Norikazu Kawashima

"Between 1983 and 1988, Kawashima drew twenty-nine kakioroshi tankoubon for the publisher Hibari Shobou, whose books are eagerly sought after by collectors of horror manga. According to his widow Kimie, he originally worked for a manufacturer of car parts near his hometown. Beyond that, practically nothing is known about his life before he became an artist. Actually, not much is known about his life even after he became an artist.

Kawashima's name first appears within the annals of manga at the age of seventeen. Among the honorary mentions of of the reader submissions pages in the July 1967 issue of COM—a monthly manga magazine published by Tezuka Osamu's Mushi Pro—one "Kawashima Han'ichi" (his real name, which can also be read Norikazu) from Shizuoka is noted as having submitted a story titled "The Gorilla Detective ("Gorira Tantei"), though no synopsis or sample imagery is provided.

In the late 80s—riding Japan's economic bubble, the manga industry was soaring, but it also left artists like Kawashima who worked in dated formats behinds. In a couple of years, he had exhausted his savings and decided to leave Tokyo. After throwing out all of his old artwork, he returned to his hometown in Shizuoka, never to draw manga again. He got married, got a regular job, and enjoyed fishing on his days off. he passed away from lung cancer in 2018."

(Source: essay by Kawakatsu Tokushige, translated by Ryan Holmberg, included in Her Frankenstein)