The Belgian Comic Strip Center - Museum Brussels

Japan, land of the rising sun, has a fascinating history, culture and traditions. It is famous for its prints, culinary art and martial arts. The geisha, another of the country’s symbols, embodies the image of beauty and respect for the ancestral codes and values. In exhibiting a selection of boards from Geisha ou le jeu du shamisen in its Gallery, the Comics Art Museum take us on a journey back in time through an album that is sublime and elegant. Christian Durieux’s understated, subtle illustrations add great depth to Christian Perrissin’s script, both combining to recreate a period and its landscape through which we learn about the geishas’ strict daily routine. With sensitivity, they tell the story of one of them, a shamisen player. Through this exhibition, the Comic Art Museum is delighted to pay tribute to the work of publisher Futuropolis and introduce visitors to a powerful story, a remarkable portrait of a woman and an era.  

Mélanie Andrieu, Comics Art Museum

Japan. The 1920s. Setsuko Tsuda has reached the age of 18 and completed her geisha apprenticeship. She specialises in playing the shamisen, a three-string guitar which accompanies geisha singing, and practices on the mountain with Okaa-san, the geisha who taught her to play, who has fallen seriously ill. Setsuko meets a student whose imagination and love of life fascinate her and open doors to a world she could never have imagined… Far from the Okiya, the young woman will take stock of her life and her profession.

The geisha world is charged with images and fantasies which are already very present in the western imagination but Durieux and Perrissin have avoided the pitfalls of historical caricature. The character of “the Fox” is so vivid that Geisha could be based on a true story.  They have succeeded in portraying this extremely strict society with sensitivity in the second, and last, of the two-part story of a country which is opening up to other customs through the face of a young girl who is finding her freedom.

Born in Brussels in 1965, Christian Durieux is a Franco-Belgian illustrator known for his many stylistic experiments. He has also produced comic strip albums for young people.

Born in 1964, Christian Perrissin is a French scriptwriter and illustrator. As a student at the Duperré School of Applied Arts in Paris, he wrote for television and published his first comic strip album in 1992. Martha Jane Cannary was awarded at the Comic Strip Festivals of Saint-Malo (F)  and Angoulême (F) in 2009.

Futuropolis Publishers

With the Support of the Brussels-Capital Region