Goseki Kojima
Goseki Kojima was a prominent Japanese manga artist, born on November 2, 1928, in Yokkaichi, Japan. After starting his career creating advertising posters, he moved to Tokyo in 1950, where he contributed to the kami-shibai street theater and kashi-bon bookstores, engaging with low-income audiences. Kojima gained significant recognition in 1967 with his first series, Dojinki, followed by a groundbreaking collaboration with writer Kazuo Koike on the iconic manga series "Lone Wolf and Cub" (Kozore Ôkami) starting in 1970. This series, known for its blend of violent action and beautiful artwork, tells the story of Ogami Itto, a ronin seeking vengeance while caring for his young son, Daigoro.
"Lone Wolf and Cub" became a monumental work in the manga genre, running until 1976 and later published in comprehensive volumes that garnered Eisner Awards. Kojima's artistry and storytelling influenced many other creators and led to adaptations in film and television. In addition to "Lone Wolf and Cub," he and Koike also produced "Samurai Executioner" during the same period. Later in his career, Kojima served as a consultant for Manga Japan magazine and created original graphic novels inspired by the works of filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. Goseki Kojima passed away on January 5, 2000, leaving behind a rich legacy in the world of manga.
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Goseki Kojima
Illustrator
- Born: November 3, 1928
- Birthplace: Yokkaichi, Mie, Japan
- Died: January 5, 2000
Biography
Goseki Kojima was born on November 2, 1928, in Yokkaichi, Japan. After leaving junior high school, he earned money designing and painting advertising posters for motion picture theaters. In 1950, he moved to Tokyo, the capital city of an utterly defeated Japan that was slowly recovering from the destruction of World War II. There, he drew style story sheets for kami-shibai (paper-play) street actors, who moved the pages to create stories for audiences too poor to afford printed works. He later performed a similar service for kashi-bon, or bookstores that rented out books and magazines to low-income readers who could not buy such materials, and he won a loyal audience among kashi-bon patrons.
In 1967, Kojima created Dojinki, his first series for a magazine, and worked on other popular series in a suddenly booming manga (comics) market. In 1970, he began collaborating with writer Kazuo Koike on the epic series that would serve as the defining point of both men’s careers and lead them to be dubbed “The Golden Duo,” Kozore Ôkami (Lone Wolf and Cub). Both an ultraviolent samurai manga saga and a work of art, Lone Wolf and Cub concerns the adventures of Ogami Itto, the Lone Wolf, a ronin, or a samurai without a master, and the deadliest man in Japan, who travels with his cart-riding small son Daigoro (the Cub). Once a shogun’s executioner, Ogami is an outlaw in the Edo period (1603-1867), thirsting for revenge against the Yagyu clan who murdered his wife and framed him. Lone Wolf and Cub features a cinematic, realistically rendered blend of delicate black-and-white landscapes of the Japanese countryside juxtaposed against blurred and brutal scenes of furious sword- fighting action.
The Lone Wolf and Cub saga began in 1970 with The Assassin’s Road and ended in 1976 with The Lotus Throne. The complete series, which originally ran in Japanese manga magazines, was later collected and published by First Publications, beginning in 1987, and later reprinted in twenty-eight volumes, containing nearly nine thousand pages, by Dark Horse Comics starting in 2000. The reprints won Eisner Awards in 2001 and 2004 for Best U.S. Edition of Foreign Material. Cocreators Kojima and Koike were inducted into the Eisner Hall of Fame in 2004.
Wildly popular in Japan for its violence and beauty, its irony and sentimentality, its philosophy and history, Lone Wolf and Cub inspired six motion pictures and a television series. The series also greatly influenced other comic book artists and writers, particularly Frank Miller. Kojima and Koike also collaborated on another less well-known series that ran coincidentally in manga magazines at the same time as Lone Wolf and Cub, Kubikiri Asa (Samurai Executioner). This series, the life story of Kubikri Asa, the sword-tester to the shogun before his fatal duel with the Lone Wolf, later was collected and published in ten volumes between 1972 and 1976.
In 1994, with the introduction of Manga Japan magazine, Kojima was hired to serve as a consultant, in which capacity he helped to train a new generation of artists. At the end of his life, Kojima worked on a series of original graphic novels done in manga fashion that were based on the samurai movies of Akira Kurosawa, a director whom Kojima revered and a major influence on his work. The graphic novels, released through Koike Shoin, the publishing arm of Kojima’s former collaborator, Koike, were not available in English in 2006. Kojima died on January 5, 2000.