Japanese Manga Artist Yoshiharu Tsuge Dies at 88

Tokyo, March 27 (Jiji Press)–Prominent Japanese manga artist Yoshiharu Tsuge, best known for “Nejishiki,” which was published in 1968, died of aspiration pneumonia at a hospital in Tokyo on March 3. He was 88. Born in Tokyo’s Katsushika Ward, Tsuge worked at a metal plating factory after finishing elementary school. He debuted as a professional manga artist in 1955 with “Hakumenyasha.” Nejishiki, published in monthly manga magazine Garo, depicts a boy wandering through a mysterious town. For its avant-garde style, the work attracted passionate fans. Tsuge’s works often explored themes such as alienation from the world and the absurdity of human existence. He also wrote essays and manga about travel and hot springs. He temporarily served as an assistant to the late Shigeru Mizuki, a renowned Japanese manga artist. While he had been inactive since the second half of the 1980s, Tsuge’s reputation has grown in recent years in Europe and the United States. He received the Japan Cartoonists Association’s top prize in 2017 and a special award at the Angouleme International Comics Festival in France in 2020. In 2022, Tsuge and Tetsuya Chiba, also a Japanese manga artist, became the first cartoonists elected members of the Japan Art Academy. In 2024, Tsuge received the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, a Japanese government honor. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]