(1936 – April 13, 2012) was a Japanese

manga Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) 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 prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is use ...

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...

and magazine artist. Higurashi was the cover artist for ''

Big Comic is a semimonthly ''seinen'' manga magazine published since 18 February 1968 by Shogakukan in Japan. It was originally launched as a monthly magazine, but switched to twice monthly on the 10th and 25th beginning in April 1968. It is paired with ...

'', a Japanese manga magazine, for more than forty years, from 1970 until fall 2011. Higurashi was raised in

Matsudo 260px, Matsudo City Hall is a city in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 498,575 in 242,981 households and a population density of 8100 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Matsudo is lo ...

Chiba Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Chiba Prefecture has a population of 6,278,060 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Chiba Prefecture borders Ibaraki Prefecture to the north, Saitama Prefecture to the n ...

. He studied at Musashino Art School, now known as Musashino Art University, a progressive university with a curriculum in fine arts and industrial design. He became head of character illustration at ''Big Comic'' in 1970. Each issue of ''Big Comic'' during this era featured a large caricature of a famous individual on the cover, typically sports stars, actors and, politicians. All were drawn by Higurashi in his signature style of a large head relative to a small body. His drawings became a trademark of the magazine. Higurashi was well known for his work outside of ''Big Comic''. He and his younger brother, the Mainichi Shinbun copywriter Higurashi Shinzō (b. 1944), wrote and illustrated the long-running series ''Shūichi, Shinzō no mōningu jakku'' for the Sunday edition of the newspaper. The series ran from 1981 until 2006. In addition to his illustrations, Higurashi also illustrated for the defunct magazine ''Rapita'',ヒグラシ・ワンダーワールド　日暮修一の世界展
/ref> and worked as a business advertisement

designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exp ...

. To mark his 25th anniversary as the cover artist with ''Big Comic'', the

Shogakukan is a Japanese publisher of Japanese dictionaries, 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 to ...

publisher released a book of his cover illustrations in 1994 called "''Big na Kao''". In 2000, Higurashi received a special

Shogakukan Manga Award The is one of Japan's major manga Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) 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 prehistory in earlier J ...

for his lifetime achievement as a manga illustrator. In 2006 Higurashi was the feature of an exhibition of his works at the Matsudo Cultural Hall. Higurashi stepped down as cover illustrator of ''Big Comic'' in fall 2011 due to declining health. He died in Tokyo from

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...

on April 13, 2012, at the age of 75. Higurashi was survived by his wife, Kazuko Higurashi.

Selected works

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Higurashi, Shuichi 2012 deaths Japanese illustrators Manga artists from Chiba Prefecture Year of birth uncertain 1936 births Deaths from pneumonia in Japan