2009 Japan Media Arts Festival Manga Division Excellence Prize konosekai no katasumi ni

Excellence Prize

konosekai no katasumi ni

Story Manga

Artist : KOUNO Fumiyo

(Japan)

This work is something like a sequel to her outstanding work, YUNAGI NO MACHI SAKURA NO KUNI. This is the story of a family set during the Second World War in the city of Kure, Hiroshima. The heroine is URANO Suzu, who was born in the fishing town in Hiroshima. She marries HOJO Shusaku, a naval officer living in the uptown area of Kure city. Though confused by her new family, new town and new world, she lives with a sense of certainty and intense effort.

KOUNO Fumiyo

She was born in 1968 in Hiroshima, and debuted with Machikado Hanadayori in 1995. Her outstanding works are YUNAGI NO MACHI SAKURA NO KUNI (the 8th Japan Media Arts Festival Grand Prize and the 9th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize, Newcomer Award from Asahi Shimbun), Sansan-Roku, Nagai Michi, Pippira-Chou, and Kokko-San.

Kono Sekai no Katasumi ni was a really difficult work. I was able to finish the work having done my best while realizing how precious it is to spend one’s daily life peacefully. While I was producing the serials, sometimes I couldn’t keep to the deadline, or they weren’t very popular, and I was constantly thinking of apologizing to the editors and the subject itself. But it was very reassuring that this work was chosen as a Jury recommended work last year, and the Excellence Prize this time. I thank all of you very much for giving this work a presence in the world.

Though small and slightly lacking in character, Suzu, the heroine, is a very normal, affable and adorable girl. Her character is the main charm of this work. Suzu receives a marriage proposal from a man she meets for the first time. She marries him and moves to the naval town of Kure. As if guided by her on a journey back in time to wartime Japan, you will find familiar places you have never been, people who are rich though they really are poor, and a world with a cruel destiny but one that is natural, warm and refreshing. Although the story is based on real life during wartime, it is amazing that this work is not ideological but profoundly universal, and it has become a Shoujo manga, i.e. one that primarily targets girls, which ignites every reader’s heartbeat. Not measuring it by today’s standards, it is assiduously and carefully drawn, accepting of the life in those times, yet full of charm and adventure. This was made possible by the author’s unyielding attitude toward its creation. This is a work that shows us how precious and wonderful it is to live one’s daily life wholeheartedly. It makes us want to read it over and over again.

What makes you create a work?

Because my family didn’t allow me to read manga so much, I thought if I drew for myself, then I wouldn’t have to buy them. And so I began to draw.

What tools do you use the most at present?

I use G pens, Indian ink, and cartoon manuscript paper. In this prize-winning work, I used bird feathers and lipstick, too.

What do you place greatest value on in your work?

It might be “a good impression.” If readers read it only once, it’s a waste of paper. I try to draw so that the readers will want to read it repeatedly.

What personal concept runs through your creative activities?

I would like to express a world that is cheerful and normal, even though it might not be perceived as real.

When you create a work, in what way do you think of a presentation using technologies or media as a means to communicate?

I want to try out various methods but I’m very happy with the technologies I’m using now. So I can’t try to use new methods very easily.

Could you name a person, a work, or an event that has most influenced you?

I can’t choose one thing! Every work has its own special event that it depends on. In this work, the words and memories of my late grandmother gave me a lot of support.