Shigeru Mizuki

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Shigeru Mizuki ( Japanese 水木 し げ る , Mizuki Shigeru ; born March 8, 1922 in Sakaiminato , Tottori Prefecture ; † November 30, 2015 in Tokyo ) was a Japanese manga artist . In his works, including Ge Ge Ge no Kitarō , he mostly dealt with yōkai (monsters and ghosts) and, in addition to comics, has also brought out illustrated lexicons about demons, witches and other beings from Japanese popular belief.

biography

He was born as Shigeru Mura ( 武 良 茂 , Mura Shigeru ) as the second of three sons in 1922 in Sakaiminato. His talent for drawing showed in childhood, as was his interest in mythology. An old woman in his neighborhood who loved ghosts told him many stories about yōkai. Mizuki gave her the nickname Non Non Bā ( の ん の ん ば あ ). He later deepened his knowledge by reading the works of the ethnologist Kunio Yanagita .

Shigeru Mizuki (right) and his father (left) in 1943

In 1943, at the age of 21, he was drafted into the Imperial Japanese Army . He was sent to Rabaul in New Britain and developed a fascination for the culture of Papua New Guinea . There he was terrorized by his superiors and saw his comrades die from bombing and disease. When he himself was struggling with malaria and was on the verge of dying, he lost his left arm in an Allied air raid . He survived and came back home.

Mizuki worked for some time as a poorly paid draftsman of pictures for Kamishibai (paper theater). He then created some comics for Kashihon'ya (lending libraries). His first Kashihon'ya paperback was published in 1957 under the title Rocketman . For Kashihon'ya publishers he also drew his first stories from 1959 about the character of the orphan boy Kitarō , based on a Kamishibai play that had been popular in the mid-1930s. This is the descendant of a spirit tribe driven into the mountains by humanity. He helps society with its problems with the yōkai.

As the lending libraries dwindled due to the rise of the manga magazines , Mizuki began drawing for the alternative magazine Garo . A short time later he published his work also and especially in mainstream magazines such as Shōnen Magazine . His first commercial success came in 1965 with Terebi-kun via a boy who can get into his television set and give the products from the advertisements to his friends in the real world. For this story, which was published in an additional magazine to Shōnen Magazine , Mizuki won the Kōdansha Jidō Manga Prize the next year .

However, the stories about Kitaro were to be his greatest success . Under the title Ge Ge Ge no Kitarō , a popular 65-part black and white anime television series was created from 1968 to 1969 . The concept of a boy who has adventures with Yōkai, Mizuki then took on in other series such as Akuma-kun and Kappa no Sanpei . He had already drawn both Akuma-kun and Kappa no Sanpei for lending libraries, but from 1967 he reissued the story for manga magazines. Both became hits.

After he had been commercially successful, he processed his experiences from World War II in anti-militaristic, historical and autobiographical comics. For example, he published a biography of Adolf Hitler in manga form with Gekiga Hitler in Manga Sunday magazine in 1971 . In Sōin Gyokusai Seyo! he describes on 350 pages, based on his own experiences, the life of Japanese soldiers in World War II, such as a commander with Bushidō ideal on Rabaul asks his soldiers to commit suicide. In the comic Shōwashi he treats the history of the Shōwa period on 2000 pages ; one of his ghost figures acts as the narrator. For this work Mizuki was awarded the Kōdansha Manga Prize in the general category in 1989.

His ghost stories continued to grow in popularity in the 1990s. In 1992 his stories about Non Non Ba were implemented as an award-winning television series and broadcast on the public broadcaster NHK . In 1991, honored him with the Order of Merit on the purple band and in 2003 with the Order of the Rising Sun . In 1996, his hometown Sakaiminato built Mizuki Shigeru Road ( 水木 し げ る ロ ー ド ) in his honor, in which bronze statues of his well-known figures and other things related to him and his work are placed. In 2003 he was awarded the Osamu Tezuka Culture Prize as a special prize.

A compilation of some of his stories about Non Non Ba was published in France . This won the Prix ​​du meilleur album at the Festival International de la Bande Dessinée d'Angoulême 2007 . Also in Angoulême in 2009 was the French publication of Sōin Gyokusai Seyo! awarded the Prix ​​du patrimoine . His works have also been translated into Spanish and English.

Shigeru Mizuki died on November 30, 2015 at the age of 93 in Tokyo.

Works (selection)

  • Rocketman ( ロ ケ ッ ト マ ン , roketto man ), 1957
  • Ge Ge Ge no Kitarō (ゲ ゲ ゲ の 鬼 太郎 ), 1959-1967
  • Kappa no Sampei ( 河 童 の 三 平 ), 1961–1969
  • Akuma-kun (悪 魔 く ん ), various manga series that appeared between 1963 and 1990
  • Terebi-kun ( テ レ ビ く ん ), 1965
  • Non Non Bā to Ore ( の ん の ん ば あ と オ レ )
  • Gekiga Hitler ( 劇 画 ヒ ッ ト ラ ー ), 1971
  • Soin Gyokusai Seyo! ( 総 員 玉 砕 せ よ! ), 1973
  • Comic Shōwashi ( コ ミ ッ ク 昭和 史 ), 1988–1994

In German

literature

  • Frederik L. Schodt: Dreamland Japan. Writings On Modern Manga . 3. Edition. Stone Bridge Press, Berkeley 2002, ISBN 1-880656-23-X , pp. 177-182 .

Web links

Commons : Mizuki Shigeru Road  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kitaro, NonNonBâ Manga Creator Shigeru Mizuki Passes Away
  2. ↑ a b Jaqueline Berndt : Manga phenomenon . edition q, Berlin 1995. p. 66. ISBN 3-86124-289-3 .
  3. ↑ Frederik L. Schodt: Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics . P. 77.
  4. ↑ 「ゲ ゲ ゲ の 鬼 太郎」 水木 し げ る さ ん 93 歳 で 死去 Nikkan Sports , November 30, 2015, accessed November 30, 2015 (Japanese)
  5. ↑ Kitaro, NonNonBâ Manga Creator Shigeru Mizuki Passes Away. Anime News Network, November 29, 2015, accessed November 30, 2015
personal data
SURNAME Mizuki, Shigeru
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 水木 し げ る (Japanese); 武 良 茂 (maiden name, Japanese); Mura, Shigeru (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese manga artist
DATE OF BIRTH March 8, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Sakaiminato , Tottori Prefecture, Japan
DATE OF DEATH November 30, 2015
Place of death Tokyo