is 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 ...

, whose works include the science-fiction/horror series ''

Parasyte is a Japanese science fiction horror manga series written and illustrated by Hitoshi Iwaaki and published in Kodansha's ''Morning Open Zōkan'' and ''Monthly Afternoon'' magazine from 1988 to 1995. The manga was published in North Ame ...

''. The

Mixx Mixx was a user-driven social media website that served to help users submit or find content by peers based on interest and location. It combined social networking and bookmarking with web syndication, blogging and personalization tools. In De ...

editions of ''Parasyte'' romanize his name as "Hitosi Iwaaki", while the

Del Rey Manga Del Rey Manga was the manga-publishing imprint of Del Rey Books, a branch of Ballantine Books, which in turn is part of Random House, the publishing division of Bertelsmann. History Del Rey Manga was formed as part of a cross-publishing rela ...

editions use "Hitoshi Iwaaki".

Career

During high school, he was reading a lot of manga by

Osamu Tezuka Osamu Tezuka (, born , ''Tezuka Osamu''; – 9 February 1989) was a Japanese manga artist, cartoonist, and animator. Born in Osaka Prefecture, his prolific output, pioneering techniques, and innovative redefinitions of genres earned him such ...

, which inspired him to begin drawing manga himself. He began working as an assistant for manga artist

Kazuo Kamimura was a Japanese manga artist, best known as the illustrator of ''Lady Snowblood (manga), Lady Snowblood'', which was adapted into Lady Snowblood (film), film in 1973. Hitoshi Iwaaki, a manga artist was his assistant. Kamimura died at age 45 of a p ...

in 1984. In 1985, his short story "Gomi no Umi" won the newcomer award

Tetsuya Chiba Award Tetsuya is a masculine Japanese given name. Possible writings Tetsuya can be written using different kanji characters and can mean: * 哲也, "philosophy, to be" * 鉄也, "iron, to be" * 哲哉, "philosophy, alas" * 徹也, "devotion, to be" ...

and was published in a special edition of ''

Morning Morning is the period from sunrise to noon. There are no exact times for when morning begins (also true of evening and night) because it can vary according to one's lifestyle and the hours of daylight at each time of year. However, morning strict ...

'' magazine. Since then, he has worked mainly for

Kodansha is a Japanese privately-held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha is the largest Japanese publishing company, and it produces the manga magazines ''Nakayoshi'', ''Afternoon'', ''Evening'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' an ...

, especially ''Afternoon'' magazine. In 1993, Iwaaki received the

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 ''Parasyte''. In 2010, ''

Historie (stylized as ''HISTORIĒ'') is a Japanese historical manga series written and illustrated by Hitoshi Iwaaki. It has been serialized in Kodansha's ''seinen'' manga magazine ''Monthly Afternoon'' since 2003, with its chapters collected in 11 ...

'' took the grand prize in the manga division of the

Japan Media Arts Festival The Japan Media Arts Festival is an annual festival held since 1997 by Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs. The festival begins with an open competition and culminates with the awarding of several prizes and an exhibition. Based on judging by ...

. ''Historie'' also earned him the 2012

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 ...

Grand Prize. Iwaaki won the 2020

Saito Takao Award was a Japanese manga artist, although he rejected the term and considered his work gekiga. He was best known for ''Golgo 13'', which has been serialized in ''Big Comic'' since 1968, making it the oldest manga still in publication. ''Golgo 13 ...

for his work on ''Reiri''.

Works

* "Gomi no Umi (ゴミの海, ''Morning Open'', 1985) * ''Fuuko no Iru Mise'' (4 volumes, ''

'' 1986–1988) * ''Hone no Oto'' (1 volume, short stories, ''Morning'' 1990, large format edition, 2003) * ''

'' (10 volumes, ''

Afternoon Afternoon is the time after solar noon. It is the time when the sun is descending from its peak in the sky to somewhat before its terminus at the horizon in the west. In human life, it occupies roughly the latter half of the standard work and s ...

'' 1990–1995, Perfect Edition: 8 volumes, 2003) First published in English by

(Tokyopop), republished in English by

* ''Tanabata no Kuni'' ("The Country of

Tanabata , also known as the Star Festival ( 星祭り, ''Hoshimatsuri''), is a Japanese festival originating from the Chinese Qixi Festival. It celebrates the meeting of the deities Orihime and Hikoboshi (represented by the stars Vega and Altair res ...

") (4 volumes, ''Big Comic Spirits'', Perfect Edition: 2 volumes, 2003) * ''Yuki no Touge, Tsurugi no Mai'' (2001) * ''Heureka'' (2002, ''

Young Animal Arashi was a monthly Japanese manga magazine published by Hakusensha. A sister magazine to ''Young Animal'', it was released on the first Friday of every month in B5 format from 2000 to 2018. Series featured in the magazine The following is a partia ...

'') * ''

'' (2003–present, 11 volumes as of July 2019, ''Afternoon'') * ''Reiri'' (2015–2018, ''Bessatsu Shonen Champion'') – writer only, illustrated by Daisuke Muroi

References

External links

* 1960 births People from Tokyo Manga artists from Tokyo Living people Winner of Kodansha Manga Award (General) {{manga-artist-stub