ABOUT TEZUKA OSAMU ABOUT TEZUKA OSAMU

HISTORY

1930s

  • 1932 [2 years]

    Portrait of Tezuka Osamu's grandfather 2 (date/location unknown)
    A portrait of Tezuka Osamu's grandfather, Tezuka Taro. He was responsible for naming Tezuka Etsuko.

    Grandfather Taro, one of the founders of Kansai University, passes away.

  • 1933 [5 years]

    The family moves to Takarazuka City, Hyogo Prefecture .

  • 1935 [7 years]

    Tezuka Osamu as a young boy (April 1936/Takarazuka, location unknown)
    Wearing the uniform of Osaka Prefecture Ikeda Elementary School.

    Enters elementary school in Osaka.

  • 1936 [8 years]

    Nicknamed "fuzzy head" for his curly hair when in the second grade.

  • 1937 [9 years]

    Starting in third grade, Tezuka Osamu learns composition from his teacher Inui Hideo. He has his hair closely cropped and draws his first comic "Pin Pin Sei-chan", whose central character was a boy with close-cropped hair.
    Becomes fond of reading "Norakuro" and "Nakamura Manga Library" by the comic artist Tagawa Hosui.
    Ask his parents to subscribe to a newspaper just so that he can read Tagawa's comic strips.

    Tezuka’s first manga work, Lively Little Sei

  • 1939 [11 years]

    Starts to wear glasses in the fifth grade. A new school building is built, and Tezuka Osamu, together with his friends, play a group of conspirators in unused empty classrooms and construction workers' sheds. He draws picture cards "Martians are here" featuring Martians.
    The character "Hyotantsugi" appears in his drawings "Fishing with Fuku-chan" for the first time.
    Draws a long comic "A Night in China" and circulates it in the school. It proves popular with his teachers as well as the students.
    Works with his friends to create a mimeographed bulletin for circulation
    Reads about an insect called "Osamushi (ground beetle)" in "A Color Picture Book of 1,000 Species of Insects" that he borrows from a friend of his, and creates his pen name "Osamu" by adding a character meaning "insect" to his real name. He starts collecting insects, and draws more comics including "Pi-pi-pi-ko".
    Becomes fascinated by Umino Junzo's novel "Martian Army Corps", which was published in a newspaper in serial form.