is a Japanese

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

-themed manga series written by Nobuhiro Sakata and illustrated by Eiji Kazama. It was serialized in

Shogakukan is a Japanese publisher of dictionaries, literature, comics ( manga), non-fiction, DVDs, and other media in Japan. Shogakukan founded Shueisha, which also founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but are together called the H ...

's the ''seinen'' manga magazine ''

Big Comic Original is a Japanese ''seinen'' manga magazine published by Shogakukan, aimed at an older adult and mostly male audience. It is a sister magazine to ''Big Comic'', the biggest difference being that it goes on sale twice a month in the weeks ''Big Comic ...

'' from 1990 to 2022, with its chapters collected in 84 ''

tankōbon is the Japanese term for a book that is not part of an anthology or corpus. In modern Japanese, the term is most often used in reference to individual volumes of a manga series: most series first appear as individual chapters in a weekly or ...

'' volumes as of August 2022. In 1994, the manga won the 39th

Shogakukan Manga Award The is one of Japan's major manga awards, and is sponsored by Shogakukan Publishing. It has been awarded annually for serialized manga and features candidates from a number of publishers. It is the oldest manga award in Japan, being given since ...

in the general category.

Plot

The series focuses on Keisuke Okita, who takes up golf at the age of 24 and through talent, hard work, and good coaching quickly turns pro. After a good performance in Asian

professional golf tours Professional golf tours are the means by which otherwise unconnected professional golf tournaments are organised into a regular schedule. There are separate tours for men and women; most are based in a specific geographical region, although some to ...

, he enters the

British Open The Open Championship, often referred to as The Open or the British Open, is the oldest golf tournament in the world, and one of the most prestigious. Founded in 1860, it was originally held annually at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. Later th ...

, where he falls in love with his caddy, Lily. He later participates other major golf tournaments, including the Masters Tournament.

Characters

; :Protagonist of the series. Keisuke had to leave university because of family problems, and now at the age of 24 has joined Kanuma country club as a trainee. ; ;

Publication

Written by and illustrated by , ''Kaze no Daichi'' has been serialized in

's ''seinen'' manga magazine ''

'' since 1990. Shogakukan has collected its chapters into individual ''

'' volumes. The first volume was released on March 30, 1991. As of August 30, 2022, eighty-four volumes have been released. The latest chapter was published on May 20, 2022, and the series was put on hiatus; on October 4 of the same year, it was announced that Kazama died of pancreatic cancer at 75 on October 2. Kazama's last chapter was posthumously published in ''Big Comic Original'' on December 5, 2022.

Reception

In 1994, ''Kaze no Daichi'' won the 39th

in the general category. In 2021, the series ranked 88th on

TV Asahi JOEX-DTV (channel 5), branded as (also known as EX and and stylized as TV asahi), is a television station that is owned and operated by the subsidiary of certified broadcasting holding company , itself controlled by The Asahi Shimbun Comp ...

's "Manga General Election" poll in which 150,000 people voted for their "Most Favorite Manga".

References

External links

* * {{Shogakukan Manga Award - General Golf in anime and manga Seinen manga Shogakukan manga Winners of the Shogakukan Manga Award for general manga