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Hiroshi Masumura

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Hiroshi Masumura
ますむら ひろし
Born (1952-10-23) October 23, 1952 (age 72)
OccupationManga artist
Years active1973–present
Notable workAtagoul
Night on the Galactic Railroad (film)

Hiroshi Masumura (Japanese: ますむらひろし, Hepburn: Masumura Hiroshi, born October 23, 1952)[1] is a Japanese manga artist. He is best known for his adaptations of Kenji Miyazawa's children novels, including his work on the anime film Night on the Galactic Railroad (1985), and for several manga series set in the fantasy universe Atagoul. Several of his manga feature anthropomorphic cats as protagonists.[2]

Career

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Masumura started his career in 1973 at the age of 21, when he was the runner-up in the 5th Tezuka Award and subsequently got to publish his debut work Kiri ni musebu yoru in Weekly Shōnen Jump,[3] still using the kanji version of his name (増村博) rather than the hiragana one he would subsequently use. In 1975, he published a few short stories in the alternative manga magazine Garo,[2] which were his first stories set in the Atagoul universe. The series Atagoul Monogatari started 1976 in the manga magazine Manga Shōnen and became the first of several spin-off series that he drew for different magazines until 2011. Over 6 million copies of books within the Atagoul universe were sold as of 2007.[4]

Starting from 1983, Masumura has adapted several stories by Kenji Miyazawa into manga.[2] In 1983 alone, he released adaptations of Night on the Galactic Railroad, Gauche the Cellist, Kaze no Matasaburo and The Life of Budori Gusuko. Night on the Galactic Railroad was adapted into a successful anime film in 1985 under the direction of Gisaburō Sugii.

Themes and influences

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Many of Masumura's manga feature anthropomorphic cats and humans living together in the utopian fantasy land "Atagoul" on the continent "Yonezaad", which spans fantastic landscapes made up of minerals and megasized plants. The most famous character is the humorous cat Hideyoshi, the protagonist of Atagoul.[2] The idea of cats and humans living at equal terms derives from Miyazawa's short story The Acorns and Wildcat. Masumura explained in an interview why he often chooses cats as characters over humans: "The second you set down a human face to this story, it changes the feeling of the story entirely, defining it around your own image, and I wanted to avoid that."[5]

The world-building of Atagoul is influenced by Kenji Miyazawa's fantasy world of Itahov,[3] which he could relate to on an emotional level. Like Miyazawa, Masumura uses neologisms in order to create a feeling of mystery.[5] Masanao Amano describes Masumura's worldbuilding like this: "When reading the manga we become aware of sounds that are usually forgotten, such as little sounds in the dead of the night, sounds of nature, or the sound of the wind."[6]

Masumura is counted as one of the artists of the New Wave in manga in the late 1970s and 1980s, which highlighted artists that transcended the traditional gendered categories of shōjo manga and shōnen manga.[7]

Legacy and awards

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Yonezawa public bus featuring characters from Atagoul in 2009

His work has been exhibited several times in art museums in Japan, among them solo exhibitions at Hachiōji Yume Art Museum in Tokyo in 2007,[3] Sumida Hokusai Museum in 2018,[2] Yamagata Museum of Art in his home province in 2022[8] and Hachioji Yume Art Museum in 2023.[9] A public transport bus in his hometown of Yonezawa features characters from Atagoul.

After the popularity of the 1985 adaptation of Night on the Galactic Railroad, other anime films based on Miyazawa's work also used character design inspired by Masumura, like Spring and Chaos (1996, directed by Shōji Kawamori) and The Life of Budori Gusuko (2012, also directed by Gisaburō Sugii). Atagoul was adapted into an CG-animated short released in 2004.

