Institute / Research Cases / QS-RC-116
Takashi Yanase
Anpanman, Tenohira o Taiyo ni, The Gentle Lion. A hero who lets the hungry eat his own face, and a song that sings 'we are all alive'. As a cartoonist, poet, lyricist and picture-book author, Takashi Yanase kept delivering life and justice to children. Raised in Kochi, he was sent to the Chinese mainland in the war; after it he worked in the advertising department of Mitsukoshi and then became an independent cartoonist. For years a defining work eluded him, and his picture book Anpanman was at first criticised by adults. The turn came late. On 3 October 1988 the television anime Soreike! Anpanman began, and at sixty-nine Yanase became a national author. He kept drawing until his death at ninety-four, and his life was portrayed in the 2025 NHK morning drama Anpan. Why did the bloom come so late? 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
- Takashi Yanase (やなせたかし) — Cartoonist, picture-book author, poet
- Period analysed
- 1919–2013
- Three pillars
- Day 己丑 / Month 丙寅 / Year 己未
- Void branches
- 午未 (Horse–Goat)
- Destiny area
- 0.67 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 holds within it an energy opposite to his parents', a vessel that breaks received values and creates new ones.
- With voids in both the day and the year of his birth, his destiny is to open his own path without relying on his parents.
- In his forties a period came in which part of the values he was born with fell away of their own accord. In that decade his outlook changed deeply, and he conceived the idea of an unchanging justice that later became Anpanman.
- His sixties and seventies fell in a period of void, yet the work he had kept drawing since before it bloomed nationally in those twenty years.
- In his last years protecting forces returned, and he kept drawing until ninety-four.
Questions
The questions the report answers
- Why did a national bloom come so late, at sixty-nine?
- What overlapped on 3 October 1988, the day the television anime began?
- What did a success within a period of void borrow in advance?
- Where in his destiny was a hero who gives his own face born?
Public Record
The record, year by year
Selected events from the public record. Analysis and judgement are given in the report itself.
| 1941 | 辛巳 | Drafted and sent to the Chinese mainland |
| 1947 | 丁亥 | Moves to Tokyo and joins the advertising department of Mitsukoshi |
| 1953 | 癸巳 | Becomes an independent cartoonist |
| 1961 | 辛丑 | Writes the lyrics of Tenohira o Taiyo ni |
| 1967 | 丁未 (天) | Weekly Asahi Manga Award for Bo-shi |
| 1969 | 己酉 | Publishes Anpanman for adult readers |
| 1973 | 癸丑 | Launches the magazine Shi to Meruhen; publishes the picture book Anpanman |
| 1975 | 乙卯 | Publishes The Gentle Lion |
| 1988 | 戊辰 (天) | 3 Oct — The television anime Soreike! Anpanman begins |
| 2013 | 癸巳 | 13 Oct — Dies at ninety-four |
| 2025 | 乙巳 | The NHK morning drama Anpan airs |
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 reversed pillars
- The double void
- The decade of the month-stem union
- Twenty years of void
- The protected last years
- The four layers of 3 October 1988
- Timeline chart
- Public record
- Conclusion
Purchase
Order this Research Case
¥50,000incl. tax · PDF · Japanese
Email the case number QS-RC-116. 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