was a Japanese

manga artist A is a comic artist who writes and/or illustrates manga. As of 2006, about 3,000 professional manga artists were working in Japan. Most manga artists study at an art college or manga school or take on an apprenticeship with another artist be ...

and historian, best known for his

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

series ''

GeGeGe no Kitarō , originally known as , is a Japanese manga series created in 1960 by Shigeru Mizuki. It is best known for its popularization of the folklore creatures known as ''yōkai'', a class of spirit-monster which all of the main characters ...

''. Born in a hospital in

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...

and raised in the city of

Sakaiminato, Tottori is a city in Tottori Prefecture, Japan. In 2016, it had an estimated population of 33,888. History An Imperial decree in July 1899 established Sakai as an open port for trading with the United States and the United Kingdom. Sakaiminato was foun ...

, he later moved to Chōfu, Tokyo where he remained until his death. His pen-name, Mizuki, comes from the time when he managed an inn called 'Mizuki Manor' while he drew pictures for

kamishibai is a form of Japanese street theater and storytelling that was popular during the Great Depression of the 1930s and the post-war period in Japan until the advent of television during the mid-20th century. were performed by a (" narrator") who ...

. A specialist in stories of

Yōkai are a class of supernatural entities and spirits in Japanese folklore. The word is composed of the kanji for "attractive; calamity" and "apparition; mystery; suspicious." are also referred to as , or . Despite often being translated as suc ...

(traditional Japanese monsters, ghouls, and goblins), he is considered a master of the genre. Mizuki was also a noted historian, publishing works relating to world history, Japanese history, and his own

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

experience.

Life

Mizuki was born Shigeru Mura (武良茂 ''Mura Shigeru'') in the city of Osaka, the second of three sons. He was raised in the coastal city of Sakaiminato 境港, where he spent much of his childhood as a 'scrapper': picking fights and participating in childish warfare with the neighbouring children. He displayed from an early age a particular talent for art. During his time in elementary school, Mizuki's teachers were so impressed by his skills with a pencil that they organised an exhibition of his work, and he later went on to be featured in the Mainichi newspaper as something of an artistic prodigy. In addition to this penchant for the artistic, Mizuki had an interest in the supernatural - something that was fueled by listening to ghost stories told by a local woman named Fusa Kageyama, but whom the young Mizuki nicknamed "Nononba". However, in 1942, he was drafted into the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

and sent to

New Britain New Britain ( tpi, Niu Briten) is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from New Guinea by a northwest corner of the Solomon Sea (or with an island hop of Umboi the Dam ...

Island in

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

. His wartime experiences affected him greatly, as he contracted

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...

, watched friends die from battle wounds and disease, and dealt with other horrors of war. Finally, in an

Allied An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

air raid, he was caught in an explosion and lost his left arm. Regarding this life-changing event, a November 30, 2015 NHK announcement of his death showed excerpts of a video interview with him at age 80, in which he said that as the only survivor of his unit, he was 'ordered to die' — a prospect he considered ridiculous. The result of Mizuki's wartime experience was a concurrent sense of pacifism and goodwill. In the same interview, he explained that his Yōkai characters can be seen only in times of peace, not war, and that he purposely created these supernatural creatures to be of no specific ethnicity or nationality as a hint of the potential for humanity. While in a Japanese

field hospital A field hospital is a temporary hospital or mobile medical unit that takes care of casualties on-site before they can be safely transported to more permanent facilities. This term was initially used in military medicine (such as the Mobile A ...

Rabaul Rabaul () is a township in the East New Britain province of Papua New Guinea, on the island of New Britain. It lies about 600 kilometres to the east of the island of New Guinea. Rabaul was the provincial capital and most important settlement in ...

, he was befriended by the local Tolai tribespeople, who offered him land, a home, and citizenship via marriage to a Tolai woman. Mizuki acknowledged that he considered remaining behind, but was shamed by a military doctor into returning home to Japan first for medical treatment to his arm and to face his parents, which he did reluctantly. Upon arriving home, Mizuki had initially planned to return to New Guinea; however, the

occupation of Japan Japan was occupied and administered by the victorious Allies of World War II from the 1945 surrender of the Empire of Japan at the end of the war until the Treaty of San Francisco took effect in 1952. The occupation, led by the United States wi ...

changed that. His injuries did little to help, nor did the fact that his older brother, an artillery officer, was convicted as a war criminal for having prisoners of war executed. After his return to Japan he worked at a variety of jobs including as a fish salesman and kamishibai artist. In 1957, Mizuki released his debut work, ''Rocketman''. He published numerous works afterwards, both dealing with the military and with yōkai. He has also written many books on both subjects, including an autobiography about his time on New Britain Island and a manga biography of

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

in 1971. This book was published in English in 2015 by

Drawn & Quarterly Drawn & Quarterly is a publishing company based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, specializing in comics. It publishes primarily comic books, graphic novels and comic strip collections. The books it publishes are noted for their artistic content, ...

