Brief
My school set a character design brief for us to follow a challenge created by Suzanne Helmigh, The brief was to create a cast of characters inspired by Feudal Japan from a list of roles (Samurai, Shogun, Daimyo, Ninja, Peasant, Folklore Ghost, Geisha and Emperor.)
Each character will tell their own story with their clothing, adornments, and gestures. You will need to tell a compelling story that draws us into the time, the people and the drama of the feudal society of Japan (1185-1603). Most of the character designs for the challenge can be male or female.
Characters must be unique and not variations of one design.
Research
To begin my research i wanted to focus on how i would be formatting the final deliverables and decided i would use Japanese alphabet as well as the usage of Kanji.Within traditional Japanese work, the usage of both of the alphabets (Hiragana and Katakana) is used, Hiragana is the more traditional alphabet, where as katakana is mostly used for words used from other languages, for example hotel translates to ホテル,pronounced “Hoteru” therefore the alphabet used it Katakana as the word was directly taken from English.
Focusing on reach and demographic
When approaching the brief i wanted to approach relevance to modern Japan and what is happening politically and socially. The biggest political change i came across was dated to 22nd of March of 2021 which stated “Japan’s court rules same sex marriage ban unconstitutional”, this piece of news is huge progress from japan politically and many Japanese lgbt citizens have expressed there joy at the announcement, even if conformation of the ban being abolished has yet to be confirmed.
Therefore for a part of my demographic i would like to focus a part of my research on lgbt areas and subcultures within Japan.
With this i felt that it was necessary to research the general class system in Japan during the time i am focusing on for the brief.
“Japanese social class: The peasants in Japan were of the highest rank in the lower class, just underneath the Noble class (daimyo, samurai). The reason that they were the highest, rather than craftsmen or merchants was because they produced food that the upper classes were depended on.”
For my final piece i really wanted to re enforce this class system within feudal japan using visual aspects, such as form and clothing choices. For now i plan on doing three characters which i think could cover different perspectives of this class system, all surrounded by the area of district two. (I will be doing mainly a folklore character but will also plan for a peasant character and a Shogun character.)
Queer Coding
Considering i’m not intending to make a queer piece of media through explicit description, i wanted to used subtextual coding for one of my characters, i decided to focus on the folklore character for this as i am focusing on district two in japan. The vague concept have so far is around a spirit that lurks around district two and instead of the spirit being confirmed as gay i wanted to use visual subtext to show that he is queer by using the research i have gathered.
I’m going to be using the delinquent trope to show this and i hope that i can deliver this well through this characters development. Examples of this from Japanese Media include:
Inspiration
Katsushika Hokusai (葛飾 北斎, c. 31 October 1760 – 10 May 1849), known simply as Hokusai, was a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period.Hokusai is best known for the woodblock print series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji which includes the internationally iconic print The Great Wave off Kanagawa.
Hokusai created the monumental Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji both as a response to a domestic travel boom in Japan and as part of a personal obsession with Mount Fuji. It was this series, specifically The Great Wave of Kanagawa and Fine Wind, Clear Morning, that secured his fame both in Japan and overseas. While Hokusai’s work prior to this series is certainly important, it was not until this series that he gained broad recognition.
For my own piece i wanted to take inspiration from Hokusai’s colour palette and usage of traditional art features as i want to attempt to use the hiragana and kanji in my final piece and i think an aspect of traditional Japanese art would be a nice touch. I like the eerie sense of form that the artist has created and i would like to use this same sense of unease for my folklore character. I like the muted colour palette which gives the pieces a bleak feel, i would like to use these aspects in my own piece to create a similar feel
Junji Ito (Japanese: 伊藤 潤二, Hepburn: Itō Junji, born July 31, 1963) is a Japanese horror mangaka. Some of his most notable works include Tomie, a series chronicling an immortal girl who drives her stricken admirers to madness; Uzumaki, a three-volume series about a town obsessed with spirals; and Gyo, a two-volume story where fish are controlled by a strain of sentient bacteria called “the death stench.” His other works are Itou Junji Kyoufu Manga Collection, a collection of different short stories including a series of stories named Souichi’s Journal of Delights, and Junji Ito’s Cat Diary: Yon & Mu, a self-parody about him and his wife living in a house with two cats.”- Junji Ito Wikipedia Page
From Junji ito’s art style in particular i was inspired by the textural aspect as well as the level of detail which i hope to obtain in my own project, my work will not be in black and white however i still want to achieve the same sort of grain effect on my shading using stippling or cross hatching. I like how he uses expression and form to create a strong sense of emotion, especially feelings of dejection and loneliness. I wanted to use this sort of expression to create that same sense of emotion. Junji Ito uses minimal colour atop of grayscale to create a strong sense of hopelessness and misergy. For a dejected child i think this sort of feeling would be beneficial to create.
