Institute / Research Cases / QS-RC-117
Hirohiko Araki
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan, Steel Ball Run. The rumbling 'gogogo' sound effects, the striking 'JoJo poses', and 'Stands' that give supernatural power a visible form. For nearly forty years Hirohiko Araki has drawn a saga in which the bloodline of the Joestar family passes from generation to generation. Born in Sendai, Miyagi, he made his debut at twenty with a runner-up in the Tezuka Award. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, begun in 1987, has continued through nine parts with new heroes and settings, and its circulation exceeds one hundred million copies. In 2009 he became the first Japanese manga artist invited to the Louvre's comics project; on 5 October 2012 the television anime began; and in 2018 the National Art Center, Tokyo held an exhibition of his original art, carrying the work into the realm of fine art. Why did one boys' magazine series reach a renown that crosses borders and disciplines? 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
- Hirohiko Araki (荒木飛呂彦) — Manga artist
- Period analysed
- 1960–2026
- Three pillars
- Day 丙寅 / Month 壬午 / Year 庚子
- Void branches
- 戌亥 (Dog–Boar)
- Destiny area
- 1.18 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 is a vessel of the highest class, with both protecting forces standing in plain view — a promise that his renown will travel far.
- The individuality he was born with lies outside convention, and gives rise to a style and a world no one had seen before.
- His defining work took root in his twenties, before his period of void began.
- His forties and fifties fell in a twenty-year period of void. The work rooted before it spread across borders and disciplines in those years.
- In his fifties, his path became bound to society itself, on the surface and beneath it alike, drawing those around him in while sweeping away the values he had held. In the midst of that decade, in 2012, the work became a television anime and grew into a social phenomenon.
Questions
The questions the report answers
- Why did one boys' magazine series reach a renown that crosses borders and disciplines?
- What overlapped on 5 October 2012, the day the television anime began?
- What did renown within a period of void borrow from the future?
- Where in his destiny was a style no one had seen before born?
Public Record
The record, year by year
Selected events from the public record. Analysis and judgement are given in the report itself.
| 1980 | 庚申 | Runner-up in the Tezuka Award with Buso Poker; debut |
| 1984 | 甲子 | Serialises Baoh |
| 1987 | 丁卯 | Begins JoJo's Bizarre Adventure |
| 1992 | 壬申 | Part 4, Diamond Is Unbreakable, begins |
| 2004 | 甲申 (天) | Part 7, Steel Ball Run, begins |
| 2009 | 己丑 (天) | Takes part in the Louvre's comics project |
| 2011 | 辛卯 (天) | Part 8, JoJolion, begins |
| 2012 | 壬辰 (天) | 5 Oct — The television anime JoJo's Bizarre Adventure begins |
| 2018 | 戊戌 (天天) | Exhibition of original art at the National Art Center, Tokyo |
| 2021 | 辛丑 | JoJolion concludes |
| 2023 | 癸卯 | Part 9, The JOJOLands, begins; the film Kishibe Rohan at the Louvre is released |
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 imperial-examination chart
- The two irregular pillars
- Twenty years of void
- The decade of the double hidden union
- The sixth decade after the void
- The four layers of 5 October 2012
- Timeline chart
- Public record
- Conclusion
Purchase
Order this Research Case
¥50,000incl. tax · PDF · Japanese
Email the case number QS-RC-117. 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