[1300th Issue Commemorative Special Interview] Continuing to Draw Manga for the Keio University Public Relations Magazine

It has been a relationship of over 50 years now (laughs).

That's right. When I entered the university, I saw a poster while having lunch with a friend at Umezushi—which is no longer there—at the Hiyoshi Campus. I thought it looked interesting and went to the club room. There were two or three seniors there, and they were delighted that a prospective new member had come for the first time in a long while.

But after that one meeting, none of the seniors showed up anymore. Almost a year passed without doing anything, and then they graduated (laughs).

Actually, shortly before I joined, there was an organization called the "Student Manga Federation," which was a group of students drawing manga that crossed university boundaries. At that time, people from the Waseda University Manga Research Society, like Hosuke Fukuchi and Shunji Sonoyama, were active, and it was a so-called manga boom. However, the boom passed, and that organization disbanded.

The Manga Club was also in a slump, and I was talking with a friend about whether the boom would just end like this. Then, the representative of the Waseda Manga Research Society visited and said, "NHK has brought us a project called the Waseda-Keio Manga Battle. Would you please do it?"

However, while Waseda had about 40 members, we only had two. So we managed to gather three people who looked like they could draw and entered, and surprisingly, we won (laughs). That's when we decided that Keio should also continue its activities.

After that, we were doing various activities to recruit members. Then, a movement to "revitalize student manga once again" emerged at other universities as well, and the "Student Manga Federation" was reformed. Seeing our activities, newspapers and weekly magazines began holding various contests targeting student manga.

Among those, the Mainichi Shimbun decided to do a feature on student manga for a New Year's project and had students from various universities draw manga, and mine won the Gold Prize. But I suppose they didn't know where to send the prize money.

I was called out on the university bulletin board: "Prize money has arrived from Mainichi Shimbun, so come to the Jukukan-kyoku to pick it up" (laughs). I think that was probably the catalyst. The first time I drew for them was in 1964, when I was a junior in college. That was the first time I drew for a Keio public relations medium. This is the club magazine we put out in the year I graduated from the Manga Club (image below, cover by Mr. Hisa).

The first time I consciously drew manga was when I was at the Keio Futsubu School. During a school trip, I was asked to draw an illustration for the Keio Futsubu School magazine.

I drew an illustration of a scene where a patrolling teacher was eavesdropping on students talking about things typical of puberty, but it got caught in the censorship of the people in charge of the magazine, and the scene with the eavesdropping teacher was cut (laughs).

They didn't teach me anything about how to draw at all (laughs). However, they let me draw whatever I wanted in class, which was a big help. When you're a middle school student, most people draw school events or copy their own hands, right? I thought that was boring. I tried copying war paintings or famous paintings of nude women and submitted them. But they evaluated those paintings fairly, which made me very happy.

Before graduation, as my own version of a graduation thesis, I published a self-funded collection of single-panel manga, which was introduced in a monthly magazine called "Manga Dokuhon" published by Bungeishunju at the time. That might have been the first time my manga appeared in a commercial magazine. After graduation, I worked for a trading company, but I still wanted to continue with manga. While employed, I published manga books through self-publishing and held exhibitions.

While continuing those activities, Bungeishunju was running an award called the "Bungeishunju Manga Award," and the manga I had self-published was nominated. At age 28, I was able to win the award.

Also, Kazutoshi Hando, who was the editor-in-chief of "Manga Dokuhon" at the time, found my manga interesting. He let me use 8 pages, or sometimes 16 pages, freely. It's fine to just show a single-panel manga once, but with that many pages, you can depict a single theme thoroughly. "Manga Dokuhon" let me do that occasionally, and that was what made me happiest back then.

Also, among the judges for the "Bungeishunju Manga Award" was the novelist Morio Kita, who said my drawings were interesting and entrusted me with the illustrations for series like "The Lonely King" and "The Lonely Beggar" published by Shinchosha. That was around the time I began my activities as a manga artist in earnest.

That's right. At that time, there were two types of manga: so-called manga for adults and manga for children. Children's manga were created with the idea of being children's toys, with many supplements attached to manga magazines, aiming to have them enjoy those. On the other hand, adult manga, including single-panel manga, appeared in newspapers and magazines for adults, with themes of social satire or a bit of sex appeal. There were also humor-like manga or illustrations with a few panels.

They had a different kind of fun compared to today's manga, but it was a sort of instantaneous fun, so after time passed, sometimes even the artist themselves wouldn't know what they were mocking. However, from the post-war period in 1945 until the 1960s, these works were actually the center of manga culture.

