Shigeru Mizuki

Shigeru Mizuki (1922–2015) was a Japanese manga artist and author. He began his career drawing for kamishibai paper theater and rental libraries (kashihon’ya). The years from 1943 to 1945 had a lasting influence on him: as a soldier in the Imperial Japanese Army, he fought in Papua New Guinea and lost his left arm in an Allied air raid. One of his best-known creations is Kitarō, a one-eyed orphan who moves through the world of yōkai, the monsters and spirits of Japanese folklore. Mizuki also explored historical subjects, including in his SHŌWA cycle and the works »Hitler« and »Onward Toward Our Noble Deaths«. He received numerous awards for his work and died in Tokyo in 2015.