Famed Japanese manga artist Fujiko Fujio A, known for beloved children’s cartoons including Ninja Hattori and Little Ghost Q-Taro, has died aged 88, local media reported yesterday.
The artist, whose real name was Motoo Abiko, was found near his home in Tokyo yesterday, broadcaster TBS and others said.
Police declined to confirm the reports, but tributes to Abiko were posted on Twitter by artists and publishers.
Photo: AFP
Abiko was the eldest son of a monk at a temple in the central Toyama region, but his family left after the death of his father when Abiko was in fifth grade.
“My father’s death changed my life the most. If he had not died, I think I would have been a monk,” he told Asahi Shimbun in 2020.
In high school, he became friends with Hiroshi Fujimoto, who later created Japan’s much-loved cartoon Doraemon, and the pair started to work together.
They formed a partnership that debuted in 1951, jointly producing works under the pen name “Fujiko Fujio,” and shared a Tokyo apartment with other famous manga artists, including Osamu Tezuka.
One of the duo’s works was Q-Taro, about a good-natured, mischievous ghost child who starts living with a human family, which found fans in Japan and abroad.
Abiko also created various manga by himself, including Ninja Hattori, a ninja who becomes best friends with a regular kid, as well as other works targeted at adults.
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