. Mizuki began a

rental Renting, also known as hiring or letting, is an agreement where a payment is made for the temporary use of a good, service or property owned by another. A gross lease is when the tenant pays a flat rental amount and the landlord pays for al ...

manga adaptation of the

in 1960. In 1965, it was renamed ''Kappa no Sanpei'' and began serialization in ''

Weekly Shōnen Magazine is a weekly ''shōnen'' manga anthology published on Wednesdays in Japan by Kodansha, first published on March 17, 1959. The magazine is mainly read by an older audience, with a significant portion of its readership falling under the male high ...

'', before being renamed again to ''

'' in 1967. In 1972 he publishes the

gekiga , literally "dramatic pictures", is a style of Japanese comics aimed at adult audiences and marked by a more cinematic art style and more mature themes. ''Gekiga'' was the predominant style of adult comics in Japan in the 1960s and 1970s. It is ...

graphic novel Nonnonba about his childhood friendship with old maid and his nanny, who impressed him with the yokai stories. In 1991, he released a short work titled ''War and Japan'' ( Sensō to Nippon) published in ''The Sixth Grader'', a popular

edutainment Educational entertainment (also referred to as edutainment) is media designed to educate through entertainment. The term was used as early as 1954 by Walt Disney. Most often it includes content intended to teach but has incidental entertainment ...

magazine for young people, detailing the atrocities committed by the Japanese Army during their rampage in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

and

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

and is narrated by Nezumi Otoko. The work serves as a counterpoint to revisionist manga like the works of

Yoshinori Kobayashi is a Japanese manga artist known for his controversial political commentary manga '' Gōmanism Sengen''. Life A student of French literature from Fukuoka University, Kobayashi published his first manga, ''Tōdai Itchokusen'' (東大一直 ...

and by extension a way for Mizuki to express his anger at those responsible for all of Japan's victims. From 1989 until 1998 he worked on '' Showa: A History of Japan'', which follows the same approach and conveys Mizuki's view of the

Shōwa era The was the period of Japanese history corresponding to the reign of Emperor Shōwa ( Hirohito) from December 25, 1926, until his death on January 7, 1989. It was preceded by the Taishō era. The pre-1945 and post-war Shōwa periods are almos ...

through a mixture of personal anecdotes and summaries of major historical events. His character Nezumi Otoko often appears as the narrator in these works. When not working in either field, he painted a number of subjects, though these works are not as well known as his literary ones which have made him a

household name Household name may refer to: * ''Household Name'' (album), a studio album by Momma * a popular brand, see brand awareness * a popular person, see celebrity * a term misused to exaggerate a product, see promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketi ...

. In 2003, he returned to Rabaul to rekindle his friendship with the locals, who had named a road after him in his honor. In 2005, Mizuki appeared in a cameo role in ''Yōkai Daisenso'' ("

The Great Yokai War is a 2005 Japanese fantasy film directed by Takashi Miike, produced by Kadokawa Pictures and distributed by Shochiku. The film stars Ryunosuke Kamiki, Hiroyuki Miyasako, Chiaki Kuriyama, and Mai Takahashi. The film focuses largely on creatures ...

") directed by Takashi Miike, a film about Yōkai inspired by his work as well as the work of

Aramata Hiroshi is a Japanese author, polymath, critic, translator and specialist in natural history, iconography and cartography. His most popular novel was ''Teito Monogatari'' (''Tale of the Capitol''), which has sold over 5 million copies in Japan alone. Bi ...

. He appears towards the end of the film in the role of the ''Great Elder Yōkai'': a pacifistic character who condemns the warring ways of the film's antagonist and reaffirms the role of Yōkai as peaceful, playful creatures. A brief explanation about his works also is mentioned in the film. In 2010,

NHK , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestri ...

broadcast an

asadora , colloquially known as , is a serialized, 15 minutes per episode, Japanese television drama program series broadcast in the mornings by Japanese public broadcaster NHK. The first such series aired in 1961 with the black-and-white , starring Take ...

about his married life, ''

Gegege no Nyōbō is an autobiography written by Nunoe Mura and published in 2008. It details her life as the wife of the manga artist Shigeru Mizuki, especially their struggles against poverty before he became successful. It has sold over 500,000 copies. In 20 ...

