Shinji Nagashima

The recorded working language is Japanese. The field of work recorded is manga. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are gekiga. Works named in the authority record are The Harsh Story of a Manga Artist. Distinctions recorded are Shogakukan Manga Award.

• Name — Shinji Nagashima 永島 慎二 • Birth Name — Shin'ichi Nagashima 永島 眞一 • Born — 8 July 1937 • Birthplace — Kita, Tokyo, Japan • Died — 10 June 2005 • Known for — Manga • Training — assistant to Osamu Tezuka • Movement — Shōnen manga, Seinen manga, Alternative manga • Awards — Shogakukan Manga Award Japan Cartoonists Association Award

From the time he was in junior high school, Nagashima aspired to become a manga artist. After dropping out of school during junior high, he worked as a paperboy and a tofu salesman. He made his professional debut as a manga artist in 1952 with his story Sansho no Piri-chan. After becoming acquainted with Osamu Tezuka due to occasionally living at Tokiwa-sō, he became Tezuka's assistant. While there, he formed the group Musashi Production with artists including Atsushi Sugimura (who was working under the pseudonym Kontarō), Kyūta Ishikawa and Kuni Fukai (who was working under the pseudonym Hirō Fukai). He soon became friends with several members of the Gekiga Kōbō, including Yoshihiro Tatsumi and Takao Saito, while living in a provincial temple. After the breakup of Gekiga Kōbō, Nagashima began working for Saitō Production and his work began to reflect a more cinematic and dramatic feel. During this time, he began a somewhat wandering lifestyle living in Shinjuku. In 1961, Nagashima published The Harsh Story of a Manga Artist, a story which showed the "other side" of the manga industry and which brought Nagashima to the forefront of that industry. He continued publishing new works in a variety of magazines such as COM and Garo, and due to his unusual style began to be called the "father of seinen manga". From 1964 to 1966, he worked at Mushi Production working on anime television series such as Jungle Taitei, and later again worked for Mushi as a character designer on Wansa-kun (1973). Nagashima won the Shogakukan Manga Award for his Hanaichi Monme in 1972. Two years later, he won the Japan Cartoonists Association Award for Manga no Obentō Hako. Beginning in the 1980s, he began releasing fewer series, and went into semi-retirement. He was diagnosed with diabetes, which subsequently caused him to begin having dialysis treatments in 2000. Nagashima died of heart failure on June 10, 2005, at a Tokyo hospital.

• Beloved Pet Dog Taro (1956, Shōjo) • The Harsh Story of a Manga Artist (1961–1964, Keiji) • Wonderful Parent and Child (1962, Akahata) • The Seven Runts (1964, Atom Club) • Genta and Okkaa (1967, Shōnen King) • Wanderer (1967–1970, COM, Garo, Play Comic) • Jūdō Icchokusen (1967, written by Ikki Kajiwara, Shōnen King, was later adapted into a drama starring Ken'ichi Sakuragi) • A Flower Blooms in the Forest of the Heart (1968–1969, Wakamono) • The Young Ones (1970) • Manga Youth History (1971, Perfect Liberty) • Image Calendar (1971–1973, high school course books) • Hanaichi Monme (1971, Weekly Shōnen Sunday) • Street of Angels (1972, Shinfujin) • Sabu the Tease (1972, Shōnen King) • The Young Traveler (1972–1973) • Miracle Girl Limit-chan (1973–1974) • Night on the Galactic Railroad (1996, based on the novel by Kenji Miyazawa, NHK Publishing) • The World of Shinji Nagashima (2006, Chikuma Shūpansha)

• The Republic of Shinji Nagashima (1981, Daiwa Shobō) • Midnight Laundry (1983, Kizukisha Bijutsu Shuppan) • Asagaya Kaiwai Kaijin Gurai daa (1984, Obunsha)