Hiroshi Hirata
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

was 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 ...
best known in the United States for the
samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...
manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...
series ''
Satsuma Gishiden is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hiroshi Hirata. It was serialized in Nihon Bungeisha's ''Weekly Manga Goraku'' magazine from 1977 to 1982 and published in six volumes. Plot ''Satsuma Gishiden'' is a dramatic depiction of ...
'', which is published in the United States by
Dark Horse Comics Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, manga and Artist's book, art book publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon, by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, O ...
. Hirata's works belong to the subset of manga known as "
gekiga is a style of Japanese comics aimed at adult audiences and marked by a more cinematic art style and more mature themes. ''Gekiga'' was the predominant style of adult comics in Japan in the 1960s and 1970s. It is aesthetically defined by sharp ...
" ("dramatic pictures"), and his artwork has a realistic style comparable to
Goseki Kojima was a Japanese manga artist. He is known for his collaborations with manga writer Kazuo Koike, the most famous of them being ''Lone Wolf and Cub''. Biography Kojima was born in Yokkaichi, Mie, on the same day as Osamu Tezuka. After getting out ...
's work on ''
Lone Wolf and Cub is a Japanese manga series created by writer Kazuo Koike and artist Goseki Kojima. It was serialized in Futabasha's manga magazine '' Weekly Manga Action'' from September 1970 to April 1976, with its chapters collected in 28 ' volumes. ...
''. He was also known for his use of elaborate calligraphy for dialogue (he did the kanji for Akira), which has been preserved (though still translated) in the American editions of his work. According to Frederik L. Schodt's '' Dreamland Japan: Writings on Modern Manga'', famed Japanese author and militarist
Yukio Mishima Kimitake Hiraoka ( , ''Hiraoka Kimitake''; 14 January 192525 November 1970), known by his pen name Yukio Mishima ( , ''Mishima Yukio''), was a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, Shintoist, Ultranationalism (Japan), ultranationalis ...
admired Hirata's work. Also, ''
Usagi Yojimbo is a comic book series created by Stan Sakai. It is set primarily at the beginning of the Edo period of Japanese history and features anthropomorphic animals replacing humans. The main character is a rabbit '' rōnin'', Miyamoto Usagi, whom ...
'' creator
Stan Sakai is a Japanese Americans, Japanese-born American cartoonist and comic book creator. He is best known as the creator of the comic series ''Usagi Yojimbo''. Early life Sakai was born Masahiko Sakai (坂井雅彦) in Kyoto, Japan, to Akio and Ter ...
has praised Hirata's artwork. Hirata is one of the very few manga authors whose work has been translated into
Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...
. A translation by Yoshiyo Takakura of his 1978 manga '' Chi Daruma Kenpo'' was published by Yukichi Yamamatsu's
Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...
-based
Ganga Yamato Company The Ganges ( ; in India: Ganga, ; in Bangladesh: Padma, ). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international which goes through India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China." is a trans-boundary rive ...
in 2005. Hirata died of heart failure on December 11, 2021, at the age of 84.


References

*


External links


Lambiek Comiclopedia article: Hiroshi Hirata
* 1937 births 2021 deaths Manga artists Gekiga creators {{manga-artist-stub