Yes. However, in the late 60s, shonen manga—so-called story manga—became extremely popular in weekly and monthly boys' magazines. Not just Osamu Tezuka, but works like "Star of the Giants" and "Tomorrow's Joe," which could withstand adult appreciation, began to be drawn, and adult readers all started reading story manga.

That's why many of today's editors have never even seen a single-panel manga. They don't even know how to take it. They understand once I explain it, though (laughs).

Because of that, the people who were drawing manga for adults gradually disappeared. For example, Kon Shimizu and Hidezou Kondo were great at caricatures, and their manga were interesting enough to stand on political caricatures alone, but such manga were consumed without almost any chance of being compiled and seen as books.

Yes. I have an admiration for adult manga within me. Among them, I liked the style called nonsense manga, which had no particular theme—or to put it another way, you could draw anything.

So, within a single panel, I want to express things like views on life or society in a raw way. That remains my motivation for drawing manga even now.

There was a period when I was exploring the origins of manga from that era. Many pre-war manga were carefully preserved, and books with beautiful bindings remained as they were. Thanks to that, I was able to read the "Complete Works of Rakuten Kitazawa" and the satirical magazine "Puck," which featured Rakuten's manga.

He expressed his own assertions and slogans in a single-picture format. He published them in newspapers and magazines for adults. Since it can be called the dawn of single-panel manga, there was much to learn.

That's right. Mr. Nemoto interviewed me for "Mita-hyoron" when I won the "Bungeishunju Manga Award" (August/September 1972 issue), and we were close ever since.

He was someone who truly loved animals and zoos, and I respect him both as a senior manga artist and as a senior at Keio.

This really hasn't progressed at all since elementary school, including the handling of art materials (laughs). I was once invited to the home of Taizo Yokoyama, who served as a judge for the "Bungeishunju Manga Award," and that was the first time I did sketching. Then, I couldn't draw to a surprising degree, even to myself (laughs).

Recent manga artists learn at vocational schools and the like, and they possess the techniques for drawing. I never had the chance to learn such techniques, so sometimes I feel envious.

However, while it's certainly better to have technique, I don't think that's enough on its own. I think the most important thing is the feeling of what you want to draw and what you are drawing for. Without that, I don't think you can draw what you truly want to draw.

I believe it was a request from Toshikazu Dobashi, who was in the Office of Communications and Public Relations at the time. The staff from the Office of Communications and Public Relations went around the site with me, and it was fun. There were even places I was allowed to enter that are usually inaccessible.

Basically, it's the same. I want to shape and convey what I see and feel. I think that doesn't change whether it's a single-panel manga or a campus map.

I think the campus map was one of the catalysts. Since my main profession was single-panel manga, I asked the staff at the Office of Communications and Public Relations at the time if I could draw for "Mita-hyoron," and they let me start drawing.

Professor Nobutoshi Yamazaki of the Faculty of Science and Technology was the catalyst for this. The professor was also serving as an editorial committee member for "Mita-hyoron" at the time, and at one point, he made a proposal about the form of the manga, saying, "Why don't we do it like this?" I didn't know the reason, though (laughs).

That's right. However, as the title says, it's "Manga Anything Theater," so I was thinking of returning it to one panel eventually. But drawing with dialogue in eight panels was unexpectedly fun. And here I am today (laughs).

Also, having dialogue makes it easier to convey my intentions to the reader. In the case of a single panel, everything must be expressed on one page, so it tends to become something with a strong impact.

Especially when dealing with themes like war, the gap between rich and poor, or environmental issues, I really want the reader to understand the importance of the problem, so the content becomes eye-catching.

War hasn't occurred in Japan for a long time, but it's happening everywhere in the world and hasn't disappeared even now. Economic disparity and environmental issues also continue. My desire to convey the importance of such problems hasn't changed since the time I was drawing in a single panel.

This is the same as the manga. I read the provided manuscript and decide how to cut it out in my own way. Instead of just making an illustration of what is written, I try to incorporate my own ideas and give them shape.

Dinosaurs and animals are themes I have a strong personal interest in, and I often feature them in my own picture books, so I am very happy that so many people read them. I want to continue dealing with them in my manga, and if there's a chance to be involved in another project, I'd definitely like to participate.

Nowadays, there are almost no people drawing single-panel manga anymore, and the places where they can be published are limited.

I am truly happy that I have been able to have many readers read my work in "Mita-hyoron" for 25 years in eight panels, and 38 years if counting from the single panels. After all, manga only exists when there are readers. I hope to continue expressing things happening "now" by cutting them out with my own senses so that people of various generations can enjoy them.