Murasaki Yamada (やまだ 紫,Yamada Murasaki, September 5, 1948 – May 5, 2009), born asMitsuko Yamada (山田 三津子,Yamada Mitsuko), was a Japanesemanga artist,feminist essayist and poet. She was associated with thealternative manga magazineGaro.

She was born inTaishidō [ja],Setagaya, Tokyo as Mitsuko Yamada, on September 5, 1948. She began drawing artwork as a child. She lived with her grandparents while her mother and sister lived separately; they all lived in Taishidō. Her father died fromtuberculosis.^[3] She attendedFujimigaoka High School [ja], beginning in 1963, and played in a band, "Weeping Love Strings," with four men/boys.^[4] She married one of them in October 1971, and the two moved to adanchi apartment inTakashimadaira [ja].^[5]

She used the pen name "Murasaki Neko" for her poetry work, and later incorporated "Murasaki" into her standard pen name. Ryan Holmberg, the translator ofTalk to My Back, stated that the name "Murasaki" reminds one ofMurasaki Shikibu and that the name had "poetic connotations" to the author's liking.^[6] Additionally, Yamada's daughter, Yū Yamada, stated that Yamada liked the color of purple dyes fromlithospermum erythrorhizon, also known as "murasaki". Yamada had a preference for cats, which appears in her works.^[6]

She made her debut as a professional manga artist in 1969 inOsamu Tezuka's avantgarde magazineCOM and had formal art training before becoming a manga artist.^[7] When COM stopped being published, she started working for Garo magazine instead. Her first short story in Garo was "Oh, the Ways of the World" (ああせけんさまAa Seken-sama) in 1971. For another short story, "When the Wind Blew" (風の吹く頃Kaze no fuku koro), she won a Honorable Mention at the Big Comic Award associated with theBig Comic magazine.^[8] After this, she put her career on hiatus because of marriage and raising her children. She returned toGaro in 1978 and also started publishing essays, illustrations and poetry in literary magazines.^[9] From 1981 until 1984, she published the feminist manga seriesTalk to My Back in Garo, which dealt with being a housewife, a failing marriage and the pressure of raising children.

She separated from her first husband in 1981, and he moved out of her residence. The divorce was complete in 1983. She accused her first husband ofspousal abuse.^[1]

Yamada ran for a seat in the1989 Japanese House of Councillors election as part of the Chikyū Club political organization. She lost, along with others in her party. It was the only time she ran for office.^[10]

From 2006 on, she taught atKyoto Seika University's Faculty of Manga.^[11] In 2007, she also moved toKyoto.^[9]

She marriedChikao Shiratori [ja], and was last legally known asMitsuko Shiratori (白取 三津子,Shiratori Mitsuko).^[2] She first met Shiratori in 1984. He moved into her residence around 1985 to 1986. In 2002 they married.^[12] She was 17 years older than he was, and she modeled a boyfriend character inBlue Sky after him.^[13]

Yamada died at Kyoto Hospital on May 5, 2009, age 60, due tointracerebral hemorrhage.^[14][9]

Her works are described as being pictorialI Novels.^[7]

Frederik L. Schodt regarded her work as particularly important because of the feminist message, rare inshōjo manga. Yamada influencedHinako Sugiura andYōko Kondō, her former assistants.^[7] The three of them were referred to as the "ThreeGaro Girls" (ガロ三人娘Garo san'nin musume),^[15] translated by Ryan Holmberg (translator ofTalk to My Back) as "three daughters ofGaro"; Holmberg argued Yamada's age and motherhood made the moniker "highly misleading", and that while male artists are not usually distinguished by gender, the moniker does so for the female artists and implies that women are inherently bound to families.^[16] Holmberg argued that, therefore, the moniker displays sexism.^[16]

_{Sources:^[7][11][14]}

Citations

Bibliography

• Holmberg, Ryan (July 2022). "The Life and Art of Yamada Murasaki". In Yamada, Murasaki (ed.).Talk to My Back. Translated by Ryan Holmberg.Montreal:Drawn and Quarterly. pp. vii–xli.ISBN 978-1-77046-563-3.

• Google books(in Italian)

• 1948 births
• 2009 deaths
• Manga artists
• Women manga artists
• Artists from Kyoto
• Manga artists from Tokyo
• Writers from Tokyo
• Japanese female comics artists
• Japanese feminists
• Japanese poets
• Writers from Kyoto

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