'', based on his wife's autobiography. Throughout most of his life, Mizuki's work was relatively unknown outside Japan due to not having been translated. This changed in the

2010s File:2010s collage v21.png, From top left, clockwise: Anti-government protests called the Arab Spring arose in 2010–2011, and as a result, many governments were overthrown, including when Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi was Death of Muammar Gadd ...

when translations in several European languages of his Showa, Kitaro, Nonnonba and Hitler series began to appear, leading to an increasing interest in Mizuki and his work (and that of his

peers) among Westerners. On November 30, 2015, Mizuki died of heart failure in a Tokyo hospital after collapsing at his home from a heart attack. His Dharma name is 大満院釋導茂 (Daiman-In-Shaku-Domo).

Bakeichōnosei

Bakeichōnosei (ばけいちょうのせい, ''monster ginkgo spirit'') or "Bakeichōnorei"(ばけいちょうのれい) is a Japanese

monster A monster is a type of fictional creature found in horror, fantasy, science fiction, folklore, mythology and religion. Monsters are very often depicted as dangerous and aggressive with a strange, grotesque appearance that causes terror and fe ...

written by the yokai manga artist Shigeru Mizuki. It is said that the limbs and face are

yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In the R ...

, wearing a kimono dyed with

inkstick Inksticks () or ink cakes are a type of solid Chinese ink used traditionally in several Chinese and East Asian art forms such as calligraphy and brush painting. Inksticks are made mainly of soot and animal glue, sometimes with incense or medicin ...

and striking a

gong A gongFrom Indonesian and ms, gong; jv, ꦒꦺꦴꦁ ; zh, c=鑼, p=luó; ja, , dora; km, គង ; th, ฆ้อง ; vi, cồng chiêng; as, কাঁহ is a percussion instrument originating in East Asia and Southeast Asia. Gongs ...

Ginkgo biloba ''Ginkgo biloba'', commonly known as ginkgo or gingko ( ), also known as the maidenhair tree, is a species of tree native to China. It is the last living species in the order Ginkgoales, which first appeared over 290 million years ago. Fossils ...

have long been ominous, and planting them at home is said to cause ominous things. Mizuki draws this monster picture based on "Kamakura Wakamiya Hachiman Teru (Ginkgo) Teru no Kibana" in

Yosa Buson was a Japanese poet and painter of the Edo period. Along with Matsuo Bashō and Kobayashi Issa, Buson is considered among the greatest poets of the Edo Period. He is also known for completing haiga as a style of art, working with haibun prose ...

" Kabmura Yokai Emaki". According to yokai researcher Goichi Yumoto, the Kabumura sculpture is said to be an icon of an old tree spirit.

Sakaiminato

Sakaiminato is a city in Tottori Prefecture, Japan. In 2016, it had an estimated population of 33,888. History An Imperial decree in July 1899 established Sakai as an open port for trading with the United States and the United Kingdom. Sakaiminato was foun ...

, Mizuki's childhood home, has a street dedicated to the ghosts and monsters that appear in his stories. One hundred bronze statues of the story's characters line both sides of the road. There is also a museum featuring several of his creations and works.

Awards

Mizuki has won numerous awards and accolades for his works, especially ''GeGeGe no Kitarō''. Among these are: * 1965 Received Kodansha Jido Manga Award for '' Terebi-kun (テレビくん?)''. * 1990 Received

Kodansha Manga Award is an annual award for serialized manga published in the previous year, the event is sponsored by the publisher Kodansha. It is currently awarded in three categories: '' shōnen'', '' shōjo'', and general. The awards began in 1977, initially w ...

for '' Komikku Shōwa-Shi''. * 1991 Received Shiju Hōshō Decoration. * 1995 For the 6th Annual Tokyo Peace Day, he was awarded with an exhibition of his paintings, entitled "Prayer for Peace: Shigeru Mizuki War Experience Painting Exhibition" * 1996 Received Minister of Education Award. * 1996 His hometown of Sakaiminato honored him with the Shigeru Mizuki Road, a street decorated with bronze statues of his ''Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro'' characters and other designs relating to his works. * 2003 Received Kyokujitsu Shō Decoration. * 2003

honored him again with the Shigeru Mizuki International Cultural Center. * 2003

Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize Named after Osamu Tezuka, the is a yearly manga prize awarded to manga artists or their works that follow the Osamu Tezuka manga approach founded and sponsored by Asahi Shimbun. The prize has been awarded since 1997, in Tokyo, Japan. Current ...

Special Award for his works. * 2007 Received the Best Comic Book award for ''NonNonBā'' at the

Angoulême International Comics Festival The Angoulême International Comics Festival (french: Festival international de la bande dessinée d'Angoulême) is the second largest comics festival in Europe after the Lucca Comics & Games in Italy, and the third biggest in the world after Lu ...

