Historical romance manga : trends in social attitudes of contemporary Japanese women

Historical romance manga are windows to the contemporary attitudes of women,\ud especially those of which that are illustrated and written by women. My thesis explores\ud the manga of three popular mangaka (???cartoonists???) in order to explore these attitudes:\ud Riyoko Ikeda, Chiho Saitou, and Kaoru Mori. These mangaka each published their\ud manga at different times, and I explore the contemporary attitudes of Japanese women\ud towards work, marriage, love relationships and gender performance and how the\ud highlights of these attitudes change from the 1970s to 2000s while utilizing historical\ud settings, which take place in foreign countries (mostly Western) outside of Japan, or\ud include characters of foreign origin. My thesis discusses how this genre of comics is an\ud expression of Japanese women's values through its storytelling, illustration and narrative\ud style that is it not only of entertainment value, but also a source of validation for Japanese\ud women as their roles continue to change in Japan