Institute / Research Cases / QS-RC-118
Riyoko Ikeda
The Rose of Versailles, The Window of Orpheus, Empress Ekaterina. Set against the French Revolution, The Rose of Versailles follows Oscar, a noblewoman raised as a man to command the royal guard, and Queen Marie Antoinette, and it rewrote the history of girls' manga. Born in Osaka, Riyoko Ikeda began drawing while at university and made her debut in 1967. The serial launched in 1972 became a sensation, and on 29 August 1974 the Takarazuka Revue staged it for the first time. The production set off the social phenomenon known as the 'Berubara boom' and has been revived ever since. In 1979 it became a television anime, and the work was loved across the sea in France as well. In 2009 the French government awarded her the Legion of Honour. At forty-seven Ikeda entered the vocal department of Tokyo College of Music and went on to a second path as a singer. Why did a single girls' manga become a national phenomenon? What was this vessel promised at birth? We read the vessel she was born with against the phases of destiny and time.
At a Glance
The case
- Subject
- Riyoko Ikeda (池田理代子) — Manga artist, singer
- Period analysed
- 1947–2026
- Three pillars
- Day 辛未 / Month 壬子 / Year 丁亥
- Void branches
- 戌亥 (Dog–Boar)
- Destiny area
- 1.20 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
- Her destiny is a very large vessel in which the stars she was born with transform and come together as one. When the conditions align, wealth and renown follow as she wishes.
- Bound only loosely to parents and household, her destiny is to open a path of her own in a single generation, by her own will.
- At the place her heart returns to sits a star that takes on the heavy duties others avoid and wins honour through struggle. The image of Oscar, the noblewoman who fights as a royal guard, overlaps here.
- A free imagination inherited from her forebears, and the power to express what she thinks, support her gift for stories both from her own centre and from the side of her ancestors.
- On the day of the Takarazuka premiere she was in a period in which her fortune comes alive by being drawn in rather than by drawing others in. Within the whirl of the stage, the work became a national phenomenon.
- Her late forties fell in a decade in which earlier values fall away of their own accord. In that decade she entered a music college and stepped onto the path of song. That beginning, however, fell in a year of void, making it a path with thin ties; her true path lies with drawing and story.
Questions
The questions the report answers
- Why did a single girls' manga become, through the Takarazuka stage, a national phenomenon?
- What overlapped on 29 August 1974, the day of the Takarazuka premiere?
- Where in her destiny was the image of Oscar born?
- Where does the path of song she began at forty-seven stand within her destiny?
Public Record
The record, year by year
Selected events from the public record. Analysis and judgement are given in the report itself.
| 1967 | 丁未 | Debut with Barayashiki no Shojo |
| 1972 | 壬子 | The Rose of Versailles begins serialisation |
| 1974 | 甲寅 | 29 Aug — The Takarazuka Revue premieres The Rose of Versailles |
| 1975 | 乙卯 | The Window of Orpheus begins |
| 1979 | 己未 | The television anime The Rose of Versailles begins |
| 1980 | 庚申 | Japan Cartoonists Association Award of Excellence |
| 1982 | 壬戌 (天) | Empress Ekaterina begins |
| 1995 | 乙亥 (天) | Enters the vocal department of Tokyo College of Music at forty-seven |
| 1999 | 己卯 | Graduates from Tokyo College of Music |
| 2009 | 己丑 | Awarded the Legion of Honour by the French government |
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 transformed complete chart
- The double void
- The returning, starting and shadow stars
- The deepest receding phase
- The decade of the month-stem union
- The four layers of 29 August 1974
- Timeline chart
- Public record
- Conclusion
Purchase
Order this Research Case
¥50,000incl. tax · PDF · Japanese
Email the case number QS-RC-118. 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