| Shigeru Mizuki 水木 しげる | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Shigeru Mura (1922-03-08)March 8, 1922 Osaka,Osaka Prefecture, Japan |
| Died | November 30, 2015(2015-11-30) (aged 93) Tokyo, Japan |
| Area | Manga artist |
Notable works | |
| Awards | See below |
Shigeru Mura (Japanese:武良 茂,Hepburn:Mura Shigeru; March 8, 1922 – November 30, 2015), best known by his pen nameShigeru Mizuki (水木 しげる,Mizuki Shigeru), was a Japanesemanga artist, illustrator andfolklorist. He is best known for popularizing and reviving interest inyōkai, supernatural creatures from Japanese folklore, especially through his most famous seriesGeGeGe no Kitarō.
Raised inSakaiminato, Mizuki developed an early interest in art and the supernatural. Drafted duringWorld War II, he lost his left arm in combat, an experience that deeply shaped his laterantimilitarist works, includingOnward Towards Our Noble Deaths.
Mizuki began his career inkamishibai (paper theater) and transitioned to manga in the late 1950s. His signature style contrasted cartoonish characters with highly detailed backgrounds and grotesque depictions of yōkai. Deeply influenced by oral folklore, especially stories told by a woman he called “Nonnonba,” he also engaged in extensiveethnographic research. His works often combinedautobiography, history, and fantasy to critique modernization, nationalism, and imperialism. A recipient of numerous awards, his legacy extends into global pop culture through translations, adaptations, and homages in media.
Mizuki was born Shigeru Mura in the city of Osaka, the second of three sons. He was raised in the coastal city of Sakaiminato (境港), where he spent much of his childhood as a 'scrapper': picking fights and participating in childish warfare with the neighbouring children.[1] He displayed from an early age a particular talent for art. During his time in elementary school, Mizuki's teachers were so impressed by his skills with a pencil that they organised an exhibition of his work, and he later went on to be featured in the Mainichi newspaper as something of an artistic prodigy.[1] In addition to this penchant for the artistic, Mizuki had an interest in the supernatural - something that was fueled by listening to ghost stories told by a local woman named Fusa Kageyama,[1] but whom the young Mizuki nicknamed "Nonnonba".[1][2]
However,in 1942, he was drafted into theImperial Japanese Army and sent toNew Britain Island inPapua New Guinea. His wartime experiences affected him greatly, as he contractedmalaria, watched friends die from battle wounds and disease, and dealt with other horrors of war. Finally, in anAlliedair raid, he was caught in an explosion and lost his left arm. Regarding this life-changing event, a November 30, 2015, NHK announcement of his death showed excerpts of a video interview with him at age 80, in which he said that as the only survivor of his unit, he was 'ordered to die' — a prospect he considered ridiculous. The result of Mizuki's wartime experience was a concurrent sense of pacifism and goodwill. In the same interview, he explained that his yōkai characters can be seen only in times of peace, not war, and that he purposely created these supernatural creatures to be of no specific ethnicity or nationality as a hint of the potential for humanity. While in a Japanesefield hospital onRabaul, he was befriended by the localTolai tribespeople, who offered him land, a home, and citizenship via marriage to a Tolai woman.[3] Mizuki acknowledged that he considered remaining behind, but was shamed by a military doctor into returning home to Japan first for medical treatment to his arm and to face his parents, which he did reluctantly.[2]
Upon arriving home, Mizuki had initially planned to return to New Guinea; however, theoccupation of Japan changed that. His injuries did little to help, nor did the fact that his older brother, an artillery officer, was convicted as awar criminal for having prisoners of war executed. Mizuki drifted between various jobs, including pedicab driving and fish selling, before studying briefly atMusashino Art University. He moved toChōfu, Tokyo, where he remained until his death. He began his artistic career producing illustrations forkamishibai (paper theater), and later transitioned into manga as the medium shifted to mass publishing.[1]
In 1957, Mizuki released his debut work as a professional manga artist at age 35,Rocketman. Much of his early work was derivative of American comics, particularly horror and superhero genres brought home by his father from the American consulate.[1] Mizuki's pen name came from a superior insisting on calling him "Mizuki", based on the location of his residence, even after he explained that his surname was Mura. Mizuki decided that he liked "Mizuki" as a pen name.[4]
Mizuki married his wife Nunoe in 1960 through an arranged marriage.[1]
His breakthrough came with the 1965 manga short story "Terebi-kun", which explored the relationship between children and consumer technology in an era of rapid economic growth.[5]
The same year, he began to redo a series calledHakaba Kitarō (墓場鬼太郎; lit. "Kitarō of the Graveyard"), which he had published as arental manga adaptation of the kamishibai of the same name in 1960. In 1965, it was renamedHakaba no Kitarō and began serialization inWeekly Shōnen Magazine, before being renamed again toGeGeGe no Kitarō in 1967. He achieved lasting fame with the series. Though earlyKitarō stories were dark and political, the franchise eventually achieved widespread popularity and shaped the landscape of Japanese pop culture.[1]
In 1972 he published thegekigaNonnonba [ja] about his childhood friendship with old maid and his nanny, who impressed him with the yōkai stories.
