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Encouragement Prize
Tenken-sai
Independent Manga
Artist: SHIRAI Yumiko
(Japan)
An independent manga set in a certain time which depicts an exchange between a lieutenant of steeplejacks and a girl. Lieutenant MANAKA employed a girl, KIJIMA Saki, who has no family she can depend on. After having learned a trade, some change occurred to her. What is the reality concealed in a festival? And the fate of the two?
SHIRAI Yumiko
Born in Ehime, 1967. Studied oil painting at Kyoto City University of Arts. Creates illustrations for children’s literature and frame manga, etc. Also self-publishes story mangas and releases them on her website Yumikobo.
This manga has finally taken shape after repeated drawing and dumping since I was inspired by a bustle of yokagura dances and the density of darkness 10 years ago. As a result, I received this wonderful award and it makes me feel really good to have completed it. I would like to thank the staff of spot sale meeting who made possible its release and my readers who have read my book and encouraged me. Thank you very much.
One day, the nation was stricken by a “dirty war;” a toxic agent called “Fukashi” was scattered all over the country and remained even after the war ended. This is a story about people who try to cleanse the toxin through the use of young bamboo sprouts, which absorb it. They have an indigenous traditional festival based on a myth, where a girl has to be sacrificed as “Kushinada-hime” (whom “Yamatano-orochi,” the mythical eight headed serpent, fell in love with at first sight). The short-lived, but intense, love story between a girl who has been chosen as a sacrifice and a young steeplejack master, who tries to prevent the girl from being sacrificed, has a good old black and white film like atmosphere, which was a thrill for me after such a long time. We can see the artist’s keen talent in his depiction of the serpent slowly emerging from the midst of an assembled bamboo structure, or from a cleft in the earth; we can see it in the presentation of each character, their original composition, and the calm expressions in their eyes. As this work was created by a minor self-publisher, I hope that awarding it this prize will encourage other young manga artists who are in a similar situation.
What has lead you to “create a work”?
It was when I first encountered manga that both amused and inspired me. The desire for my own creation arose then.
What tools do you use the most at present?
Pencils, brush pens, and PCs (Painter, Photoshop).
What do you place greatest value on in your work?
To reflect my own true emotions somewhere in my work.
What personal concept do you keep throughout your creative activities?
I am not conscious of it, though it could be “melancholy.”
When you create a work, in what way do you think of a presentation using technologies or media as a means to communicate?
I have been trying various forms of manga, including online Flash manga. I find it interesting that PCs can create analog expressions on paper.
Could you name a person, a work, or an event that you have been influenced by the most?
The work of Mr. YASUHIKO Yoshikazu had a great impact on me when I was a junior high school student; the lively expressions of motion and the real feeling of existence in his work served as an inspiration and model for me.
What kind of work would you like to create in the future?
I would like to draw manga that gives readers the feeling that the people and things really exist in the world in which they are portrayed.
What is the meaning or importance of “to create” for you?
It is something that I cannot help doing, yet it is difficult to get enough done. Slowly, though, I will keep doing my best to create pieces that can please the readers.
