TAKEMIYA Keiko

Born in Tokushima Prefecture in 1950, TAKEMIYA was attending the University of Tokushima when she began the serial Mori no Ko Toru (Toru, Child of the Forest) in Shogakukan's weekly girls' manga magazine Shukan Shojo Comic. Her best-known works include Terra e (To Terra), Kaze to Ki no Uta (Song of the Wind and the Trees), and Izaron Densetsu (Legend of Izaron). In 1980, she won the 25th Shogakukan Manga Award. In the same year Terra e was made into a theatrical animation. She became a professor in the Department of Manga at Kyoto Seika University in April 2000; in 2006 the Department became the Faculty of Manga. As part of her university research she developed the Genga Project to preserve and exhibit precious original manga drawings. Since 2003 she has worked with many artists in setting up an annual summer Genga Exhibition. In 2012 she received the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Award of the Japan Cartoonist Association Awards.