In 1991, he released a short work titledWar and Japan (Sensō to Nippon) published inThe Sixth Grader, a popularedutainment magazine for young people, detailing the atrocities committed by the Japanese Army during their rampage inChina andKorea and is narrated byNezumi Otoko.[6] The work serves as a counterpoint torevisionist manga like the works ofYoshinori Kobayashi and by extension a way for Mizuki to express his anger at those responsible for all of Japan's victims. From 1989 until 1998 he worked onShowa: A History of Japan, which follows the same approach and conveys Mizuki's view of theShōwa era through a mixture of personal anecdotes and summaries of major historical events. His characterNezumi Otoko often appears as the narrator in these works.
In addition to his creative output, Mizuki was a prolific folklorist. His 12-volume seriesMujara earned him membership in the Japanese Society of Cultural Anthropology. He also advocated for the Shōkeikan archive-museum, which documents the lives of disabled and wounded veterans.[1]
In 2003, he returned to Rabaul to rekindle his friendship with the locals, who had named a road after him in his honor.
In 2005, Mizuki appeared in a cameo role inYōkai Daisenso ("The Great Yokai War") directed byTakashi Miike, a film about yōkai inspired by his work as well as the work ofAramata Hiroshi. He appears towards the end of the film in the role of theGreat Elder Yōkai: a pacifistic character who condemns the warring ways of the film's antagonist and reaffirms the role of yōkai as peaceful, playful creatures.[7] A brief explanation about his works also is mentioned in the film. In 2010,NHK broadcast anasadora about his married life,Gegege no Nyōbō, based on his wife's autobiography.
Throughout most of his life, Mizuki's work was relatively unknown outside Japan due to not having been translated. This changed in the 2010s when translations in several European languages of his Showa, Kitaro, Nonnonba and Hitler series began to appear, leading to an increasing interest in Mizuki and his work (and that of hisgekiga peers) among Westerners.
On November 30, 2015, Mizuki died of heart failure in a Tokyo hospital after collapsing at his home from a heart attack.[8][9] HisDharma name is大満院釋導茂 (Daiman-In-Shaku-Domo). He is buried atKakusho-ji [ja] inChofu, Tokyo.[10]
Mizuki’s manga career was marked by extraordinary productivity, especially during the 1960s when he employed up to seven or eight assistants. These included future famous artists likeYoshiharu Tsuge andRyoichi Ikegami. Tsuge, already an accomplished manga creator at the time, contributed ideas and even drew female characters for Mizuki, who struggled with depicting them himself. Assistants lived in rooms Mizuki added to the family house, and his wife would cook for everyone during busy periods.[11]
Mizuki rarely read other people’s manga, focusing instead on creating his own and conducting extensive research, even traveling abroad to study supernatural traditions. His studio was filled with books on global folklore, religion, dance, and especially ghosts and yōkai from various cultures.[11]
His works drew heavily on folklore and supernatural subjects.[11] In his numerous essays and illustrated catalogs, Mizuki frequently describes yōkai not simply as fictional creatures or cultural artifacts, but as phenomena that seek to take form and be perceived by humans. He famously asserted that such beings "want to take shape (katachi ni naritagatte iru)"; they desire to reveal their appearance (sugata) to people. According to Mizuki, yōkai possess a kind of agency: “As something that tries to take form, they hint by knocking on the brain of the artist or the sculptor,” an action he equates with inspiration. Belief in the actual existence of yōkai andkami, he suggests, is essential for maintaining a connection to this imaginative realm: “The instant you believe [they are human-made], the yōkai or the kami will stop knocking on your brain.”[5]
Mizuki saw yōkai not merely as entertainment but as essential expressions of human sensitivity to the invisible and inexplicable. He often spoke of “kehai,” a Japanese term meaning a vague presence or atmosphere, as central to the experience of encountering ghosts or spirits. As Mizuki explained, "Kehai always predicates the appearance of a ghost or specter… Without the feeling of fear, no ghost will make its presence known". He did not claim to see ghosts himself but to sense theirkehai, which he then gave visual form through his art. His depictions were not limited to Japan. Mizuki drew on experiences in Papua New Guinea and Africa to illustrate how animistic worldviews give vivid form to the unseen. In many cultures, spirits inhabit masks, forests, and dances, confirming for Mizuki that "kehai flourishes in places whereanimism still lives". Mizuki described this process: “Since I’m not a musician, I’m not satisfied until something has a form. So I give form tokehai, and ghosts are the form I happen to have chosen”.[12]
