A Drifting Life: The Epic Autobiography of a Manga Master

AUTHOR: Tatsumi, Yoshihiro

ARTIST: Yoshihiro Tatsumi (illustrator); Adrian Tomine (letterer)

PUBLISHER: Seirin Kogeisha (Japanese); Drawn and Quarterly (English)

FIRST SERIAL PUBLICATION:Gekiga hyoryu, 1995-2006

FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION: 2008 (English translation, 2009)

Publication History

Originally serialized in a Japanese used-manga catalog issued by a publishing section of the used-manga franchise Mandarake, Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s A Drifting Life first appeared as Gekiga hyoryu in Mandarake manga mokuroku (Mandarake manga catalog) from March of 1995 to September of 1998 (Volumes 8-22). The comic then continued in Mandarake zenbu (all Mandarake) from December of 1998 to December of 2006 (Volumes 1-33).

Mandarake stores sell used manga, magazines, anime videos and DVDs, video games, and related products. Mandarake manga mokuroku and Mandarake zenbu primarily promote store stock to customers, also providing interviews with creators, short reviews, columns, and event announcements. The serialization of a manga in these catalogs was rather unconventional, as manga series usually appear in manga-specific magazines.

In 2008, Seirin Kogeisha published Gekiga hyoryu in book form. The work was translated into English and published as A Drifting Life by Canadian publisher Drawn and Quarterly in 2009. A Drifting Life has also been translated into Spanish and Indonesian.

Plot

This semiautobiographical graphic novel narrates the life of protagonist Hiroshi Katsumi, a veiled representation of Tatsumi, from his childhood to his later life as a manga artist. The main plot develops around the protagonist’s efforts and struggles to create a new type of manga called gekiga, often translated into English as “dramatic pictures.”

A Drifting Life opens in Osaka after World War II, when Japan was still suffering from material shortages. A thirteen-year-old boy, Hiroshi is an enthusiastic fan of the works of manga creator Osamu Tezuka. Influenced by his sickly brother, Okimasa, he begins drawing manga and soon starts sending one-frame and four-frame gag-strip manga drawn on postcards to popular manga magazine contests. At first, he is outdone by his brother, but Hiroshi gradually gets his manga accepted by several different manga magazines. Manga drawing provides a sense of comfort for him, since his childhood is wrought with difficulties, including financial adversity, his brother’s chronic illness, and his parents’ failed marriage. His manga, now appearing consistently in magazines, attracts the attention of a local newspaper, which leads to a meeting with Tezuka. His interactions with Tezuka and young manga creators further stimulate Hiroshi’s passion for drawing manga.

Hiroshi’s entrance into high school coincides with the end of the American occupation of Japan. Just before entering high school, Hiroshi begins to exchange personal correspondence with popular manga creator Noboru Ogi and sends a story manga to him; it is eventually published. Ogi invites Hiroshi to his Tokyo apartment, offering him a comic apprenticeship, but Hiroshi declines the invitation, feeling that he should finish high school first.

As graduation approaches, Hiroshi plans to take the entrance exam for Kyoto City University of Arts. However, he skips the exam because of a sudden lack of confidence. With the help of his brother, who has recovered from his illness, Hiroshi searches for publishers and finds Hakko/Hinomaru-bunko, a publisher that produces kashihon (rental-book) manga in Osaka, which becomes a base for Hiroshi and other kashihon manga creators.

Publishing his manga work with Hakko/Hinomaru-bunko and other publishers, Hiroshi encounters other rising manga creators, such as Masahiko Matsumoto, Masami Hirota, Shigeji Isojima, Susumu Yamamori, and Takao Saito. Hiroshi’s brother also starts contributing manga under the name Shoichi Sakurai. With these artists, Hiroshi studies drawings and has serious discussions about manga.

In friendly competition with the other artists, Hiroshi seeks to create a kind of manga without humor and mangalike gags. Inspired by Western and Japanese novels and films, especially hard-boiled detective fiction, Hiroshi starts drawing manga dealing with human psychology and human drama. The short manga collection Kage (shadow), to which Hiroshi and other creators contribute, is published; it triggers a boom for the kashihon industry. At the suggestion of an elderly manga creator, Hirota, Hiroshi moves into a small apartment to live with Matsumoto and Saito, but this new working environment results in distractions, including the enticement of a female store owner who lives downstairs.

As a result of mismanagement, Hinomaru-bunko declines. Hiroshi and other creators are invited to contribute manga to another publisher, Central Bunko in Nagoya. Soon after, Hinomaru-bunko recovers and asks Hiroshi to be an editor for the reborn Kage. After taking the editorship of the magazine, Hiroshi realizes that he cannot control the magazine, as publisher Shuzo Yamada intervenes often.

Hirota invites Hiroshi and Matsumoto to move to Tokyo, which, as expected, vexes Yamada. By this time, the manga creators realize that what they are drawing is no longer manga, a genre that has been associated with humorous comics. When the government begins to place restrictions on manga because of its depictions of violence, Hiroshi feels the need to create another name for the comics he is drawing. Matsumoto creates the term komaga for his works, while Hiroshi starts using gekiga for his comics. With other like-minded creators, Hiroshi establishes a creator group, the Gekiga Workshop, and publishes a short collection, Matenro (skyscraper). While it is successful, it also causes animosity between Hiroshi and Yamada.

