Institute / Research Cases / QS-RC-125
Kazuo Umezu
Hebi Shojo, The Drifting Classroom, Orochi, Makoto-chan, I Am Shingo, 14. Children flung with their whole school into a wasteland of the future, a boy who made all Japan laugh with his 'gwashi' sign, an industrial robot that came to have a heart — Kazuo Umezu drew fear and laughter, machines and children, and laid the foundation of Japanese horror manga. Born in Wakayama and raised in Nara, he debuted in rental-book manga in 1955. The Drifting Classroom, begun in 1972, won the Shogakukan Manga Award, and Makoto-chan in 1976 became a social phenomenon. He went on to I Am Shingo in 1982 and 14 in 1990, and when he finished 14 in 1995 he entered a long silence. In 2018 I Am Shingo received the Heritage Award at the Angoulême International Comics Festival in France, and on 28 January 2022, at the Kazuo Umezu Great Art Exhibition, he unveiled ZOKU-SHINGO, his first new work in twenty-seven years, as a series of 101 paintings. He was eighty-five. Why could he break a silence of twenty-seven years in his eighties? What was the vessel promised at his birth? We read the vessel he was born with against his destiny and the phases of time.
At a Glance
The case
- Subject
- Kazuo Umezu (楳図かずお) — Manga artist
- Period analysed
- 1936–2024
- Three pillars
- Day 戊子 / Month 丙申 / Year 丙子
- Void branches
- 午未 (Horse–Goat)
- Destiny area
- 0.41 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 a structure counted the most difficult among the partial charts. It is a structure in which living independently on one's own does not come easily.
- At the same time, two protective forces surface while the obstructing force barely appears, making it a superior chart as well. The most difficult chart and a superior chart stand side by side in one destiny.
- His is a way of life with two fortunes, living two lives. His life as a manga artist closed once with his silence, and twenty-seven years later a second life opened, as an artist who unveiled new work in paintings.
- The twenty years from age thirty-two to fifty-one are the period in which his central star surfaces. The Drifting Classroom, Makoto-chan and I Am Shingo were all born within it.
- He holds the star of one who stays at the front line as the years pass, active for life. The new work of his second life appeared in the decade of his eighties. With no one to inherit it, he carried his own work forward with his own hands and closed it himself.
Questions
The questions the report answers
- Why could he break a silence of twenty-seven years in his eighties?
- What overlapped on 28 January 2022, the day the exhibition opened?
- Where in his destiny did the author who drew both fear and laughter come from?
- Where in the phases of time did his life as a manga artist turn into his life as an artist?
Public Record
The record, year by year
Selected events from the public record. Analysis and judgement are given in the report itself.
| 1955 | 乙未 (天) | Debuts in rental-book manga |
| 1972 | 壬子 | The Drifting Classroom begins |
| 1975 | 乙卯 | Shogakukan Manga Award for The Drifting Classroom |
| 1976 | 丙辰 | Makoto-chan begins |
| 1980 | 庚申 | Makoto-chan animated film released |
| 1982 | 壬戌 | I Am Shingo begins |
| 1990 | 庚午 (天) | 14 begins |
| 1995 | 乙亥 | 14 concludes; he enters a long silence |
| 2018 | 戊戌 | Heritage Award for I Am Shingo, Angoulême International Comics Festival |
| 2022 | 辛丑 | 28 January: the Kazuo Umezu Great Art Exhibition opens with ZOKU-SHINGO, his first new work in 27 years |
| 2024 | 甲辰 | 28 October: dies at eighty-eight |
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 earth chart of flowing water
- A superior chart of two guardians
- Two lives in both hands
- The twenty years of the surfacing main star
- The decade active for life
- The four layers of 28 January 2022
- Timeline chart
- Public record
- Conclusion
Purchase
Order this Research Case
¥50,000incl. tax · PDF · Japanese
Email the case number QS-RC-125. 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