Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, entertainment, Icaro, Jiro Taniguchi, Kodoku no Gourmet, manga, The Times of Botchan

Manga Great Jiro Taniguchi Dead At Age 69

One of the giants of literary manga has passed away today. Jiro Taniguchi, creator of Kodoku no Gourmet and The Times of Botchan, was 69 years old.

Taniguchi was born in 1947 in Tottori City in western Japan and moved to Tokyo to become a manga creator. He made his debut with Kareta Heya at the age of 24. He created a signature style using fine line art and shading without the use of ink. He would produce works geared towards grown-ups, looking at every day life including a focus on Botchan author Soseki Natsume that he did with writer Natsuo Sekikawa in The Times of Botchan. He would earn the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prizes's top honor as well as the Japan Cartoonists Association Excellence Award.

Kodoku no Gourmet, the story of a salesman named Goro Inagashira who samples the food on street corners all around Japan, has become a live-action television series with a sixth season revealed last month. Taniguchi worked on this with story creator Masayuki Kusumi.

Taniguchi received acclaim outside of Japan as well, being nominated for Eisner Awards (2007-2010) and an Ignatz Award (2010). He was knighted as a chevalier in France's Ordre des Arts et des letters in 2001. The artist also teamed with the legendary Moebius on a manga called Icaro.

You can find overseas editions of his work including Guardians of the Louvre, The Summit of the Gods, A Zoo in Winter, The Ice Wanderer, and Samurai Legend just to name a few.

[Source: Mainichi]

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