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 bef ...

Life

He was born in

Kushiro is a city in Kushiro Subprefecture on the island of Hokkaido, Japan. It serves as the subprefecture's capital and it is the most populated city in the eastern part of the island. Geography Mountains * Mount Oakan * Mount Meakan * Mount Akan ...

Hokkaidō is Japan, Japan's Japanese archipelago, second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost Prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own List of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; th ...

and dropped out of Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music after two years of studying mid-semester from the fine arts department. He moved to

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...

in order to pursue a career as a professional manga artist.Urasawa, Naoki (2020). 星野之宣 oshino Yukinobu ''Urasawa Naoki no Manben''. NHK Educational TV. He made his professional debut in 1975 with ''Kotetsu no Queen''. At the age of 21, he won the

Tezuka Award The is a semi-annual manga award offered by the Japanese publisher Shueisha since 1971, under the auspices of its ''Weekly Shonen Jump'' magazine. It awarded new manga artists in the Story Manga category. Its counterpart award, Akatsuka Award, ...

for an outstanding manga of a newcomer artist for ''Harukanaru Asa'' and

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 ...

personally highly praised it. He became known for his science fiction manga. An early success came in 1976, when he wrote '' Blue City'' for ''

Weekly Shonen Jump Weekly, The Weekly, or variations, may refer to: News media * ''Weekly'' (news magazine), an English-language national news magazine published in Mauritius *Weekly newspaper, any newspaper published on a weekly schedule *Alternative newspaper, als ...

''. He won an Excellence Prize at the 2008

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 a ...

for '' Munakata Kyouju Ikouroku''. He works from his home in

Sapporo ( ain, サッ・ポロ・ペッ, Satporopet, lit=Dry, Great River) is a city in Japan. It is the largest city north of Tokyo and the largest city on Hokkaido, the northernmost main island of the country. It ranks as the fifth most populous city ...

Style

He liked

's and Jiro Kuwata's science fiction manga while growing up and watching ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' while in junior high school was a transformative experience for him.

Matazō Kayama Matazō Kayama ( , Kayama Matazō) was a Japanese ''Nihonga'' painter of the 20th century, born in Kyoto in 1927. Biography Kayama Matazo was a painter who employed a mixed technique. In 1949, he graduated from the Tokyo University of the Arts ...

was a painter he liked during his studies. Initially, his artistic style was similar to that of Mikiya Mochizuki and had humoristic touches, but moved on to the '' gekiga'' style. He is known for using the gekiga style to create detailed and serious science fiction stories based on American and European SF novels but creating a completely different storyline. He had also drawn various works based on ancient and pre-historic histories. Amongst other things, he is known for his

graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...

series, ''

2001 Nights 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

''.

Legacy

His work is acknowledged by the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

and was on display during 5 November 2009 to 3 January 2010.

Works

Manga

* ''

Kotetsu no Queen (born Nagasone Okisato) was a Japanese swordmaker of the early Edo period. His father was an armorer who served Ishida Mitsunari, the lord of Sawayama. However, as Ishida was defeated by Tokugawa Ieyasu at the Battle of Sekigahara, the Nagasone ...

'' (鋼鉄のクイーン) * '' Harukanaru Asa'' (はるかなる朝) * '' Blue City'' (ブルーシティー) * ''

'' (2001夜物語), 1984-1986 **A collection of short stories that look to mankind's exploration of space, and examine the possibilities that we could face when we decide to take those first fateful steps into the unknown. * ''

Blue Hole A blue hole is a large marine cavern or sinkhole, which is open to the surface and has developed in a bank or island composed of a carbonate bedrock ( limestone or coral reef). Their existence was discovered in the late 20th century by fishe ...

'' (ブルー　ホール), 1991-1992 * '' Kyojintachi no Densetsu'' (巨人たちの伝説) * '' Yamataika'' (ヤマタイカ) * ''

Munakata Kyoju Denkiko Munakata may refer to: *Munakata (surname) *Munakata, Fukuoka is a city in Japan, located in Fukuoka Prefecture, in the north Chikuzen region of the prefecture. The city was founded on April 1, 1981. As of April 30, 2022, the city has an estim ...

'' (宗像教授伝奇考) * '' Saber Tiger'' * '' Kodoku Experiment'' * ''

Star Dust Memories A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth mak ...

'' * '' 2001+5'' * '' Kamunabi'' * ''El Alamein no Shinden'' (エル・アラメインの神殿) **A compilation of World War II short stories from the perspective of the German military personnel. *''Professor Munakata's British Museum Adventure'' **Follow up on the Museum's exhibition in 2009–2010, first published as a series of 10 episodes in ''

Big Comic is a semimonthly Seinen manga, ''seinen'' manga List of manga magazines, magazine published since 18 February 1968 by Shogakukan in Japan. It was originally launched as a monthly magazine, but switched to twice monthly on the 10th and 25th begin ...

'' in 2010 and then as a book in 2011 by the

British Museum Press The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docume ...

Painting books

* STAR FIELD（1986年、双葉社） * CHRONICLE（1996年、朝日ソノラマ）

References

External links

Review on G-wie-Gorilla.de

Salon Futura article
by

Jonathan Clements Jonathan Michael Clements (born 9 July 1971) is a British author and scriptwriter. His non-fiction works include biographies of Confucius, Koxinga and Qin Shi Huang, as well as monthly opinion columns for ''Neo'' magazine. He is also the co-auth ...

Entry
in ''

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' (SFE) is an English language reference work on science fiction, first published in 1979. It has won the Hugo Award, Hugo, Locus Award, Locus and BSFA Award, British SF Awards. Two print editions appeared ...

''
Manga: Professor Munakata's British Museum adventure
British Museum 1954 births Living people Manga artists from Hokkaido People from Kushiro, Hokkaido {{manga-artist-stub