. * 2008

Asahi Prize The , established in 1929, is an award presented by the Japanese newspaper ''Asahi Shimbun'' and Asahi Shimbun Foundation to honor individuals and groups that have made outstanding accomplishments in the fields of arts and academics and have greatl ...

for contribution to the manga comic culture through portrayals of the horrors of war. * 2010 Received the

Person of Cultural Merit is an official Japanese recognition and honor which is awarded annually to select people who have made outstanding cultural contributions. This distinction is intended to play a role as a part of a system of support measures for the promotion of ...

award. * 2012 Received the

Eisner Award The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, are prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books, sometimes referred to as the comics industry's equivalent of the Academy Awards. They are named in ...

for ''

Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths is a one-shot manga written and illustrated by Shigeru Mizuki. In it, Mizuki describes his experiences as a soldier participating in the New Guinea campaign during World War II. He portrays the final weeks of his infantry service as the soldi ...

,'' in the category Best U.S. Edition of International Material – Asia. The award was shared with translator

Zack Davisson Zack Davisson is a writer, editor, lecturer, scholar and translator, especially known for translating Shigeru Mizuki's and Matsumoto Leiji's manga. He is also well known for his works on Japanese folklore and ghosts. In 2015, Davisson wrote h ...

Selected works

in English

* * * * *

Not printed

* ''War in Japan'', 1991 (online readable in the tail o
this article by Matthew Penney
* ''3, Street of Mysteries'' (online) * ''Wakusei'' (online) * "Garo" ''Keisai Sakuhin'' (online)

Manga in Japanese

* Rocketman (1957), published in 1958 by Togetsu-Shobō * ''Baby Z'', for sci-fi magazine Uchū Shonen * ''Hakaba Kitaro'' (1960–1964) * * ''

Akuma-kun is a manga series written and illustrated by Shigeru Mizuki. Several versions of the manga exist, one of which was adapted into a live-action TV show, and another into an anime television series. In addition, two movies were spawned fro ...

'' (1963–1964) * * Kaiten, the human torpedo (1967) * — a one-shot published in the magazine ''Comic Mystery'' about a notebook that killed whoever's name was written in it. The same idea was used in the smashhit manga ''

Death Note ''Death Note'' (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese manga series written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. It was serialized in Shueisha's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from December 2003 to May ...

'' by

Tsugumi Ohba is the pen name of a Japanese manga writer, best known for authoring the ''Death Note'' manga series with illustrator Takeshi Obata from 2003 to 2006, which has 30 million collected volumes in circulation. The duo's second series, ''Bakuman.'' ...

and

Takeshi Obata is a Japanese manga artist that usually works as the illustrator in collaboration with a writer. He first gained international attention for ''Hikaru no Go'' (1998–2003) with Yumi Hotta, but is better known for '' Death Note'' (2003–2006) ...

. Although this fact is a coincidence, Ohba has stated he did not have any particular inspiration for his story. * Watashi no Hibi (わたしの日々), ("My Days)" (2013, unfinished)

Books

* ''Colorized Yōkai Gadan'', 1992, published by Iwanami Shinsho * Shigeru Mizuki's Yōkai Artbook: Mujara, 1998 * Mizuki, Shigeru. 水木しげるの日本妖怪めぐり ( Hepburn: ''Mizuki Shigeru no Nihon Yōkai Meguri'', lit. "Shigeru Mizuki's Japanese Ghost Tour".) * ''Rabauru Senki'' (''Memories of Rabaul'') * Mizuki, Shigeru. "Graphic World of Japanese Phantoms". 講談社, 1985. (4-06-202381-4) * Yokaï, Éditions Cornélius, 2017, full color, hardcover, 80 pages. Illustration book. * À l'intérieur des yôkai, 2018, bi-color, hardcover, 80 pages. Éditions Cornélius. * À l’intérieur de Kitaro,

hors d'oeuvre An hors d'oeuvre ( ; french: hors-d'œuvre ), appetiser or starter is a small dish served before a meal in European cuisine. Some hors d'oeuvres are served cold, others hot. Hors d'oeuvres may be served at the dinner table as a part of the m ...

publication, bi-color, 16 pages, 2018. Éditions Cornélius.

About Mizuki

* 40th Artistic Anniversary, 1990, published by Kagomesha

References

External links

"Drawing from Experience"
''

Japan Times ''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc.. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. History ''The Japan Times'' was launched by ...

'', February 6, 2005, retrieved March 22, 2012.
Mizuki Production Official WebsiteSakaiminato: The town where you can meet Kitaro
photos
Japan Focus: War and Japan: The Non-Fiction Manga of Mizuki Shigeru
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mizuki Shigeru 1922 births 2015 deaths Japanese writers Manga artists from Tottori Prefecture Winner of Kodansha Manga Award (General) Imperial Japanese Army personnel of World War II Japanese amputees Japanese pacifists Winner of Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize (Special Award) Persons of Cultural Merit Recipients of the Medal with Purple Ribbon GeGeGe no Kitarō