is Maruo Jigoku - Maruo Hell! (In other words, Not Safe For Work. Unless you’re an academic or a publisher, of course…)