Machiko Hasegawa

Machiko Hasegawa (Japanese长谷川 町 子, born January 30, 1920, in Taku, Saga Prefecture, Japan, † 27, 1992) was a Japanese manga artist. With sazae -san, she created one of the most famous in Japan comic strips. She was the first successful female comic artist in Japan.

In 1934 she became a student of the Yonkoma manga illustrator Tagawa Suihō. In the following years she published her first comic strips for kids - including from 1937 Nakayoshi Techo (仲よし 手帖) for the girls magazine Shōjo Club.

Hasegawa began sazae -san (サザエ さん) in April 1946 for the regional newspaper Fukunichi Shimbun. 1949 moved the series into significantly stronger circulation, nationally broadcast Asahi Shimbun. Because of this change moved the signatory to Tokyo, where she worked from then on. The very popular Yonkoma manga about the everyday life of a Japanese housewife and her family ended in February 1974 after about 10,000 comic strips, because Hasegawa retired. In 1969, an anime television series was started based on the comics that since running with a market share of up to 39.4 per cent as one of the most successful animated series on Japanese TV and over 1,800 episodes covers (each with a duration of about 25 minutes). The 68 books in which the strips were published collected, sold in Japan over twenty million times.

The other works of illustrator failed to match the success of sazae -san. For Sunday Mainichi she created the comic strip series Epron Obasan (エプロン おばさん, from 1957) and Ijiwaru Basan (いじわる ばあさん, from 1966).

For sazae -san was in 1962 awarded the Bungei - Shunju Manga Award in 1991 and the Prize of the Association of Japanese comic artist. 1985 in Tokyo erected in her honor a museum. After Hasegawa died in 1992 at the age of 72 years, was honored them as first and only comic artist, with the National Speedwell (国民 栄 誉 赏, kokumin eiyo shō ).