, better known by the

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

Suihō Tagawa (田河水泡, ''Tagawa Suihō''), 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 ...

Biography

Born in

Sumida, Tokyo is a special ward located in Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. The English translation of its Japanese self-designation is Sumida City. As of May 1, 2015, the ward has an estimated population of 257,300, and a population density of 18,690 persons per km ...

, Nakatarō Takamizawa grew up an

orphan An orphan (from the el, ορφανός, orphanós) is a child whose parents have died. In common usage, only a child who has lost both parents due to death is called an orphan. When referring to animals, only the mother's condition is usuall ...

: his mother died upon his birth, his father and his uncle (who served as one of his stepparents) both died several years afterwards. He graduated from Fukagawa's municipal ''Rinkai Jinjō'' elementary school in 1911. In 1919, he was conscripted 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 ...

, serving in Korea and Manchuria, and left in 1922. In 1925, he graduated from ''Nihon Bijutsu Gakkō'' ("Japan School of Art"); during his time at the school, he participated in the radical avant-garde movement Mavo, under the pen name Takamizawa Michinao . In 1926, he became a ''

rakugo is a form of ''yose'', which is itself a form of Japanese verbal entertainment. The lone sits on a raised platform, a . Using only a and a as props, and without standing up from the seiza sitting position, the rakugo artist depicts a long ...

'' author. He began producing

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 ...

in 1927. He gained a regular assignment selling manga stories and adopted the pen name , which was later corrupted into : literally means "water bubble". In 1928 he married (younger sister of

Hideo Kobayashi was a Japanese author, who established literary criticism as an independent art form in Japan. Early life Kobayashi was born in the Kanda district of Tokyo, where his father was a noted engineer who introduced European diamond polishing techno ...

) in a church ceremony. In 1931, he began the long-running series ''

Norakuro is a Japanese manga series created by Suihō Tagawa, originally published by Kodansha in '' Shōnen Kurabu'', and one of the first series' to be reprinted in tankōbon format. The titular protagonist, Norakuro, or Norakuro-'' kun'', i ...

'' in

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 ...

's anthology magazine '' Shōnen Kurabu'', about an

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...

black and white dog in an army of dogs. Although at first intended to have only a brief lifespan, its immense popularity urged Tagawa to continue producing the strip. He has won numerous awards and is recognized as one of the pioneers of the Japanese manga industry. After

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 ...

he became a ''bona fide''

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

; he credited the faith in helping him overcome

alcoholism Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol (drug), alcohol that results in significant Mental health, mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognize ...

after several failed attempts. In 1988, he produced the autobiographical ''Watashi no Rirekisho'' ("My

Résumé A résumé, sometimes spelled resume (or alternatively resumé), also called a curriculum vitae (CV), is a document created and used by a person to present their background, skills, and accomplishments. Résumés can be used for a variety of re ...

") for the Japanese ''

Sankei Shimbun The (short for ) is a daily newspaper in Japan published by the It has the seventh-highest circulation for regional newspapers in Japan. Among Japanese newspapers, the circulation is second only to ''Yomiuri Shimbun'', Seikyo Shimbun, ''Asah ...

'' newspaper. He died in 1989 at the age of 90.

References

External links

Biography of Suihō Tagawa

(in English) {{DEFAULTSORT:Tagawa, Suiho 1899 births 1989 deaths People from Tokyo Manga artists from Tokyo Japanese Christians Recipients of the Medal with Purple Ribbon Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun, 4th class Imperial Japanese Army personnel