Asian Ethnology Podcast

Interview with Yoshiko Okuyama: Reframing Disability in Manga

Interviewer: Mark Bookman

Recorded 3 July 2020

In this episode Yoshiko Okuyama talks about her most recent monograph, Reframing Disability in Manga (University of Hawai’i Press, 2020). Okuyama explains that her work examines representations of disabled people in manga serialized throughout the 1990s and 2000s, focusing on portrayals of deaf, blind, paraplegic, and autistic individuals, as well as those with gender dysphoria. Bookman asks Okuyama about the history behind her project and the logic that guided her decision-making regarding specific manga titles and disability identities. The two also unpack the contributions of Reframing Disability for scholars of gender, disability, and manga.

Publications discussed in this episode

Japanese Mythology in Film: A Semiotic Approach to Reading Japanese Film and Anime., Okuyama, Yoshiko. 2016, Lexington Books.

Reframing Disability in Manga ., Okuyama, Yoshiko. 2020. University of Hawai'i Press.

Disability, Deformity, and Disease in the Grimms' Fairy Tales., Schmiesing, Ann. 2014. Wayne State University Press.

Drawing on Tradition: Manga, Anime, and Religion in Contemporary Japan., Thomas, Jolyon Baraka. 2012. University of Hawai’i Press.

Music used with kind permission of shamisen performer Koji Yamaguchi.