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Machiko Hasegawa
Hasegawa in 1955
Born(1920-01-30)January 30, 1920
Taku, Saga Prefecture, Empire of Japan
DiedMay 27, 1992(1992-05-27) (aged 72)
Tokyo, Japan
NationalityJapanese
OccupationManga artist
Known forSazae-san
AwardsSee below
Japanese name
Kanji長谷川 町子
Hiraganaはせがわ まちこ

Machiko Hasegawa (長谷川町子, Hasegawa Machiko, January 30, 1920 – May 27, 1992) was a Japanese manga artist and one of the first female manga artists.[1] She started her own comic strip, Sazae-san, in 1946. It reached national circulation via the Asahi Shimbun in 1949,[2] and ran daily until Hasegawa decided to retire in February 1974. All of her comics were printed in Japan in 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, Saga Prefecture. When she was 15, her father died and the family moved to Tokyo, where she took up drawing cartoons.[3] She successfully published several in magazines and newspapers, such as Sazae-san (サザエさん, 1946–1974),[4] Ijiwaru Bā-san (いじわるばあさん, "Granny Mischief", 1966–1971),[5] Epuron Oba-san (エプロンおばさん, "Aunt Apron", 1957–1965),[6] and a few that only ran for a short while.[citation needed] 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.[7] 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.[3]

Sazae-san

Main article: Sazae-san

Sazae-san was a popular postwar comic strip depicting the life of Sazae-san, a fictional Japanese housewife.[8]

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 2024.

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.[9]

Selected comics were translated into English, under the title The Wonderful World of Sazae-san.

Awards

Hasegawa won the 8th Bungeishunjū Manga Award for Sazae-san in 1962.[10] She was the first female manga artist to receive Japan's Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon in 1982.[10][11] She also received the 4th Tokyo Cultural Award in 1988;[10] the Order of the Precious Crown, Fourth Class in 1990;[10] the Minister of Education Award for Sazae-san at the 20th Japan Cartoonists Association Awards in 1991;[4][12] the 10th People's Honor Award in 1992;[13][14] and the Special Prize at the 24th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prizes in 2020.[15]

See also

References

  1. ^ Schodt, Frederik L. (1985). "Reading the Comics". The Wilson Quarterly. 9 (3): 64. JSTOR 40256891.
  2. ^ 沿革：朝日新聞社インフォメーション (in Japanese). The Asahi Shimbun Company. Archived from the original on May 28, 2010. Retrieved January 26, 2010.
  3. ^ a b Kirkup, James (July 13, 1992). "Obituary: Hasegawa Machiko". The Independent. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
  4. ^ a b サザエさん. Digital Daijisen Plus (in Japanese). Shogakukan. Retrieved April 19, 2021 – via Kotobank.
  5. ^ いじわるばあさん. Digital Daijisen Plus (in Japanese). Shogakukan. Retrieved April 19, 2021 – via Kotobank.
  6. ^ エプロンおばさん. Digital Daijisen Plus (in Japanese). Shogakukan. Retrieved April 19, 2021 – via Kotobank.
  7. ^ Wada, Yuhei (December 27, 2010). "The World of Red and White". The Japan Times. Archived from the original on June 3, 2012. Retrieved February 11, 2017.
  8. ^ Garon, Sheldon (2000). "Luxury is the Enemy: Mobilizing Savings and Popularizing Thrift in Wartime Japan". Journal of Japanese Studies. 26 (1): 71. doi:10.2307/133391. JSTOR 133391.
  9. ^ Port, Kenneth L. (1988). "Copyright Protection of Fictional Characters in Japan". Wisconsin International Law Journal. 205: 214–219 – via Mitchell Hamline School of Law.
  10. ^ a b c d 第24回受賞作品：特別賞 長谷川町子 (in Japanese). The Asahi Shimbun Company. Retrieved April 19, 2021.
  11. ^ Ransom, Ko (April 27, 2012). "Hagio Is 1st Shōjo Manga Creator to Win Japan's Purple Ribbon (Updated)". Anime News Network. Retrieved April 19, 2021. Machiko Hasegawa was the first female manga creator to receive the medal.
  12. ^ Hahn, Joel. "Japanese Cartoonists' Association Award". Comic Book Awards Almanac. Retrieved April 19, 2021.
  13. ^ "People's Honor Award" (in Japanese). Cabinet Office. Archived from the original on September 23, 2015. Retrieved February 25, 2015.
  14. ^ "People's Honor Award Recipients". Nippon.com. The Nippon Communications Foundation. June 22, 2017. Retrieved April 19, 2021.
  15. ^ Pineda, Rafael Antonio (April 27, 2020). "Nyx no Lantern, Sazae-san's Machiko Hasegawa Win Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prizes". Anime News Network. Retrieved April 19, 2021.

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