, born as , was a Japanese manga artist, feminist essayist and poet. She was associated with the alternative manga magazine Garo.

Life She was born in , Setagaya, Tokyo as Mitsuko Yamada, on September 5, 1948. She began drawing artwork as a child. She lived with her grandparents while her mother and sister lived separately; they all lived in Taishidō. Her father died from tuberculosis.Holmberg, Talk to My Back, p. x (Google Books PT374). She attended , beginning in 1963, and played in a band, "Weeping Love Strings," with four men/boys.Holmberg, Talk to My Back, p. xi. She married one of them in October 1971, and the two moved to a danchi apartment in .Holmberg, Talk to My Back, p. xxii.

She used the pen name "Murasaki Neko" for her poetry work, and later incorporated "Murasaki" into her standard pen name. Ryan Holmberg, the translator of Talk to My Back, stated that the name "Murasaki" reminds one of Murasaki Shikibu and that the name had "poetic connotations" to the author's liking.Holmberg, Talk to My Back, p.xii (Google Books PT358). Additionally, Yamada's daughter, Yū Yamada, stated that Yamada liked the color of purple dyes from lithospermum erythrorhizon, also known as "murasaki". Yamada had a preference for cats, which appears in her works.

She made her debut as a professional manga artist in 1969 in Osamu Tezuka's avantgarde magazine COM and had formal art training before becoming a manga artist. When COM stopped being published, she started working for Garo magazine instead. Her first short story in Garo was "Oh, the Ways of the World" (ああせけんさま Aa Seken-sama) in 1971. For another short story, "When the Wind Blew" (風の吹く頃 Kaze no fuku koro), she won an Honorable Mention at the Big Comic Award associated with the Big Comic magazine. After this, she put her career on hiatus because of marriage and raising her children. She returned to Garo in 1978 and also started publishing essays, illustrations and poetry in literary magazines. From 1981 until 1984, she published the feminist manga series Talk to My Back in Garo, which dealt with being a housewife, a failing marriage and the pressure of raising children.

She separated from her first husband in 1981, and he moved out of her residence. The divorce was complete in 1983. She accused her first husband of spousal abuse.

Yamada ran for a seat in the 1989 Japanese House of Councillors election as part of the Chikyū Club political organization. She lost, along with others in her party. It was the only time she ran for office.Holmberg, Talk to My Back, p. xxxiv-xxxv.

From 2006 on, she taught at Kyoto Seika University's Faculty of Manga. In 2007, she also moved to Kyoto.

She married , and was last legally known as . She first met Shiratori in 1984. He moved into her residence around 1985 to 1986. In 2002 they married.Holmberg, Talk to My Back, p. xxxvii. She was 17 years older than he was, and she modeled a boyfriend character in Blue Sky after him.Holmberg, Talk to My Back, p. xxxvi.

Yamada died at Kyoto Hospital on May 5, 2009, age 60, due to intracerebral hemorrhage.

Style Her works are described as being pictorial I Novels.

Impact Frederik L. Schodt regarded her work as particularly important because of the feminist message, rare in shōjo manga. Yamada influenced Hinako Sugiura and Yōko Kondō, her former assistants. The three of them were referred to as the "Three Garo Girls" (ガロ三人娘 Garo san'nin musume), translated by Ryan Holmberg (translator of Talk to My Back) as "three daughters of Garo"; Holmberg argued Yamada's age and motherhood made the moniker "highly misleading", and that while male artists are not usually distinguished by gender, the moniker does so for the female artists and implies that women are inherently bound to families.Holmberg, Talk to My Back, p. xxxviii. Holmberg argued that, therefore, the moniker displays sexism.

