Shin'ichi Nagashima (永島 眞一, Nagashima Shin'ichi, July 8, 1937 – June 10, 2005), better known by the pen nameShinji Nagashima (永島 慎二, Nagashima Shinji), was a Japanese manga artist born in Tokyo, Japan. His pseudonym came about due to a publisher's error when printing his name, and he continued using the pseudonym after that.
From the time he was in junior high school, Nagashima aspired to become a manga artist. After dropping out of school during junior high, he worked as a paperboy and a tofu salesman. He made his professional debut as a manga artist in 1952 with his story Sansho no Piri-chan (さんしょのピリちゃん).
After becoming acquainted with Osamu Tezuka due to occasionally living at Tokiwa-sō, he became Tezuka's assistant. While there, he formed the group Musashi Production with artists including Atsushi Sugimura (who was working under the pseudonym Kontarō), Kyūta Ishikawa and Kuni Fukai (who was working under the pseudonym Hirō Fukai).
He soon became friends with several members of the Gekiga Kōbō, including Yoshihiro Tatsumi and Takao Saito, while living in a provincial temple. After the breakup of Gekiga Kōbō, Nagashima began working for Saitō Production and his work began to reflect a more cinematic and dramatic feel. During this time, he began a somewhat wandering lifestyle living in Shinjuku.
In 1961, Nagashima published The Harsh Story of a Manga Artist (漫画家残酷物語, Mangaka Zankoku Monogatari), a story which showed the "other side" of the manga industry and which brought Nagashima to the forefront of that industry.[1]
He continued publishing new works in a variety of magazines such as COM and Garo, and due to his unusual style began to be called the "father of seinen manga". From 1964 to 1966, he worked at Mushi Production working on anime television series such as Jungle Taitei, and later again worked for Mushi as a character designer on Wansa-kun (1973).
Beginning in the 1980s, he began releasing fewer series, and went into semi-retirement. He was diagnosed with diabetes, which subsequently caused him to begin having dialysis treatments in 2000. Nagashima died of heart failure on June 10, 2005, at a Tokyo hospital.[4]
Works
Beloved Pet Dog Taro (愛犬タロ, Aiken Taro) (1956, Shōjo)
The Harsh Story of a Manga Artist (漫画家残酷物語, Mangaka Zankoku Monogatari) (1961–1964, Keiji)
Wonderful Parent and Child (ステッキ親子, Sutekki Oyako) (1962, Akahata)
The Seven Runts (チビッコセブン, Chibikko Sebun) (1964, Atom Club)
Genta and Okkaa (源太とおっかあ, Genta to Okkaa) (1967, Shōnen King)
^歴代社団法人日本漫画家協会賞および文部科学大臣賞 [Historical Winners of the Japan Cartoonist Association Award and Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Award] (in Japanese). Japan Cartoonists Association. Archived from the original on December 25, 2009. Retrieved February 14, 2010.
