was a Japanese manga artist and researcher in the lifestyles and

custom Custom, customary, or consuetudinary may refer to: Traditions, laws, and religion * Convention (norm), a set of agreed, stipulated or generally accepted rules, norms, standards or criteria, often taking the form of a custom * Norm (social), a r ...

s of Japan's

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characte ...

. Born Junko Suzuki in Minato,

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

, into a tradition-steeped family of

kimono The is a traditional Japanese garment and the national dress of Japan. The kimono is a wrapped-front garment with square sleeves and a rectangular body, and is worn left side wrapped over right, unless the wearer is deceased. The kimono ...

merchants, she studied design and took an increasing interest in old Japan. She attended

Nihon University , abbreviated as , is a private university, private research university in Japan. Its predecessor, Nihon Law School (currently the Department of Law), was founded by Yamada Akiyoshi, the Minister of Justice (Japan), Minister of Justice, in 1889. ...

, but gave up her formal studies to pursue research under the direction of author Shisei Inagaki. Inagaki specialized in the Edo period and taught Sugiura how to do the background surveys that would later ensure the historical accuracy of her manga and other works. Sugiura was the assistant of Murasaki Yamada, a prominent feminist manga artist. Sugiura published her first manga, "Tsugen Muro no Ume," in the alternative manga magazine ''Garo'' in 1980. Her distinctive style drew heavily on

ukiyo-e Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes from history and folk t ...

techniques and breathed life into her depictions of Edo-period life and customs, helping her win popularity as well as the Japan Cartoonists Association Award for her manga ''Gassō'' ("Joint Burial") in 1984 and the Bungei Shunjū Manga Award for '' Fūryū Edo Suzume'' in 1988. In 1993, Sugiura announced that she was retiring from her life as a manga artist to dedicate herself to research on Edo period lifestyles and customs. She wrote numerous books on the subject, which she considered to be her life's work, and frequently appeared in the media as an expert on the period. She was well known and liked for her commentary during the ending segment of a popular

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 terrestr ...

program, ''Comedy: O-Edo de Gozaru'', which was set in the Edo period. Sugiura was usually seen in public wearing traditional kimono. Sugiura was married for a time to novelist, translator, and bibliophile

Hiroshi Aramata 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. ...

, a pairing the Japanese media referred to as "the beauty and the beast." She was also famous for her love of soba buckwheat noodles as well as a preference for saké. When Sugiura left the ''Comedy: O-Edo de Gozaru'' program, she told the public that she was going to fulfill a long-cherished dream by taking a world cruise. That she was actually undergoing treatment for

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

of the throat (the

hypopharynx The pharynx (plural: pharynges) is the part of the throat behind the mouth and nasal cavity, and above the oesophagus and trachea (the tubes going down to the stomach and the lungs). It is found in vertebrates and invertebrates, though its struct ...

) at a hospital in

Kashiwa, Chiba is a city located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 433,436 in 194,216 households and a population density of 3800 persons per km². The total area of the city is . The name of the city is written with a s ...

, first become known when the public learned of her death at 46 on July 22, 2005.

Representative manga works

* ''Tsūgen Muro no Ume'' (, 1980) * ''Gassō'' (, 1983) * '' Sarusuberi'' (, 1983–1987, 3 volumes) * ''Nipponia Nippon'' (, 1985) * ''Edo e youkoso'' (, 1986) * ''Futatsu makura'' (, 1986) * ''Fūryū Edo Suzume'' (, 1987) * ''Yasuji Tōkyō'' (, 1988) * ''Hyaku Monogatari'' (, 1988–1993, 3 volumes) * ''Higashi no Eden'' (, 1989)

Awards

* 1984: Japan Cartoonists Association Award for ''Gassō'' * 1988:

Bungeishunjū Manga Award The was an annual award established in 1955 and given out by Bungeishunjū in Japan for gag, , one-panel, and satirical manga. The award was also given out for works considered the magnum opus of manga creators. Past winners of the award inclu ...

for ''Fūryū Edo Suzume''

References

External links

Hinako Sugiura at lambiek.net

a
PRISM: The Ultimate Manga Guide
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sugiura, Hinako Women manga artists Manga artists from Tokyo 1958 births 2005 deaths Japanese female comics artists Nihon University alumni People from Tokyo