Emonogatari (絵物語, picture story) is the Japanese term for a narrative story that contains a very high proportion of illustrations.^[1] Alternatively, it could be said^{[by whom?]} to be a picture book with a larger amount of text^[2][3] or a manga where the pictures and text have been separated. The boundaries between these genres are extremely vague, and it is not uncommon for the same work to change from an emonogatari to a manga, or vice versa, during its serialization.^{[citation needed]}

The term emonogatari can be seen in works such as Ippei Okamoto's Chinsuke Emonogatari (Ryoyu, 1917) and Manga Emonogatari (Collection of Elementary School Students, Bungeishunju, 1929). However, during the war, there were also examples of the use of emonogatari instead of manga to improve the impression made by censors.^[4] It was especially popular around and after the time of World War II. ^[2] In most cases, the illustrations and text are both written by the same artist, and some works even have speech bubbles in the illustrations, so the work is sometimes considered a type of manga.^{[citation needed]}

Its origins date back to an editor at the magazine Shōnen Club who proposed a form of reading material called a "magazine kamishibai", to kamishibai writer Yamakawa Soji, and Yamakawa wrote the rough outline of the story as a kamishibai to be read by oneself. The first clearly identifiable work dates from the 1930s ("Shonen Club" magazine, July 1939 issue, Senbu no yuchi (宣撫の勇士;"The Warrior of Pacification").^{[citation needed]}

Emonogatari writers are often also kamishibai artists, illustrators, animators and manga artists. Representative authors include Sōji Yamakawa and Shigeru Komatsuzaki.^[2]Osamu Tezuka, who created the foundations of Japanese manga expression, and anime creator Hayao Miyazaki also left behind works in the form of emonogatari. Although the golden age of emonogatari was a short period in the 1950s and 60s, it is said to have influenced the "gekiga" (dramatic comics) that appeared in the 1960s and 70s.^[4]

• Tetsuji Fukushima - "Sabaku no Maoh ( "沙漠の魔王; Devil King of the Desert)
• Takeo Nagamatsu - " Golden Bat "
• Soji Yamakawa - " Shonen Kenya ", "Shonen Champion"
• Shigeru Komatsuzaki - "Chikyū SOS( 地球SOS; SOS Earth )" and "Taihei Genji (大平原児;The Great Plains Child)"
• Shichima Sakai - "Kurama Kotengu (鞍馬小天狗)"
• Motoichiro Takebe - "Shonen Tarzan (少年ターザン)"
• Hikozo Ito - "Asura Tengu"
• Keizo Shimada - " Bōken Dankichi "
• Tatsuo Yoshida - " Shonen Puroresu Ō Tetsuwan Rikiya"(少年プロレス王 鉄腕リキヤ;Young Pro Wrestling King: Iron Arm Rikiya) (illustration)
• Tomohiko Oka - "White Tiger Mask"
• Ueki Kin'ya - "The Secrets of Fuun Kurama"
• Ikki Kajiwara - "Boy Pro Wrestling King: Iron Arm Rikiya" (uncredited original author), " New Battleship Yamato " (original author)
• Osamu Tezuka - "Hato yo Ten made(ハトよ天まで; Pigeons to the Sky )"
• Hayao Miyazaki - " Shuna's Journey"