posted on by Alex Mateo
Watanabe’s works include Glass Castle, Hitori Matsuri, Himegoto
The X/Twitter account for manga creator Masako Watanabe announced on Tuesday that Watanabe died on October 3 at 12:38 a.m. JST. She was 97.
Watanabe was born in Tokyo on May 16, 1929. She debuted in 1952 with the story “Suama-chan.” She launched the Himegoto manga in 2020 at the age of 91.
Watanabe specialized in shojo and josei during her long career. She won the 16th Shogakukan Manga Award in 1971 for her series Glass no Shiro (Glass Castle). Her 1985 manga Hitori Matsuri inspired a live-action television drama. In 2002, Watanabe earned the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Award at the 31st Japan Cartoonists Association Awards. In 2006, she became the first female manga creator to receive the Order of the Rising Sun decoration. Watanabe was the director of the Japan Cartoonists Association.
Her other works include Dai-San no Onna, Hakuba no Shōjo, Mimi to Nana, and Saint Rosalind.
Sources: Masako Watanabe‘s X/Twitter account, Comic Natalie