Mizuki’s approach suggests that yōkai are not only folkloric entities but affective, perceptual experiences. Illustrating them becomes a form of emotional expression, requiring what he calls a “yōkai sense”. a heightened sensitivity to elusive presences that escape ordinary perception.[5]
While Mizuki referred to folklorists likeKunio Yanagita andToriyama Sekien, he also referred to the ghost stories he heard throughoral tradition from "Nonnonba" as a child. Mizuki’s recounting of her guidance is embedded in a sentimental haze: the otherworld she opens to him is already a thing of the past, inaccessible to modern adults and preserved only through memory and manga. As Foster suggests, Mizuki’s role becomes that of a secondary medium, translating this bygone world to a readership increasingly distanced from it, both spatially and temporally.[5] Some, like Kitarō and Medama-oyaji, are clearly his inventions and do not appear in his encyclopedic catalogs. Others, like Nurikabe and Sunakake-babaa, move fluidly between fiction and supposed folklore. Their inclusion in Mizuki’s reference yōkai catalogs and encyclopedias lends them an aura of authority, even when their folkloric origins are tenuous.[5]
One example is theBake ichō no sei (ばけいちょうのせい,monster ginkgo spirit) orBake ichō no rei (ばけいちょうのれい), ayōkai described by Mizuki as having a yellow face and limbs, wearing a kimono dyed withinkstick and striking agong; in Japanese folklore, planting aGinkgo biloba tree in a home garden is considered inauspicious and said to bring ill fortune.[14] Mizuki draws this monster picture based on the"Kamakura Wakamiya Hachiman Ginkgo Tree Ghost" inYosa Buson'sBuson yōkai emaki.[14] According to folkloristGoichi Yumoto [ja], Buson's illustration is a depiction of an old tree spirit.[13]
In later life, Mizuki created personal adaptations of Japanese literary classics, includingKonjaku Monogatari andTōno Monogatari. His version ofTōno Monogatari represents a blend of fidelity toKunio Yanagita’s text and Mizuki’s emotional, fantastical style. Initially adhering closely to Yanagita’s dry tone, Mizuki’s expressive approach gradually overtakes the narrative.[15]
Mizuki was deeply interested in history, notably producing a multi-volume manga series on the Showa era. He was critical of the postwarmodernization andindustrialization of Japan, which he felt damaged the natural environment and disrupted traditional human relationships. He lamented the loss of this sensitivity in modern Japan, where industrialization and long work hours extinguished people's ability to perceive the mysterious: "In the past, life was interesting primarily because there was time enough to sense such things askehai”.[12] His daughter described how he created essays and comics to advocate for a worldview in which humans are part of, and should respect, the natural world.[11]
InMusume ni Kataru Otōsan no Senki (Papa’s War Diary Told to His Daughters, 1995), Mizuki mixes folklore into his wartime experiences. Here, too, he encounters another “otherworld”: a Papuan village near Rabaul that he describes in idyllic, even utopian, terms. The village is presented not merely as a geographical location but as a spiritual realm reminiscent of the Jōmon period or a fairyland. The local matriarch Ikarian becomes another Nonnonbā-like figure, and the villagers are imbued with otherworldly qualities, silent, generous, visible only to Mizuki, and ultimately restorative. When Mizuki smells the scent of a newborn from his healing stump, it marks not just physical recovery but a symbolic rebirth into this new, primal world. The account lacks sympathetic portrayals of fellow Japanese soldiers. The war is depicted as an experience of dehumanization, cruelty, and meaningless suffering, in contrast to the Papuan village’s nurturing community. This dichotomy reinforces a central motif in Mizuki’s broader oeuvre: the possibility of redemption or wholeness through connection to an otherworldly realm that lies outside the grasp of modernity and imperial violence.[5]
Mizuki often appeared in his own manga as a comical, bespectacled character, injecting a playful self-awareness into his narratives. This figure, “Mizuki-san”, contributed to a biographical mythology surrounding the artist, connecting his personal history with the nostalgic yōkai world he depicted.[5]
