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is a Japanese copywriter, essayist, lyricist, game designer, and actor. Itoi is the editor-in-chief of his website and company '' Hobo Nikkan Itoi Shinbun'' ("Almost Daily Itoi Newspaper"). He is best known outside Japan for his work on Nintendo's ''
Mother ] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of ge ...
''/''
EarthBound ''EarthBound'', released in Japan as is a role-playing video game developed by Creatures (company), Ape Inc. and HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The second entry in the Mother (video game s ...
'' series of games, as well as his self-titled bass fishing video game.


Writing

During the 1980s Itoi established the profession of writing copy for advertisements among the general public in Japan. In 1981, he co-authored a collection of short stories titled '' Yume de Aimashou'' ("Let's meet in a dream") with writer Haruki Murakami. Later Itoi branched into writing essays, lyrics, and designing video games. He is best known outside of Japan for Nintendo's ''
Earthbound ''EarthBound'', released in Japan as is a role-playing video game developed by Creatures (company), Ape Inc. and HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The second entry in the Mother (video game s ...
'', released in 1994 in Japan (as ''Mother 2 : Giygas Strikes Back'') and in 1995 in North America. In 1997, Itoi began using the
Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a ''internetworking, network of networks'' that consists ...
and bought his first
Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...
. In 1998 he started the website and company Hobo Nikkan Itoi Shinbun ("Almost Daily Itoi Newspaper"), which is the center of his activity today. Under the theme of “creating good mood”, the website has been updated every day for the past 15 years, with Itoi’s essays on lifestyle, interviews and articles, and merchandise sales. He talks about his pet dogs and his interviews with artists, craftsmen, businessmen, etc., which tend to center on philosophical issues. Itoi has co-written several books modeled on these interviews, in which he has a series of long conversations with, for example, an expert on neurology Yūji Ikegaya, about how to live as a human being in the world. Books collecting Itoi's past essays written on the site's front page are also available for purchase.


Filmography

Itoi has
voiced Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds (usually consonants). Speech sounds can be described as either voiceless (otherwise known as ''unvoiced'') or voiced. The term, however, is used to refe ...
Satsuki's father, Tatsuo Kusakabe, in the original Japanese version of the 1988
Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation studio headquartered in Koganei, Tokyo."Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment". ''Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment''. Retrieved 2020-12-14. It is best known for its animated feature films, and ...
film ''
My Neighbor Totoro is a 1988 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and animated by Studio Ghibli for Tokuma Shoten. The film—which stars the voice actors Noriko Hidaka, Chika Sakamoto, and Hitoshi Takagi—tells the stor ...
''. He has been a judge on several episodes of the Japanese television shows '' Iron Chef'' and '' Hey! Spring of Trivia''. He made his acting debut in 2010, when he played the role of a professor in the film adaptation of Haruki Murakami's '' Norwegian Wood''.


Video games

Itoi established the company
Ape, Inc. is a Japanese video game company affiliated with Game Freak, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company, and one of the owners of the Pokémon franchise. It was founded by Tsunekazu Ishihara in November 1995, with the assistance of then-president of HA ...
as a venue for external developers to help make games for Nintendo. He was the creator of the ''
Mother ] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of ge ...
'' series. In the original '' Mother (video game), Mother'' for the Famicom, he was lead designer, writer and director; on ''
EarthBound ''EarthBound'', released in Japan as is a role-playing video game developed by Creatures (company), Ape Inc. and HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The second entry in the Mother (video game s ...
'' for the SNES, Itoi was producer, director and writer while in ''
Mother 3 is a 2006 role-playing video game developed by Brownie Brown and HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance. It is the third entry in the ''Mother'' series. The game follows Lucas, a young boy with psychic abilitie ...
'' for Game Boy Advance, Itoi was the writer of the story. Itoi claims that the final battle of ''EarthBound'' with Giygas was inspired from his accidental childhood viewing of the Shintoho film titled '' The Military Policeman and the Dismembered Beauty''. Specifically, the scene that inspired the battle was a scene depicting a woman being murdered, which he mistook for rape. Itoi has said that he would not be involved in a fourth title of the series. Itoi’s works have had an impact on other games and other media, including '' Undertale'', '' Lisa: The Painful RPG'', and others.


Other ventures

Shigesato Itoi worked with Nintendo to design video game-themed haramaki. Itoi is an avid Monopoly player and is President of the . He also competed in the 1992 Monopoly World Championships and placed eighth. Itoi's video game development company
Ape, Inc. is a Japanese video game company affiliated with Game Freak, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company, and one of the owners of the Pokémon franchise. It was founded by Tsunekazu Ishihara in November 1995, with the assistance of then-president of HA ...
developed two Monopoly games for the
Super Famicom The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), commonly shortened to Super NES or Super Nintendo, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan and South Korea, 1991 in North America, 1992 in ...
, with Itoi serving as producer. These versions of Monopoly were not released outside of Japan and featured a more role-playing experience. Itoi launched a photo creation tool called "Dokonoko", which is designed specifically to be used with pets. It has been described as an "Instagram for pets". Dokonoko is most famous for a particular Japanese Labrador Retriever named Corky, who made front line news because of the abnormal length of her tongue.


Personal life

Itoi was born on November 10, 1948 and raised in
Maebashi, Gunma is the capital city of Gunma Prefecture, in the northern Kantō region of Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 335,352 in 151,171 households, and a population density of 1100 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . It ...
. He was a heavy smoker until he quit in 2002. Itoi has been married to actress
Kanako Higuchi (born December 13, 1958) is a Japanese actress. Her credits include film, television, and radio dramas, stage, commercials, and voice roles. Born in Kamo, Niigata, she played her first lead at age 20 in the television drama ''Kōrogi-bashi.'' ...
since 1993.


References


External links

* * * *
Shigesato Itoi at NHK Archives

''Shigesato Itoi''
profile at
MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes nearly 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms. The site is supported by banner ads and a small ...

Shigesato Itoi manga
at Media Arts Database
Shigesato Itoi anime
at Media Arts Database
''Super Mario 25th Anniversary''
Itoi discusses Mario Bros. with its creator
Shigeru Miyamoto is a Japanese video game designer, producer and game director at Nintendo, where he serves as one of its representative directors. Widely regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential designers in the history of video games, he i ...

''Johnny Weir!!!''
Itoi interviews US Olympic figure skater
Johnny Weir John Garvin Weir (; born July 2, 1984) is an American figure skater and television commentator. He is a two-time Olympian (representing the United States in the 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympics, respectively), the 2008 World bronze medalist, a ...

Special Selection: Shigesato Itoi
{{DEFAULTSORT:Itoi, Shigesato 1948 births Japanese copywriters Japanese essayists Japanese male short story writers Japanese male voice actors Japanese video game directors Living people Mother (video game series) Nintendo people People from Maebashi