Osamu Tezuka

A clock designed by Osamu Tezuka, which stands in the Kyoto Station.

Dr.Osamu Tezuka (手塚治虫 Tezuka Osamu, November 3, 1928 - February 9, 1989) was a Japanese manga artist and animator best known as the creator of Astro Boy.

His prolific output and his pioneering techniques and genres earned him such titles as "the father of manga" and "the god of manga." The distinctive "large eyes" style of Japanese animation was invented by Tezuka, who based it on cartoons of the time such as Betty Boop by Max Fleischer and Mickey Mouse by Walt Disney. As an indication of his productivity, the Complete Manga Works of Tezuka Osamu (手塚治虫漫画全集, published in Japan) comprises some 400 volumes, over 80,000 pages; even so, it is not quite comprehensive.

He was formally trained as a physician, but devoted his life to the production of an enormous body of manga work, the vast majority of which has never been translated from the original Japanese and is thus inaccessible to Western audiences. He began his career as a manga creator while a university student. His medical and scientific knowledge enriched his sci-fi manga, especially the Blackjack series.

Famous creations include Astro Boy (Tetsuwan Atom in Japan), Black Jack, Princess Knight, Phoenix (Hi no Tori in Japan), and Kimba the White Lion (upon which Disney's The Lion King was probably based). His "life's work" was Phoenix - a story of life and death, concerning an eponymous phoenix whose blood endows those who drink it with immortality.

He headed the animation production studio Mushi Pro ('Bug Production'), which pioneered TV animation in Japan. The name of the studio derives from one of the kanji used to write his name.

It is well-known that many of the yet-to-flourish young manga artists once lived in the apartment where Tezuka lived, Tokiwa-so. (As the suffix -so indicates, this was probably a small, inexpensive apartment.) The residents included Shotaro Ishimori, Fujio Akatsuka, and Fujiko Fujio (both of the duo).

In 1994 the city of Takarazuka opened a museum in his memory. In 1997 stamps were issued in his honor.

External links

Official site (in Japanese and English)