Kazuichi Hanawa

Made his debut in Garo in 1971 with a story called "Kan no Mushi" (Irascible), about a incorrigibly bad boy whose mother takes him to a sadistic acupuncturist for a cure.

Kazuichi Hanawa is one of Japan's most revered and imitated mangaka. His macabre, erotic tales of medieval aristocracy are, in their cruely humorous depictions of late Heian-period decadence, reminiscent of the early fiction of Jun'ichiro Tanizaki. Hanawa was born April 17, 1947. He debuted as a mangaka in Garo's July 1971 issue, and his work was an instant sensation. After the death of his mother in the early eighties, Hanawa quit drawing manga and retired to his hometown in rural Saitama. There, he lived the life of a farmer while reading works on Buddhism, yoga, and psychology. He was lured back to manga in 1984 by the legendary editor Hiroshi Yaku to contribute a thirty-four page story for the debut issue of Comic Baku. Yaku remembers Hanawa at that time as a nervous man, whose morbid fear of meeting people bordered on paranoia. "If people around here knew I was a mangaka", he told Yaku, "they'd come and throw stones at me." Hanawa begins a manga without any preconceived plan as to the direction his story will take. He draws image upon image, holding the theme and plot together with only his enourmous powers of concentration. He has published many collections of his work and has collaborated with Suehiro Maruo on a book of illustrations titled Muzane (Cruel Pictures). Hanawa, while living in Sapporo in Northern Japan, was raided by the police over his collection of antique weaponry. He was convicted to three years of prison (Japan has very strict gun-control law enforcement). After his release, he published the work "In the prison", that he drew during his imprisonment.