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 bef ...

and one of the first female manga artists. She started her own

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics ter ...

, ''

Sazae-san is a Japanese yonkoma manga series written and illustrated by Machiko Hasegawa. It was first published in Hasegawa's local paper, the , on April 22, 1946. When the ''Asahi Shimbun'' wished to have Hasegawa draw the four-panel comic for the ...

'', in 1946. It reached national circulation via the ''

Asahi Shimbun is one of the four largest newspapers in Japan. Founded in 1879, it is also one of the oldest newspapers in Japan and Asia, and is considered a newspaper of record for Japan. Its circulation, which was 4.57 million for its morning edition a ...

'' in 1949, and ran daily until Hasegawa decided to retire in February 1974. All of her comics were printed in Japan in

digest Digest may refer to: Biology *Digestion of food *Restriction digest Literature and publications *'' The Digest'', formerly the English and Empire Digest *Digest size magazine format * ''Digest'' (Roman law), also known as ''Pandects'', a digest ...

comics; by the mid-1990s, Hasegawa's estate had sold over 60 million copies in Japan alone.

Life and career

Machiko Hasegawa was born January 30, 1920, in

Taku Taku may refer to: Places North America * the Taku River, in Alaska and British Columbia ** Fort Taku, also known as Fort Durham and as Taku, a former fort of the Hudson's Bay Company near the mouth of the Taku River ** the Taku Glacier, in Ala ...

Saga Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyushu. Saga Prefecture has a population of 809,248 (1 August 2020) and has a geographic area of 2,440 km2 (942 sq mi). Saga Prefecture borders Fukuoka Prefecture to the northeast and Nagas ...

. When she was 15, her father died and the family moved to Tokyo, where she took up drawing cartoons. She successfully published several in magazines and newspapers, such as , , , and a few that only ran for a short while. Her comics were the first to follow a consistent four-panel layout, which later became the standard. Hasegawa never married, instead living with her older sister Mariko. Both were art collectors, and their collection is housed in the

Hasegawa Machiko Art Museum The is an art museum in Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan. From 1946 until 1974, Machiko Hasegawa drew the comic strip ''Sazae-san'' about an ordinary Japanese family led by a good-natured mother and wife, Sazae. The strip was a huge success and for most of ...

. The two started the Shimaisha Publishing Company, through which 20 million paperback copies of her comics have been published. Hasegawa died of heart failure on May 27, 1992, at the age of 72. Towards the end of her life she stopped appearing in public and on television, and her death was kept a secret for 35 days after her private funeral as requested in her will.

''Sazae-san''

''Sazae-san'' was a popular postwar comic strip depicting the life of Sazae-san, a fictional Japanese housewife. The comic strip was turned into a dramatic radio series in 1955 and a weekly animated series in 1969, which is still running as of 2022. Hasegawa was involved in a court case with a bus company's unapproved use of ''Sazae-san'' and its characters in promotional images, as well as the name of the business, "Sazae-san Tours". As a result of this case, new copyright laws were established that extended protection for fictional characters as individual identities, not just within their series of origin. Selected comics were translated into English, under the title ''The Wonderful World of Sazae-san''.

Awards

Hasegawa won the 8th

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 includ ...

for ''Sazae-san'' in 1962. She was the first female manga artist to receive Japan's Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon in 1982. She also received the 4th Tokyo Cultural Award in 1988; the

Order of the Precious Crown The is a Japanese order, established on January 4, 1888 by Emperor Meiji of Japan. Since the Order of the Rising Sun at that time was an Order for men, it was established as an Order for women. Originally the order had five classes, but on Apr ...

, Fourth Class in 1990; the Minister of Education Award for ''Sazae-san'' at the 20th

Japan Cartoonists Association Award is an annual award for manga, sponsored by the Japan Cartoonists Association The , established April 1, 2014, is a Japanese public interest incorporated association and professional association of manga artists. Its predecessor was a voluntary ...

s in 1991; the 10th

People's Honor Award is one of the commendations bestowed by the Prime Minister of Japan on people in recognition of their accomplishments in sport, entertainment, and other fields. The award, not restricted to Japanese nationals, was created in 1977 by the then-Prime ...

in 1992; and the Special Prize at the 24th

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. Curre ...

s in 2020.

References

External links

Timeline of her life
at the Hasegawa Machiko Art Museum * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hasegawa, Machiko 1920 births 1992 deaths Women manga artists Japanese female comics artists Female comics writers People from Saga Prefecture Recipients of the Medal with Purple Ribbon People's Honour Award winners 20th-century Japanese women writers 20th-century Japanese women artists Manga artists from Saga Prefecture

Life and career

''Sazae-san''

Awards

See also

References

External links