1. Project Information
2. List of Girl's Mangaka and Examples of Visual Images:
   Twenty Major Mangaka Who Contributed to the World of Shojo Manga
   (World War II to Present)
3. Project Schedule (Tentative)
4. Touring Exhibition Sites
5. Presenters' Information
6. Directors' Information
7. Other Information

List of Girl's Mangaka and Examples of Visual Images:

Twenty Major Mangaka Who Contributed to the World of Shojo Manga
(World War II to Present)

• Girl's Manga means manga that is depicted for girls and/or female readers.
• A Girl's Mangaka is a comic artist who creates manga for girls and women.
• Girl's mangaka are not always female. Some male mangaka also create girl's  manga. In most cases these male mangaka started as girl's managaka early in their careers in the early 1950s and then switched to boy's manga.
• The following four male mangaka (Tezuka, Chiba, Ishinomori, and Matsumoto) are well known as great mangaka for boy's and male manga with their big successes with hit manga and animation, but Chiba and Matsumoto started their careers as girl's mangaka. Tezuka and Ishinomori also created great girl's manga.
• The following twenty major girl's mangaka (comic artists) from Japan are involved in this touring exhibition, and the following are examples from the show.
• The following visuals are all from the front page of the manga and/or cover page from the book form.
• The actual exhibition will be organized with front cover visuals (color) and content pages in sequential frames (black/white) to introduce the innovations in visual composition that were invented in girl's manga to depict psychological expression.

Girl's Manga by Male Mangaka

Visual Examples

Artist's Background and Brief Information

Visual Examples

Artist's Background and Brief Information

Ribbon no Kishi (1953)

1

Osamu Tezuka (11/1928 – 3/1989), Osaka, Japan

He is well known as the God of contemporary Japanese manga and his influences on the manga world in Japan is immeasurable.

Ryujinnuma
(1961)

2

Shotaro Ishinomori (1/25/1938 – 1/28/1998) Miyagi

He is a successful magnaka for boy’s and girl’s manga. Especially, he contributed to the development of a new composition in manga

Shimmkakko
(1964)

3

Tetsuya Chiba (1/11/1939), Tokyo

He is well knows as one of the most successful diverse boy's mangaka, but he started as a girl's mangaka.

Gin no Kinoko (1961)

4

Akira (Reiji) Matumoto (1938)

He is a great contributor to the development of Japanese manga animation which gave children hope and dreams.

Visual Examples

Female Artist's Background

Visual Examples

Female Artist's Background

Garasu no Shiso
(1969 - 71)

5

Masako Watanabe (1929), Tokyo

She is one of the first female mangaka who contributed to the development of shojo manga after W.W. II. She is still highly active, depicting diverse themes through her manga.
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Maki no Kuchibue
(1960-63)

6

Miyako Maki (7/29/1935), Kobe

Her visual style highly infuenced to the girl's manga. The most popular doll in Japan, Rika, is created as an ideal image of girl based on her characters.

Honey Honey no Stekina Bouken
(1966 - 67)

7

Hideko Mizuno (3/29/1939), Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi

She is the first female mangaka who successfully depicted majestic dramas based on historical and mythological stories.

Akiko (1986)

8

Machiko Satonaka (1/24/1948), Osaka

The diverse topics based on women's drama that she creates continue to impress female readers. She also contributed to the development of Lady's Comics for mature female readers.

Versailles no Bara
(1972 - 73)

9

Riyoko Ikeda (12/18/1947), Osaka

Her magnificent love story based on the French Revolution became a big phenomenon in Japanese society in the 70s. This became a big hit play by Takaraduka (an all female performance group).

Illustration for the cover for a book of Asuka
(1986)

10

Suzue Miuchi (2/20/51), Oosaka

She is well known as a mangaka of long spectacle dramas. Garasu no Kamen (Mask of Glass), an ongoing serial manga started in 1976 about a girl who grows as an actress, is a good and great example of her work.

Suna no Shiro
(1977 - 81)

11

Yukari Ichijyo (9/19/49), Okayama

When she made her debut on the girl's manga world, readers were impressed by the sophisticated visual techniques and images. Since then, she has maintained the high quality in her manga.

Kaze to Ki no Uta (1976-84)

12

Keiko Takemiya (2/13/1950), Tokushima

The theme of boy's love in her manga opened up a new field in girl's manga and it sparked off the YAOI (boy's love) boom in the comic market in Japan in the 80s.

Hyakuoku no Hiru to Senoku no Yoru
(1977 - 78)

13

Moto Hagio (5/12/1949), Fukuoka

Her philosophical manga cover many themes and genres. Her created manga world continues to attract big fans regardless of genders.

Hiizuru tokoro no Tenshi
(1980 - 84)

14

Ryoko Yamagishi (9/24/1947), Hokkaid0

One of the most successful stories among her many works is a historical drama based on one of the most famous historical Japanese, Shotokutaishi, who introduced Buddhism officially in Japan in the 7th century.

One Zero
(1984 - 86)

15

Shio Sato (12/6/1950), Miyagi

Compared to other female mangaka, she does not produce many stories regularly, but she has many big fans due to her sophisticated use of the Japanese language in her mysterious manga world.

Banana Fish
(1985 - 94)

16

Akimi Yoshida (8/12/56), Tokyo

She is probably the most famous female mangaka in the US with her NY gang story "Banana Fish" (translated into English), which contains elements of boy's love.

17

A-ko Mutsu (2/15/54), Kitakyushu City

She was the originator and leading proponent of the “otometic” type of love story in girls’ manga, a type of innocent, understated girls’ love stor. She became the number one shojo mangaka in Ribbon in the 1970s.

18

Mariko Iwadate
(2/8/57), Hokkaido

Her work has been called “Iwadate’s World” due to the fantasy element of her gentle and soft pastel pictorial world and also with her cold observations of the realities of youth.

Itumo Pocket ni Syoppan (1980)

Fusako Kuramochi (5/14/55), Tokyo
Through her bittersweet coming of age manga, young readers can grow with the heroes and heroines in her stories. Adult readers experience the nostalgia of reliving their formative years.

Youmihenjyoyawa (1995 - present)

Reiko Okano (6/24/1960), Ibaragi
She is one of the most successful female mangaka with her new interpretation s of Japanese history. She also challenges a new way of creating contemporary manga with traditional Japanese ink brushes.

21

CLAMP is a collaborative group of four women mangaka: Satsuki Igarashi, Ageha Okawa, Tsubaki Nekoi, and Mokona.

As their roles vary with each project, their visual style can be dramatically different from project to project, and their work is surprisingly successful with a wide-ranging audience

22

Ichiko Ima

She is fond of the traditional Yokai in Japanese folk tales and often refers to these as well. In the story Hyakki Yakosho (100 Demons), the protagonist Ritsu, who can communicate with Yokai, gets involved in tough problems that Yokai ask him to solve.

23

Fumi Yoshinaga (1971) Tokyo

One of the most successful boy's love depicts the love between males, but weaves in more complicated plots. "I want to depict people who try very hard but don't make it. In boy's magazines people who try hard always win. That is not what I want.