Institute / Research Cases / QS-RC-115
Motoka Murakami
Jin, Musashi no Ken, Ron, The Red Pegasus. A modern neurosurgeon is thrown back into Edo at the end of the shogunate and saves lives by making penicillin; a boy who lives for kendo crosses bamboo swords with his destined rival; a man races through the upheavals of the Chinese continent; a Japanese Formula One driver speeds to the limit. Changing his subject from sport to history to medicine, Motoka Murakami has drawn at the front line for half a century. Born in Setagaya, Tokyo, he worked as an assistant and debuted in his early twenties. He received the Shogakukan Manga Award twice, for Musashi no Ken and for Ron, and Jin, which he began at forty-nine, was adapted as a TBS Sunday drama on 11 October 2009 and became a social phenomenon. He was fifty-eight. Why did his greatest work reach the summit of its time in his fifties? What was this vessel promised at birth? We read the vessel he was born with against the phases of destiny and time.
At a Glance
The case
- Subject
- Motoka Murakami (村上もとか) — Manga artist
- Period analysed
- 1951–2026
- Three pillars
- Day 甲戌 / Month 癸巳 / Year 辛卯
- Void branches
- 申酉 (Monkey–Rooster)
- Destiny area
- 0.14 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 carries a vessel of fortune loved by heaven, in which the energy of heaven flows in a single line from the year of his birth to himself.
- He holds the fortune to found a house in a single generation, and the power to convey runs through the core of his chart.
- In his twenties the energy of his place in society stood doubled, and he gained his debut and his breakthrough work.
- His fifties were the decade in which that heavenly line is cut, and at the same time the decade of a momentary blaze before it fades.
- In that decade, in a month when his own energy stood doubled, the Jin drama began.
Questions
The questions the report answers
- Why did a work begun at forty-nine become a social phenomenon in his fifties?
- What overlapped on 11 October 2009, the day the drama began?
- What happens when a line of fortune loved by heaven is cut?
- Kendo, history, medicine: where in his destiny lies the power to keep drawing across subjects?
Public Record
The record, year by year
Selected events from the public record. Analysis and judgement are given in the report itself.
| 1972 | 壬子 | Debut in Weekly Shonen Jump |
| 1977 | 丁巳 | The Red Pegasus begins in Weekly Shonen Sunday |
| 1981 | 辛酉 (天) | Musashi no Ken begins in Weekly Shonen Sunday |
| 1984 | 甲子 | Shogakukan Manga Award (Musashi no Ken) |
| 1991 | 辛未 | Ron begins in Big Comic Original |
| 1996 | 丙子 | Shogakukan Manga Award (Ron) |
| 2000 | 庚辰 | Jin begins in Super Jump |
| 2009 | 己丑 | 11 Oct — The TBS drama Jin begins |
| 2011 | 辛卯 | Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize, Grand Prize; the drama concludes |
| 2014 | 甲午 | Japan Cartoonists Association Award of Excellence |
| 2026 | 丙午 | First ambassador of the All Japan Kendo Federation |
Year pillars change at Risshun, in early February. (天) = void year or void decade. (天天) = void year within a 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 heavenly line
- One generation
- The decade of 辛卯
- Twenty years of 庚寅 and 己丑
- The decade that cuts the line
- The four layers of 11 October 2009
- Timeline chart
- Public record
- Conclusion
Purchase
Order this Research Case
¥50,000incl. tax · PDF · Japanese
Email the case number QS-RC-115. 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