The Four Immigrants Manga
Saturday, September 19, 1 pm
One of the first comic books in the U.S., “Manga Yonin Shosei” (or The Four Student Worker’s Manga”) by Henry (Yoshitaka) Kiyama was first exhibited in San Francisco in 1927, and published as a comic book in 1931. Nearly forgotten for fifty years, “The Four Immigrants Manga”, translated by Frederik L. Schodt has become an engaging teaching resource on Japanese American immigrant history. 
The book chronicles the adventures of four Japanese immigrants in a world of possibility and prejudice in turn-of-the-twentieth-century San Francisco. Henry (Yoshitaka) Kiyama, arrived in San Francisco in 1904, to study fine art. He primarily focused on landscapes and portraits, and exhibited his work widely.
Frederik Schodt is a veteran author, translator, and interpreter. Fluent in spoken and written Japanese, he has written extensively on Japanese manga, as well as on pop culture, technology, and history. In 2006 he received the Japanese Government’s Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette, for helping to promote Japanese popular culture in North America.