Mizuki was politically outspoken. He critiquedJapanese militarism andnationalism, notably in his children’s comicJapan and War and the publication ofShowa during Japan’s economic boom. He also addressed American imperialism inKitarō’s Vietnam War Diary.[1] Several of his works touch uponWorld War II. His wartime mangaOnward Towards Our Noble Deaths offers a semi-autobiographical portrayal of Japanese soldiers abandoned by their commanders and driven toward senseless death. He published a manga biography ofAdolf Hitler.[2]
Mizuki's work was known for its high level of visual detail, including patterns of tiny dots.[11] His human figures are drawn with loose, open, and nearly collapsing lines, creating an effect of visual and existential indeterminacy. In contrast, his backgrounds and yōkai are rendered with obsessive detail, highlighting the vitality of the non-human world.[16]
By the 1960s, yōkai were largely regarded as outdated folklore with little relevance to modern urban life. Mizuki’s work is credited with reviving public interest in traditional Japanese folklore and reshaping how yōkai are understood in modern culture, most notably through the seriesGegege no Kitarō. His influence can be seen in franchises likePokémon,Digimon,Spirited Away,My Neighbor Totoro, andNeon Genesis Evangelion. ArtistTakashi Murakami cited Mizuki as a formative influence.[1][5]
His death was widely mourned in Japan and abroad. Obituaries appeared in major outlets includingThe New York Times,The Wall Street Journal, and theBBC. Tokyo-based journalistJake Adelstein called him the “Voice of Japan’s Conscience,” and author Roland Kelts described him as a truesui generis, a unique artist beyond comparison.[1]
His impact extended into the 21st century, with live-action adaptations such as the 2007Gegege no Kitarō film and Takashi Miike’s 2005 blockbusterThe Great Yōkai War.[5]
The smash hit mangaDeath Note byTsugumi Ohba andTakeshi Obata used the same idea as his one-shot mangaThe Miraculous Notebook (不思議な手帖,Fushigina Techō; 1973) about a notebook that killed whoever's name was written in it. Although this fact is a coincidence, Ohba has stated he did not have any particular inspiration for his story.[17][18]
Sakaiminato, Mizuki's childhood home, has a street dedicated to the ghosts and monsters that appear in his stories.[19] One hundred bronze statues of the story's characters line both sides of the road. There is also a museum featuring several of his creations and works.
Mizuki has won numerous awards and accolades for his works, especiallyGeGeGe no Kitarō. Among these are:
| Title | Year | Notes | Refs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rocketman (ロケットマン) | 1957 | Published in 1958 byTogetsu Shobō | |
| Hakaba Kitarō (墓場鬼太郎; lit. "Kitarō of the Graveyard") | 1960–1964 | Published by Togetsu Shobō | |
| Kappa no Sanpei (河童の三平) | 1961–1962 | Published by Togetsu Shobō | |
| Akuma-kun (悪魔くん) | 1963–1964 | Published by Tōkōsha | |
| "Terebi-kun" (テレビくん) | 1965 | Published inBessatsu Shōnen Magazine | |
| Hakaba no Kitarō (墓場の鬼太郎) | 1965–1967 | Serialized inWeekly Shōnen Magazine | |
| "Wakusei" (惑星) | 1966 | Published inGaro | |
| Kitarō Yawa (鬼太郎夜話) | 1967–1969 | Serialized inGaro Published in French asMicmac aux enfers in 1 vol. | [28] |
| GeGeGe no Kitarō (ゲゲゲの鬼太郎) | 1967–1969 | Serialized inWeekly Shōnen Magazine Published in English | |
| Hitler (劇画ヒットラー,Gekiga Hittorā) | 1971 | Serialized inManga Sunday Published in English | |
| Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths (総員玉砕せよ!,Sōin Gyokusai Seyo!) | 1973 | Published byKodansha in 1 vol. Published in English | |
| "The Miraculous Notebook" (不思議な手帖,Fushigina Techō) | 1973 | Published inComic Mystery | [17] |
| Showa: A History of Japan (コミック昭和史,Komikku Shōwa-shi) | 1988–1989 | Published by Kodansha in 8 vol. Published in English | |
| "War and Japan" | 1991 | Published inShogaku rokunen-sei Translated into English online by scholar Matthew Penney | [29] |
| NonNonBa [ja] (のんのんばあとオレ,Nonnonba to Ore) | 1992 | Published by Kodansha in 2 vol. Published in English | |
| Boku no Isshō wa GeGeGe no Rakuen da (ボクの一生はゲゲゲの楽園だ) | 2001 | Published by Kodansha in 6 vol. Published in French and German | [30][31] |
| Tono Monogatari [ja] (水木しげるの遠野物語,Mizuki Shigeru no Tōno Monogatari) | 2008–2009 | Serialized inBig Comic Published byShogakukan in 1 vol. Published in English | |
| Watashi no Hibi (わたしの日々, "My Days") | 2014–2015 | Serialized inBig Comic | [32] |
For his contribution to the manga comic culture through his wide range of original works featuring specters and portrayals of the horrors of war.
| Anime | |
|---|---|
| Music | "Rondo" |
| Related | |
