Boychild Productions and the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum in Bournemouth, UK are teaming up to publish The Japanese Drawing Room -- Victorian Travelers in Japan, a manga written by Sean Michael Wilson and illustrated by manga-ka Sakura Mizuki, who drew the best-selling horror manga, The Ring.  The Japanese Drawing Room is based on a well-researched historical account of a foreign couple that traveled throughout Japan in 1885 and saw many interesting aspects of Japanese life in the Meiji era including a daimyo's funeral, the Shogun's Temples, Buddhist ceremonies, and the festival for a great warrior.

The Japanese Drawing Room provides an interesting look at 19th century Japan while also revealing something about the nature and attitudes of Victorian England then at the apogee of its power and influence.  This fascinating collaboration between a writer from the U.K. and one of Japan's top manga artists is listed in Diamond's March Previews catalog.