Noboru Baba

• Name — Noboru Baba • Born — 18 October 1927 • Birthplace — Sannohe, Aomori Prefecture, Japan • Died — 7 April 2001 • Place of death — Tokyo, Japan • Occupation — Manga artist

Noboru Baba was born in Sannohe in Aomori Prefecture in 1927. The youngest of three siblings, he displayed an early talent for drawing and was particularly inspired by Suihō Tagawa’s manga Norakuro, which would leave a lasting impression on his approach to animal characters. He became friends with children's writer Shigeru Shiraki, who was from the same town as him. After graduating from Aomori Prefectural Aomori High School, Baba enrolled at Tokyo Fine Arts School (now Tokyo University of the Arts). His studies were interrupted when he was drafted into military service during the Second World War. Following the war, Baba returned to Aomori and took a job at the regional newspaper Tō-Ō Nippō, where he contributed illustrations and comic strips. His debut as a professional manga artist came in the last 1940s with work published in Shin Nihon Manga. In 1950, he relocated to Tokyo to pursue his career full-time, motivated by Shigeru Shiraki. When he started his career as a manga artist, he published popular children's manga like Posto-kun and Būtan. Eventually, he started drawing manga also for other newspapers and weekly magazines. In the early 1950s, Noboru Baba was an active member of the Tokyo Children’s Manga Association (Tokyo jidō manga kai), an influential group of children’s manga artists formed to improve their standing within the publishing industry. Alongside notable contemporaries like Eiichi Fukui and Osamu Tezuka, Baba frequently socialized and collaborated with other leading cartoonists of the time. The group organized events for fans and supported one another through research, trips, and social gatherings. Baba acted as a mediator in a notorious conflict between Tezuka and fellow artist Eiichi Fukui, stepping in to defuse a confrontation after Tezuka publicly mocked Fukui in his series Manga Classroom (1952-1954). Baba later appeared in Tezuka’s own comic depiction of the incident, alongside Fukui, as a figure tying up Tezuka’s alter ego in protest. Baba also delivered the eulogy at Tezuka's funeral in 1989. Alongside Tezuka and Eiichi Fukui, Baba was hailed as one of the "Three Crows of Children's Manga" (Jidō Mangakai no Sanbagarasu) in the postwar era. In 1967, Baba published the first volume of 11 Piki no Neko (Eleven Cats), a humorous picture book about a group of mischievous, scheming cats who work together and occasionally betray each other in pursuit of food, adventure, or survival. The book became a bestseller and led to five sequels, as well as animated adaptations and stage plays. This series, which ran until 1996, solidified Baba’s reputation as one of Japan’s most important creators of children's literature. Baba gained widespread readership with Baku-san, a four-panel comic strip featuring a gentle elephant working as a salaryman. Serialized in the newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun, the strip ran between 1970 and 1984. Noboru Baba died of stomach cancer at his home in Nerima, Tokyo, on April 7, 2001, at age 73. His final work, Budōbatake no Ao-san, was published posthumously in May 2001.

• Title — Year — Notes — Refs • Ōgon Washi — ca. 1948 — Published by Shobunsha in 1 vol. • Posto-kun (ポストくん) — 1950–1954 — Serialized in Omoshiro Book • Yama kara Kita Kappa (山から来た河童) — 1951–1954 — Serialized in Bōken Ō • Būtan (ブウタン) — 1954–1957 — Serialized in Yōnen Book • Rokusan Tengoku (ろくさん天国) — 1961–1967 — Serialized in Weekly Manga Times • Baku-san (バクさん) — 1970–1984 — Serialized in Nihon Keizai Shimbun

Noboru Baba is recorded as having received Medal with Purple Ribbon, Sankei Children's Book Award and Bungeishunjū Manga Award. Recorded at birth as 馬場 登.

• Title — Year — Notes — Refs • Kitsune Mori no Yamaotoko (きつね森の山男) — 1963 • 11-piki no Neko (11ぴきのねこ) — 1967–1996 — Published in 6 vol. • Buta Tanuki Kitsune Neko (ぶたたぬききつねねこ) — 1978 • Budōbatake no Ao-san (ぶどう畑のアオさん) — 2001