Kingu (magazine)
Monthly general interest magazine in Japan (1924-1957)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kingu (キング; King) was a monthly general interest and entertainment magazine published in Tokyo, Japan, which existed between December 1924 and January 1957. It was the first popular best-selling Japanese magazine.[1] It was also one of two most significant magazines in mid-twentieth century Japan, the other one being Ie no Hikari.[2]
History and profile
Kingu was established in December 1924.[3][4] The first issue appeared in January 1925.[5][6] It was the eighth magazine launched by Seiji Noma, the founder of the publishing company Kodansha.[7] It was modeled on Saturday Evening Post[8] and Ladies' Home Journal.[4] The magazine was published by Kodansha[9] on a monthly basis.[7]
Kingu covered moralistic stories and featured articles about samurai heroics, sentimental romance and melodramatic events.[10] The magazine was read by urban and rural men and women.[5] Major contributors included Yoshikawa Eiji, Kikuchi Kan, Maki Itsuma, Funabashi Seiichi, Tateno Nobuyuki, and Tsunoda Kikuo.[6] It ended publication in 1957.[5]
Circulation
Both Kingu and Ie no Hikari were the first Japanese million-seller magazines.[11] Kingu sold one million copies in its first year, 1925.[5] In 1928 the monthly circulation of the magazine was nearly 300,000 copies.[12] The same year its total circulation was 1.4 million copies.[13] Kingu sold more than a million copies again in 1927.[14]
Legacy
In 2019 Amy Bliss Marshall published a book named Magazines and the Making of Mass Culture in Japan in which she analyzed Kingu and Ie no Hikari to demonstrate the birth of mass culture in Japan.[15] The author argues that these two magazines were instrumental in the establishment of mass culture and in the socialization in Japan.[15]
The name of Kodansha's music subsidiary King Records was actually based from the magazine.