Yasuko Sakata (坂田靖子, ''Sakata Yasuko'') is a Japanese

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 ...

artist. She is considered to be a successor to the

Year 24 Group The is a grouping of female manga artists who heavily influenced ''shōjo'' manga (Japanese girls' comics) beginning in the 1970s. While ''shōjo'' manga of the 1950s and 1960s largely consisted of simple stories marketed towards elementary ...

that is credited with renewing

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 ...

Life

She was born on 25 February 1953 in Osaka, Japan. She now lives in

Kanazawa is the capital of Ishikawa Prefecture in central Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 466,029 in 203,271 households, and a population density of 990 persons per km2. The total area of the city was . Etymology The name "Kanazaw ...

Ishikawa Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu island. Ishikawa Prefecture has a population of 1,096,721 (1 January 2025) and has a geographic area of 4,186 Square kilometre, km2 (1,616 sq mi). Ishikawa Pr ...

. Her official debut was with the work ''Saikon Kyousou Kyoku'' (再婚狂騒曲), published in ''

Hana to Yume , also known as , is a semi-monthly Japanese manga magazine published by Hakusensha on the 5th and 20th of every month. The magazine is B5-size, and always comes with or free supplements, such as drama CDs, pencil boards (shitajiki), manga ...

'' in 1975. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, she was involved in the

yaoi , also known by its abbreviation , is a genre of fictional media originating in Japan that depicts homoerotic relationships between male characters. It is typically created by women for a female audience, distinguishing it from the equivale ...

dōjinshi , also Romanization of Japanese, romanized as ', is the Japanese term for self-published print works, such as magazines, manga, and novels. Part of a wider category of ''doujin'' (self-published) works, ''doujinshi'' are often derivative of exi ...

'' movement, having co-coined the term "yaoi" with Akiko Hatsu. One of Sakata's dōjinshi, ''Loveri'', was amongst the very first to be described as "yaoi". Kotani Mari, foreword to Saitō Tamaki (2007) "Otaku Sexuality" in Christopher Bolton, Istvan Csicsery-Ronay Jr., and

Takayuki Tatsumi is a Japanese scholar. He is a professor at Keio University, where he has taught literary theory and American literature since 1989. As an avid science fiction fan, he authored many books and essays on science fiction. He received Nihon SF Tais ...

ed., page 223 Robot Ghosts and Wired Dreams University of Minnesota Press "Around 1980, the female manga artists Sakata Yasuko and Hatsu Akiko coined this word to describe the male-male sex manga they were publishing in the magazine ''Rappori''." Her best known works are ''Jikan wo Warerani'', ''Basil Shi no Yuuga na Seikatsu'' (The Elegant Life of Mr Basil), about a 19th-century British aristocrat, and ''Yamiyo no Hon'' (serialized 1982-1985 in

Asahi Sonorama is the publishing arm of The Asahi Shimbun Company, publishing books, magazines, and manga. It replaced on 1 April 2008 just after it went bankrupt. History Asahi Sonorama was created as a division of Asahi Shimbunsha on September 9, 1959, ...

's ''Duo'' magazine). She won the

Agency for Cultural Affairs The is a special body of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). It was set up in 1968 to promote Japanese arts and culture. The agency's budget for FY 2018 rose to ¥107.7 billion. Overview The age ...

Media Arts Festival Grand Prize in the Manga Division in 1997. Most of her work is short stories - as of 2003, one catalogue listed over 40 of her stories. The type of stories she tells include traditional Japanese ghost stories, science fiction, mysteries, and Western and Chinese stories. She is marked for her talent at "casually portraying" everyday life.

Works

* 再婚狂騒曲 ''Saikon Kyousou Kyoku'' *闇月王 ''Yami Gatsuoo'' * バジル氏の優雅な生活 ''Basil Shi no Yuuga na Seikatsu'' (The Elegant Life of Mr Basil) * マーガレットとご主人の底抜け珍道中 ''maagaretto togo shujin no sokonuke chindouchuu'' *チューくんとハイちゃん ''chuu-kun to hai chan''

References

External links

SAKATA Box - Official website
(Japanese) {{DEFAULTSORT:Sakata, Yasuko 1953 births Living people Manga artists from Osaka Prefecture People from Takatsuki, Osaka