Takao Yokoyama

**Takao Yokoyama** (横山孝雄, February 15, 1937-August 31, 2019) was a Japanese manga-ka, formerly associated with Fujio Akatsuka and Fujio Pro from 1959 to the early 1980s.

## Life and Career

Yokoyama was born in Beijing, China, as his father was a consulate police officer stationed in the country. However, in 1946 after the defeat of Japan in the second World War and the ensuing removals of Japanese living in the nation, Yokoyama and his family settled in their hometown of Shinchi, Fukushima.

While studying in high school, he became friends with Shotaro Ishinomori through the "Eastern Japan Manga Study Group" in Manga Shonen and set out to meet him during a school trip. After graduating from high school, he moved to Tokyo to hunt for a job and took up a position at the design department of a toy company. During his work, he would visit the Tokiwa-so manor and meet Ishinomori once more, as well as become deeply acquainted with the manga-ka living there such as Fujio Akatsuka, Tokuo Yokota, and Kunio Nagatani.

In 1959, he left the toy company, and opted to use his spare time in being the first assistant for Fujio Akatsuka when it came to his works. But as Yokoyama took on another job for a time in 1962, his continued involvement was initially sparse, until he and Akatsuka had attempted to form the "Seven Lucky Gods" group in 1963 and established Fujio Pro in 1965. Yokoyama took up the role of manager at the company, and continued to assist on artwork for Akatsuka's works.

During his time at the company, Yokoyama would not hesitate to do his own branching out with works, publishing notable stories such as "Traveling Through the Wildnerness" and "I Saw the War, a Manga Boy's Sino-Japanese War".

While in Lima, Peru on a trip to South America in 1974 however, Yokoyama met the Ainu celebrity Atuy and became interested and empathetic to the issues faced by the minority group in Japan. He would gradually become more acquainted with other Ainu activists and assist them in their causes of representation, traveling overseas to attend visits to other Ainu people. It was through this cause that he met Mitsumi Chiri, who he would marry in January 1979.

After leaving Fujio Pro in 1983, he would tailor his focus in writing and art to be about the history of the Ainu people and their folklore. He would eventually move to Hokkaido in the 1990s, taking over the NPO Chiri Forest museum in 2016 to continue working in educating the public about Ainu life all the way up to his death.

## List of Works

* **Transparent Comet XYZ** - Unpublished 1950s collaboration manga with Akatsuka, Shotaro Ishimori and Kunio Nagatani
* **Special Illustrations of Heaven and Hell** (1966, Weekly Shonen Sunday #24)- Collaboration with Fujio Akatsuka, Kenichi Kitami, and Tsutomu Dazai (Kenichiro Takai and Joji Yamauchi)
* **Traveling Through the Wilderness** (旅立て荒野)
* **Travel to the Rainbow, Travel to the Stars**
* **Miss 3A's Castor Oil**
* **I Saw the War, a Manga Boy's Sino-Japanese War** (ぼくは戦争をみた マンガ少年の日中戦争)
* **Anima-chan** (アニマちゃん)
* **Journey of Minorities** (少数民族の旅へ)
* **Do You Know the Ainu?** (アイヌって知ってる?)
* **Ainu Illustrated Dictionary** (アイヌ語イラスト辞典)

### Collaborations with Fujio Akatsuka and Fujio Pro

Aside from works that have his confirmed involvement, any early titles with his assistant work may be treated as speculative other than ones that were stated by him to have had his touch.

The period of 1959-1962 would be important for gauging what works these would be, as well as taking in mind that Joji Yamauchi had also recalled assisting for Akatsuka briefly in the early 1960s before his independence from Tokiwa-so.

* **Nama-chan**- Assistant work (1959-1962) \*
* **Marippe-sensei**  ?
* **Osomatsu-kun**- Assistant work for earliest period \*
* **Shogakukan Introduction Series:** **Introduction to Manga** (1973, Shogakukan)- Credited for supplementary and interior illustrations, along with other Fujio Pro staff
* **Nyarome's Expo Surprising Guide**- Art for book 3
* **Beramatcha's Zoological World Monkey Encyclopedia** (ベラマッチャ動物誌　世界のおサル百科)
* **Fujio Akatsuka's Introduction to Classics Manga** learning series