Mangaka Profile (2): Kazuo Umezu

• Name: Kazuo Umezu
• In Japanese: 楳図かずお
• Date of birth: September 3rd, 1936 (73 years old at the time of the interview)
• Hometown: Kōya, Wakayama
• Debut: 1955 (19 years old), with Mori no kyōdai (The brothers of the forest).
• Main works: Hyōryū Kyōshitsu (The Drifting Classroom), Orochi, Senrei (Baptism), Makoto-chan, Watashi wa Shingo (My name is Shingo), Nekome kozō (Cat Eye Boy), Hebi shōjo (Reptilia), Kowai hon (Scary book), 14 (jūyon)-sai (Fourteen years).
• Awards: 20th Shōgakukan Manga Award (for Hyōryū Kyōshitsu, among other works).

Facts:

• He was born in the Kōya area of Wakayama, one of the “three holiest spots” of Japan, an eerie and mystical place where Buddhist saint Kūkai is buried. He soon moved with his family to Nara, where he spent most of his childhood.

• He decided to become a mangaka when he found and read a copy of Osamu Tezuka and Shichima Sakai’s Shin-Takarajima (The New Treasure Island).

• He made his debut in 1955 and worked solely for the kashihon manga industry well into the 1960s, even after moving to Tokyo in 1963 (at that point, kashihon manga had entered a period of very fast decline).

• Although his name in Roman letters is spelled “Kazuo Umezu”, he seems to prefer the spelling “Kazuo Umezz” because, namely, “there are no Western surnames which finish with ‘u’”. However, most of his works published in the West are credited “Umezu”.

• He got a lot of attention when he began to create horror stories for girl’s magazines, such as Hebi Shōjo (Reptilia). A lot of his production was published in shōjo magazines.

• He soon went out to draw horror manga for shōnen magazines, and in the 70s he created his masterpiece Hyōryū Kyōshitsu (The Drifting Classroom).

• In the 80s, he went on to draw manga for seinen (adult readers) magazines.

• He is mostly known as “the father of horror manga”, and he truthfully is. However, he has also been very successful with other genres, such as lewd, crazy and thrash humor. Makoto-chan, the so eschatological story of a little kid, is his most known work in this area.

• One of his most widely known “inventions” is the GWASHI sign.

• He normally wears red and white striped shirts and jerseys. He has a HUGE collection of them.

• He recently built a new house in Kichijōji district, Musashino city, in the Tokyo suburbs. The building, called Makoto-chan House, is so amazing that it deserves a separate post in this blog (I interviewed him in his house and got to do a tour –everything was filmed, of course–). He received many complaints from his neighbors during the construction. They even took him to court! (but he won the case).

• He hates cars, so he takes the train and walks a lot (yes, wearing his striped shirts and being so famous in Japan, everyone recognizes him).

• He retired from manga in 1995 due to tenosynovitis (trigger finger). Since then, he makes a lot of appearances on TV and the media.

• He has three music bands (!), and likes working as an actor as well.

• Quite a few of his manga have been published in English: Cat Eyed Boy (Viz), Reptilia (IDW), Scary Book (Dark Horse), The Drifting Classroom (Viz) and Orochi (Viz). Besides, Baptism is available in French (Glénat).

Unbelievably crazy Kazuo Umezu is living manga history!!

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