The increasing pressure of being the editorial leader of the Gekiga Workshop and the constant tardiness of other creators discourages Hiroshi, and the group is disbanded after a year. As his faith in the comics genre wanes, he comes across a political demonstration led by protesters opposed to the Japanese-U.S. security treaty. He unwittingly participates in the demonstration, and while he stands in the middle of the crowd, Hiroshi rekindles his passion for gekiga. On the seventh anniversary of Tezuka’s death, mature manga and gekiga creator Hiroshi muses on the past, reminiscing about a life sincerely devoted to creating gekiga.

Characters

• Hiroshi Katsumi, the protagonist, is a stand-in for author Tatsumi. He grows up with a strong passion for manga and eventually becomes a manga creator, coining the term gekiga and later organizing a creator group called the Gekiga Workshop. Hiroshi is the only character with a fictional name.

• Okimasa Katsumi, a.k.a. Shoichi Sakurai, is Hiroshi’s older brother. As a child, he is sickly and often jealous of Hiroshi’s success as a manga creator. As he grows older, he becomes more supportive, sometimes spurring Hiroshi to exercise his creativity. He also becomes a manga creator, using the pseudonym Shoichi Sakurai.

• Shuzo Yamada is an editor and publisher of the Osaka-based publishing company Hakko/Hinomaru-bunko, through which Hiroshi and other manga creators publish their manga and build their careers. Yamada sometimes appears as a charlatan-like figure who tries to manipulate manga creators.

• Masami Hirota is an elderly manga creator working for Hakko/Hinomaru-bunko. He was once one of the most popular manga creators in Osaka but lost jobs because of a change in editorial policy. He becomes an adviser for Hinomaru-bunko. Although he usually helps young manga creators, he sometimes impedes them.

• Masahiko Matsumoto is a rival manga creator working for Hakko/Hinomaru-bunko. Hiroshi often thinks Matsumoto surpasses him in terms of manga innovation. Later, Matsumoto coins the term komaga. He initially hesitates to join the Gekiga Workshop but eventually agrees to participate.

• Takao Saito is a manga/gekiga creator who works with Hiroshi in the Gekiga Workshop. He lives with Hiroshi, but he often slacks off.

Artistic Style

Gekiga is usually associated with “rough, dynamic drawing lines,” “realistic depictions,” or “the use of a dark background.” Nonetheless, the dominant style of A Drifting Life is closer to the mainstream manga style influenced by the works of Tezuka. The work depicts all the characters in a simplified, cartoonish manner, but it also depicts a series of historical figures such as famous athletes, important politicians, popular entertainers, and media celebrities, all of whom are contrastingly drawn in photographic realism. Tatsumi’s other gekiga works, especially those produced in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s—many of which have been collected and published in English by Drawn and Quarterly—employ dark, sullen, and realistic depictions of locations such as black markets, skid row, or other poor quarters of the urban areas. Compared to these previous works, A Drifting Life maintains a bright tone throughout, and it lacks the stark realism or graphic violence of some other gekiga.

Themes

The central theme is the personal and professional growth of the protagonist and his efforts and struggles in the manga industry. As an autobiography, A Drifting Life touches on many aspects of coming-of-age, including the author’s transformation from a manga fan to a manga creator, childhood struggles of economic adversity and familial problems, sexual awakening and encounters, and collaborations and conflicts with publishers and other manga creators. The overall story follows a sort of bildungsroman narrative, but the majority of the work is devoted to detailing the professional careers of the protagonist and other manga creators.

Another theme is friendship. Tatsumi reminisces about his childhood and the earlier period of his professional career, focusing throughout on his relationships with other manga creators. While working as a professional manga artist, the protagonist interacts with other creators, especially with Matsumoto, whom Hiroshi feels creates better books than he. The work as a whole addresses the importance of friendly rivalry among creators.

A Drifting Life also chronicles the historical trajectory of Japan, from its surrender at the end of World War II to the 1960’s. The book makes constant allusions to social and cultural moments, including the manga revolution of the period and the political demonstration that rekindles Hiroshi’s devotion to gekiga. As a whole, the work offers a cultural history of postwar Japan, intertwined with the author’s personal encounters with cultural changes.

Impact

A chronicle of manga history from the perspective of a creator who played a major role in the genre’s development, A Drifting Life provides a close examination of some underrepresented aspects of the postwar manga movement, including the kashihon industry, the genesis of gekiga, and the internal tension and conflicts among creators, editors, and publishers of manga. Mainstream manga history has centered on the Tokyo-based manga magazine industry and culture, which Tezuka and his protégés dominated. Tatsumi’s work details the less-documented Osaka-based manga publishing business, especially the kashihon industry, which once flourished and contributed greatly to the development of modern manga. The book also calls attention to the social biases against manga that Tatsumi faced in the 1950’s and 1960’s, an issue that remains relevant throughout the comics industry.

Further Reading

Tatsumi, Yoshihiro. Abandon the Old in Tokyo (2009).

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Black Blizzard (2010).

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Good-Bye (2008).

Bibliography

Garner, Dwight. “Manifesto of a Comic-Book Rebel.” The New York Times, April 14, 2009. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/15/books/15garn.html.

Suter, Rebecca. “Japan/America, Man/Woman: Gender and Identity Politics in Adriane Tomine and Yoshihiro Tatsumi.” Paradoxa: Studies in World Literary Genres 22 (2010): 101-122.

Tomine, Adrian. Introduction to The Push-Man and Other Stories by Yoshihiro Tatsumi. Montreal: Drawn and Quarterly, 2005.