Mitsuteru Yokoyama(1934-2004)

Mistuteru Yokoyama was born on June 18, 1934 in Kobe city, Hyogo prefecture, Japan. As a boy he loved reading magazine novels and comics. He got his first inspiration to draw comics after reading Osamu Tezuka's comic the "Metropolis". In his own words, Tezuka's ability to write interesting stories, his graceful lines, and the fact that they were both from city of Kobe, moved and inspired him to draw comics. Returning to Kobe from Tottori after the war (WW II), Tezuka's "Metropolis" and burned down city of Kobe gave him the impetus to draw. In his own words, he wasn't so good at drawing, and had no confidence in his story or art work, but from middle school through high school whenever he had time, he drew comics and sent the draft to the publishers. After graduating high school, he worked for a bank in Kobe. Even then he wasn't so determined to be a comic writer, but he kept up his periodic submission of his work to the publishers. Around that time he realized that working for the bank left him little time to draw, so he quit his job after 4 month. Next he worked as an ad agent for one of the movie distribution company in the Hanshin district(i.e. Kobe - Osaka) of Japan. There he was doing art work for movie fliers but was only busy before the release of a new movie. So he used his remaining time to draw and sent his work to the publishers. About half of his materials were accepted and half was rejected. Around that time Japan had publishers who specialized in rental books where book stores rented their books to customers and charged per diem. Japan's economy was still weak, and people had little money to buy books, so especially for children, these books were in demand. One such publisher Tokoudo of Osaka asked Yokoyama to write a feature length comic. The comic he wrote for this publisher was "Otonashi no ken" (The silent sword). He was 20 at the time. The comic was well received by the audience and he soon got his follow on order for a second book. Next he wrote a story called "Shirayuri monogatari" (The White Lily story). Third comic he wrote was "Maken Reppu ken" (Demonic whirlwind sword), and the fourth comic he was starting to draw "Tetsujin 28 go" (Ironman 28th a.k.a. Gigantor) was to change his life forever. His parents who were against him for wanting to become a cartoon artist slowly accepted his career choice as they saw money trickling in from his artistic career. Having seen his work in Osaka, Kobundo - a publisher from Tokyo asked him to draw for one of their magazine targeted for girls called "Shoujyo". His idol Osamu Tezuka was one of the contributing artist for this magazine, so this request was a dream come true for him. In this magazine a modified version of "Shirayuri monogatari" was reprinted, and he was also asked to write for its sister publication for boys called "Shounen". He submitted "Tetsujin 28 go" which he was planning to write for Tokoudo. This was first published in July of 1956 and was instantly ranked as number one favorite story of the readers. Osamu Tezuka's "Tetsuwan Atom" (Astro Boy) started five years earlier also on "Shounen", and the two robot genre comics by Yokoyama and Tezuka became the greatest sci-fi action comic of post war era Japan. Yokoyama's veracity for drawing comics were well known at the time, as he was able to draw a page in 30 minutes. He continued to expand into period comics like "Iga no Kage maru" which was featured in weekly "Shounen Sunday", followed by "Ninja Aka Kage" which became a TV series along with "Tetsujin 28 go". "Tetsujin 28 go" was syndicated on "Shounen" until May of 1966 when it ended. Yokoyama's other works such as "Mahotsukai Sally" (Sally the witch) targeted for girls also became animated TV series. Today Yokoyama is remembered as two giants of founding fathers of genre we now call "manga" along with Osamu Tezuka.