Manga Creator Ichiro Tominaga Has Died

Manga creator and artist Ichiro Tominaga died on May 5, 2021 in Setagaya, Tokyo. Though the death occurred earlier this month, the news only broke on May 21. He died of natural causes at age 96. He was famous for manga such as Chinkoro Ane-chan, Sekkachi Neeya, and Ponkotsu Oyaji. [Thanks, Anime News Network!]

Tominaga was born in 1925, in Kyoto City. He went to Tokyo in 1951 and started to work as a manga artist. His work, such as Chinkoro Ane-chan, has homey and sometimes erotic humor that is targeted at adults in the lower middle class. Not only did he write manga, but he also appeared on television.  He was a guest on Owarai Manga Dojo and competed against Yoshiji Suzuki. Suzuki was a manga creator who penned Sanwari-kun, which is a yonkoma series.

This is not the only loss for the manga community. Earlier this week, Kentaro Miura, the creator of Berserk, passed away from an acute aortic dissection.

Tominaga’s contemporaries noted that he had a bright and cheery personality who could turn even the saddest event into a humorous one. Despite this, he was very serious when it came to work. Tominaga won a Japan Cartoonists Association Award in 1986 and a Medal with Purple Ribbon in 1992. He received The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette in 1998. In addition, Tominaga was elected to become the honorary director of the Kibi Kawakami Fureai Manga Museum, which is located in Okayama Prefecture.

Ichiro Tominaga died at the age of 96 on May 5, 2021. He was the artist and creator of Chinkoro Ane-chan and Sekkachi Neeya.