is a Japanese

manga artist A manga artist, also known as a mangaka (), is a Cartoonist, comic artist who writes and/or illustrates manga. Most manga artists study at an art college or manga school or take on an apprenticeship with another artist before entering the indus ...

and essayist. Most of her works are published in

josei , also known as and its abbreviation , is an editorial category of Japanese comics that emerged in the 1980s. In a strict sense, ''josei'' refers to manga marketed to an audience of adult women, contrasting ''shōjo'' manga, which is marke ...

magazines.

Career

Sakurazawa grew up in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

. As a child, she read

shōjo manga is an editorial category of Manga, Japanese comics targeting an audience of adolescent girls and young adult women. It is, along with Shōnen manga, manga (targeting adolescent boys), Seinen manga, manga (targeting young adult and adult men ...

Yukari Ichijo is a Japanese '' shōjo'' and '' josei'' manga artist. She made her debut as a professional manga artist in 1968 with ''Yuki no Serenade''. In 1986 she received the Kodansha Manga Award for shōjo for ''Yūkan Club'', and in 2007, she received ...

Keiko Takemiya is a Japanese manga artist, professor and university administrator. As part of the Year 24 Group, she was a leading figure in manga scene in the 1970s creating such manga as '' Kaze to Ki no Uta, Toward the Terra, Natsu e no Tobira.'' Addi ...

and

Ryoko Yamagishi is a Japanese manga artist. She is one of the Year 24 Group, a collection of female artists who innovated (girls') manga throughout the 1970s. Her major works include and '' Terpsichora''. Life and career Ryoko Yamagishi was born on Septe ...

. During her second year of high school, she became interested in the

lolicon In Japanese popular culture, is a genre of fictional media which focuses on young or young-looking girl characters, particularly in a sexually suggestive or erotic manner. The term, a portmanteau of the English-language phrase " Lolita co ...

erotic magazine ''Shōjo Alice'', which was sold in vending machines. She personally visited the publisher with the goal of becoming a manga artist for them. She started her career as a professional manga artist in 1983 at the age of 19 with a

yonkoma is a comic strip format that generally consists of gag comic strips within four panels of equal size ordered from top to bottom. They also sometimes run right-to-left horizontally or use a hybrid 2×2 style, depending on the layout requiremen ...

manga that she drew for an erotic magazine for men. Her early work for erotic and pulp manga magazines such as ''

Manga Burikko was a lolicon hentai manga magazine published by Byakuya Shobo in Tokyo from 1982 to 1985 in Japan. The magazine was launched as a competitor to '' Lemon People'', but it only lasted three years. The manga in the magazine were generally bishōjo ...

'' is considered pioneering in the way it dealt directly with the sexuality of young women outside of the norms of

. Together with other female artists who worked for hentai magazines such as

Kyoko Okazaki is a Japanese manga artist. During her career from the mid-1980s until the mid-1990s, she published her work in ''seinen'' manga magazines, ''josei'' manga magazines as well as fashion magazines. She produced around 20 volumes of manga, the mo ...

Shungicu Uchida , known by the pen name , is a Japanese manga artist, novelist, essayist, actress, and singer. Biography She was born August 7, 1959, in Nagasaki, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. Her father left the family when she and her younger sister were in pri ...

and Yōko Kondo, she is sometimes referred to as "onna no ko H mangaka" ("women H cartoonists"). In 1987, she published short stories in the

alternative manga Alternative manga or underground manga is a Western term for Japanese comics that are published outside the more commercial manga market, or which have different art styles, themes, and narratives to those found in the more popular manga magazin ...

magazine ''Garo''. Like Kyoko Okazaki, Sakurazawa shifted to publishing in manga in young ladies magazines such as ''

Young You was a Japanese josei manga magazine published by Shueisha, based in Tokyo and first published in 1986. It ran for 22 years before being cancelled in October 2005. After the magazine's closure, Shueisha moved several series serialized in ''You ...

'' and especially ''

Feel Young is a monthly josei manga magazine published by Shodensha in Japan. Manga artists whose stories have run in the magazine include Moyoco Anno, Mitsue Aoki, Mitsukazu Mihara, Kiriko Nananan, Mari Okazaki, Erica Sakurazawa, Ebine Yamaji, and oth ...

'' in the late 1980s. Since the 2000s, she is a regular contributor to the

magazine ''

Office You An office is a space where the employees of an organization perform Business administration, administrative Work (human activity), work in order to support and realize the various goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a po ...

''. She writes autobiographic manga and manga essays about her life with her cats such as the long-running series ''Shippo ga Tomodachi''. In 2000, she married a DJ and restaurant manager and gave birth to two children. When her husband became a

stay-at-home dad A stay-at-home dad is a father who is the main caregiver of the children and is generally the homemaker of the household. The female equivalent is the stay-at-home mother or housewife. As families have evolved, the practice of being a stay- ...

and she kept focusing on her career, she made manga like ''Kyō mo Otenki'' based on her experience of giving birth as well as their romantic and parental life. The couple received media attention because of their lifestyle. Sakurazawa herself appears as a commentator on TV.

Works

References

External links

* at Line
Erica Sakurazawa
at Nadeshico

at Shu-Cream *
Erica Sakurazawa
at Media Arts Database

at The Ultimate Manga Guide, edited by Peter Van Huffel {{DEFAULTSORT:Sakurazawa, Erica 1963 births Japanese female comics artists Japanese female comics writers Living people Women manga artists Manga artists from Tokyo 21st-century Japanese women writers