Institute / Research Cases / QS-RC-089
Tetsuya Chiba
Ashita no Joe, Ore wa Teppei, Notari Matsutaro — with a single final panel of a boxer "burned out, pure white", he drew an era, and he became the first manga artist to receive Japan's Order of Culture. He saw the end of the war in Mukden, Manchuria, and debuted at seventeen, ten years after his family came home. Everything from his debut to his move into the weekly boys' magazines fell inside a twenty-year void. At the end of the year the void lifted, on 15 December 1967, the first instalment of Ashita no Joe appeared. What overlapped on that day? We read the seventy years of his work, which closed in October 2026, against the phases of destiny and time.
At a Glance
The case
- Subject
- Tetsuya Chiba — Manga artist of Ashita no Joe
- Period analysed
- 1939–2026
- Three pillars
- Day 戊申 / Month 乙丑 / Year 戊寅
- Void branches
- 寅卯 (Tiger–Rabbit)
- Destiny area
- 0.978 The area of the triangle formed by the three pillars on the sixty-cycle circle (maximum 1.30)
- Format
- PDF, 14 pages — written in Japanese
- Price
- ¥50,000 including tax
Research Brief
What the case shows
- His destiny shows a path cut alone, in the opposite direction to the world of his parents.
- From his debut to his move into the boys' weeklies, everything happened inside a twenty-year void in which his foremost supportive stars ran.
- At the end of the first year after the void lifted, the first instalment of his masterpiece appeared.
- The Order of Culture, the first ever given to a manga artist, came in a year of a supportive star.
- Seventy years of work closed in a form that remains in the work itself, rather than in a house that carries it on.
Questions
The questions the report answers
- How did he build a lifetime of work on a path opposite to his parents?
- What did the twenty-year void prepare?
- What overlapped on 15 December 1967?
- Where in time did manga reach the summit of national culture?
Public Record
The record, year by year
Selected events from the public record. Analysis and judgement are given in the report itself.
| 1946 | 丙戌 | Repatriated from Manchuria, a year after the war |
| 1956 | 丙申 (天) | Debuts at seventeen with a rental-library book |
| 1961 | 辛丑 (天) | Moves into the boys' weeklies with Chikai no Makyu |
| 1967 | 丁未 | 15 Dec — Ashita no Joe begins |
| 1970 | 庚戌 | 24 Mar — a real funeral is held for the character Rikiishi |
| 1973 | 癸丑 | Ashita no Joe ends |
| 1977 | 丁巳 | Shogakukan Manga Award for Notari Matsutaro |
| 2024 | 甲辰 | Order of Culture, the first for a manga artist |
| 2026 | 丙午 | 22 Oct — dies at eighty-seven |
Year pillars change at Risshun, in early February. (天) = void year or void decade.
Contents
14 pages
- Destiny profile and chart
- Yin and yang charts
- Axis and type of destiny
- Ten-year phases
- Composite numerical table
- The opposing pillars and the double void
- The twenty-year void of the supportive stars
- The four layers of 15 December 1967
- The burning theme and the seals
- Manga to the summit of culture
- The end of seventy years of work
- Timeline chart
- Public record
- Conclusion
Purchase
Order this Research Case
¥50,000incl. tax · PDF · Japanese
Email the case number QS-RC-089. We reply with an invoice; the PDF follows once payment is confirmed.
Analysis supervised by FAITH (Makoto Tokunaga) — MSc Economics, University of Warwick · CICP · Shugakuin Saii