His manga have not been translated into English. However, the first four volumes of Atagoul wa Neko no Mori have been translated into French in 2015.[10]

Besides the Tezuka Award in 1973, Masumura received the following awards:

Works

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Serializations

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Start End English/Hepburn title Original title Publisher
1975 1975 Yonezaad Monogatari ヨネザアド物語 Seirindō (Garo)
1976 1981[11] Atagoul Monogatari アタゴオル物語 Asahi Sonorama (Manga Shōnen)
1981 1982[11] Jungle Boogie ジャングル・ブギ Asahi Sonorama (Duo)
1983 1983 Night on the Galactic Railroad 銀河鉄道の夜 (Ginga Tetsudō no Yoru) Asahi Sonorama
1983 1983 Kaze no Matasaburō 風の又三郎 Asahi Sonorama
1983 1983 Serohiki no Goshu セロ弾きのゴーシュ Asahi Sonorama
1983 1983 Gusukō Budori no Denki グスコーブドリの伝記 Asahi Sonorama
1984 1994[12] Atagoul Tamatebako アタゴオル玉手箱 Kaseisha (Comic Moe / Comic Fantasy)
1985 1985[11] Rabbit Town ラビットタウン Asahi Sonorama
1986 1989[12] Cosmos Rakuenki コスモス楽園記 Scholar (Comic Burger)
1988 1988 Pengin Sōshi ペンギン草紙 Kaseisha (Comic Moe)
1989 1999 Yume furu Rabit Town 夢降るラビット・タウン Zōshinkai Shuppansha
1991 1993[12] Jaria ジャリア Kaseisha (Kodomo Jigokuhyō)
1991 1993[12] Enkan Wakusei 円棺惑星 Asahi Sonorama (Nemuki)
1992 1993[12] Ōrora hōsōkyoku オーロラ放送局 Gakken (LC Mystery)
1993 1996[12] Andalucia hime アンダルシア姫 Gakken (LC Mystery)
1994 1996[12] Atagoul アタゴオル Scholar (Comic Burger)
1997 1999[12] Girudoma ギルドマ Asahi Sonorama (Nemuki)
1999 2011 Atagoul wa Neko no Mori アタゴオルは猫の森 Media Factory (Comic Flapper)
2002 2002 Wakusei Mimana 惑星ミマナ Poplar-sha

One-shots

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Year Hepburn title Original title Publisher
1973 Kiri ni musebu yoru 霧にむせぶ夜} Weekly Shōnen Jump
1978[13] Eien naru hitomi no mure 永遠なる瞳の群れ Manga Shōnen

References

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  1. ^ "Hiroshi MASUMURA - Anime News Network". www.animenewsnetwork.com. Retrieved October 15, 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d e "すみだ北斎美術館 - MASUMURA Hiroshi Exhibition Featuring the Works of Hokusai ATAGOAL x HOKUSAI". hokusai-museum.jp. Retrieved October 15, 2022.
  3. ^ a b c ""The World of Hiroshi Masumura" Exhibition (Hachioji Yume Art Museum)". Tokyo Art Beat. Retrieved October 15, 2022.
  4. ^ "アタゴオルは猫の森|アタゴオルは猫の森|mu-moショップ". shop.mu-mo.net. Retrieved October 15, 2022.
  5. ^ a b "Gisaburo Sugii vs. Hiroshi Masumura". November 11, 2020. Archived from the original on November 11, 2020. Retrieved October 15, 2022.
  6. ^ Amano, Masanao (2004). Manga design. Julius Wiedemann. Köln, Germany: Taschen. p. 456. ISBN 3-8228-2591-3. OCLC 56715574.
  7. ^ Mizumoto, Kentarō. "「ニューウェイブ」という時代". Sora Tobu Kikai. Archived from the original on January 23, 2003. Retrieved July 25, 2023.
  8. ^ "Masumura Hiroshi: The Exhibition in Yamagata (Yamagata Museum of Art)". Tokyo Art Beat. Retrieved October 15, 2022.
  9. ^ "【プレビュー】「ますむらひろしの銀河鉄道の夜―前編」八王子市夢美術館で1月28日から". 美術展ナビ (in Japanese). January 9, 2023. Retrieved January 29, 2023.
  10. ^ "Editions la série Atagoul - La forêt des chats - Manga série". manga-news.com (in French). Retrieved October 15, 2022.
  11. ^ a b c "Della's Website comics ますむら ひろし 作品1". www2.tokai.or.jp. Retrieved October 15, 2022.
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h "Della's Website comics ますむら ひろし 作品2". www2.tokai.or.jp. Retrieved October 15, 2022.
  13. ^ "マンガ少年増刊別冊". outsite.cool.coocan.jp. Retrieved October 15, 2022.