Works

TitleYearNotesRefs"My Left Hand..." (ひだり手の... Hidari te no...)May 1969Published in COM.Holmberg, Talk to My Back, p. xiii."Touch-me-not" (鳳仙花 Hōsenka)July 1969Published in COM.Holmberg, Talk to My Back, p. ixv."That's Mine" (あれわわたしの Are wa watashi no)October 1969Published in COM.Holmberg, Talk to My Back, p. xvii-xviii."Poems to the Empyrean" (Sora e no uta)March–December 1970A collection of poems with illustrations, published in COM.Holmberg, Talk to My Back, p. xvi."My Lover" (わたしの恋人 Watashi no koibito)May 1970Published in Funny, a magazine. It was one of her two shōjo manga.Holmberg, Talk to My Back, pp. xviii-ixx"I Have a Question" (しつもんがありんす Shitsumon ga arimasu)August 1970Published in COM.Holmberg, Talk to My Back, pp. xvii"Oh, the Ways of the World" (ああせけんさま Aa Seken-sama)February 1971One-shot in GaroHolmberg, Talk to My Back, p. xviii."Sassy Cats" (性悪猫 Shōwaruneko)March 1973Published in Apple Core (アップルコア). In 1978 a version with new illustrations was published in Garo.Holmberg, Talk to My Back, p. xxi."When the Wind Blew" (風の吹く頃 Kaze no fuku koro)May 15, 1973Published in Big ComicHolmberg, Talk to My Back, p. xx."My Blue Star" (わたしの青い星 Watashi no aoi hoshi)September 1978One-shot in Gals Life (ギャルズライフ). Described by Holmberg as a shōjo work "For all intents and purposes", it was published under the author name Mitsuko Nagatsuki (九月三津子 Nagatsuki Mitsuko) to hide the fact from her husband that she was writing manga again. This pen name included her given name and Nagatsuki; the latter referred to her birth month.Holmberg, Talk to My Back, p. xxv.Sassy Cats (性悪猫 Shōwaru-Neko)August 1980Published by In 2009 Shogakukan published a new and expanded edition, the Shogakukan Creative version.The 2009 edition was translated into English by Drawn and Quarterly, release scheduled in November 2026.Talk to My Back (しんきらり, Shin Kirari)1981–1984A slice-of-life story about a mother and wife who realises her marriage is failing.Serialized in Garo, published in 2 vol. by Seirindō.Translated into English by Drawn & QuarterlyDumdums and Wildcat (鈍たちとやま猫 Dontachi to yamaneko)October 1981Published by Seirindō.Holmberg, Talk to My Back, p. xxvii-xxviii.A Blue Flame, known in Japan as A Shimmering Pale Color (ゆらりうす色 Yurari Usuiro)1983-1984Published in Comic Morning, and in book form by Kodansha. In 1986 it was adapted into a film titled Bed In (ベッド・イン). Published in English by Drawn & Quarterly in the collection Second Hand Love.Holmberg, Talk to My Back, Talk to My Back, p. xxxiii.A Cat Watches from the Trees (Ki no ue de neko ga miteru)1983-1992Published in La Mer.Holmberg, Talk to My Back, p. xxxiv.His Majesty, Mr. Goldfish (Kingyō no tonosama)1984-1985Published in .The Burden of Happiness (しあわせつぶて Shiawase tsubute)1984-1985Published in Shinsen.This Is How Cats Have Come and Gone (Kōshite neko ga fuetari hettari)1985-1986Published in Garo.Second Hand Love1986-1987Published in Comic Baku. Published in English by Drawn & Quarterly in the collection Second Hand Love.Yume no Maigo-tachi: Les Enfants Reveurs (夢の迷子たち)1988-1990with , published in GaroBlue Sky1992–1993Follows a woman's life and struggles after she divorces.Otogizōshi (御伽草子)1997A manga adaptation of Otogizōshi, a traditional tale.2004

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Footnotes

References Citations

Bibliography

Further reading - A translation of an interview in the March 1985 edition of Kokoku Hihyo (Advertising Review). The interview questions are not stated in the original Japanese version.

External links Google books