Tomoko Emori

**Tomoko Emori** (江守登茂子, 1940-2008), *nee* **Tomoko Inao** (稲生登茂子) and known as **Tomoko Akatsuka** from 1961 to 1973, was the first wife of Fujio Akatsuka as well as his early assistant in his manga career.

Akatsuka would often refer to her as "Moto-nyo" (モトニョー), "ex wife", in recollections for shorthand.

## Life and Career

Tomoko Inao was born to parents that separated soon after her birth, growing up with her mother and stepfather active in her life. It is known that while in high school, she was a successful member of the theater club and alumni association, but found herself longing more for being an artist and into design.

After graduation, she went into work at a design office to put together layouts for magazines and advertisements but had a chance encounter one day at a jazz cafe; a local manga-ka was searching for an assistant for his shojo works. Tomoko sought out Akatsuka through her connections, and joined him in the spring of 1961. However, she experienced that he was a rather lax, withdrawn individual and the idea of a relationship had not entered her mind until she found how compatible they were in working together and they grew closer.

The two married in October 1961, and Akatsuka would depart from Tokiwa-so in the process. Tomoko was instrumental in challenging and inspiring Akatsuka to push his manga idea of "a story about twins" further into a series that would eventually be titled Osomatsu-kun by its debut. She also assisted on its early chapters, and would become an even more vital co-creator to her husband's works when he consulted on her to help him develop potential designs and fashions for the lead of Akko-chan's Got a Secret!.

Tomoko would take part in a prototypical group effort known as "The Seven Lucky Gods" through 1963, though this would fall through. When it came time for the formation of Fujio Pro, she did not carry forth as an assistant at the company.

On March 11, 1965, she gave birth to the couple's only child, Rieko Akatsuka. The family would later move to Yayoi, Nakano-cho and take part in building their own house in the neighborhood. Tomoko and Rieko would later be immortalized via Akatsuka in an *Osomatsu-kun* chapter, where one scene had Iyami bit by a little girl named "Rie-chan" and her beehive-sporting mother (revealed as being modeled after Tomoko in the *Shojo Manga-ka* book) had to come intervene.

Unfortunately, through the early 1970s, the relationship between Tomoko and her husband became strained, and they separated. What had seemed to be a close relationship they had shared as manga-ka and assistant had worn thin in their romantic life, with it being said their connections "as a man and woman" were no longer good; her husband having been a philanderer and easy flirt with other women at work had compounded this as well.

Akatsuka would see other women as mistresses in their time apart, until their divorce was finalized on November 5, 1973. Tomoko and Rieko continued to live in the house at Yayoi, but would discover that a producer of Nippon Television, Emori, lived in the very same neighborhood. After falling for his son, Kiyoto (eight years her junior), Tomoko informed Rieko that she could now think of the man as her substitute father.

Tomoko would finalize her new relationship with Kiyoto in June 1988, marrying him two years after her former husband had found his own new lover and marriage. The two women would become good friends due to the similar personalities and interests they shared, as noticed by Rieko, and Tomoko had given her blessing and attended the wedding.

In the 1990s, Tomoko was diagnosed with uterine cancer and refused to undergo surgery, instead relying upon folk remedies for her condition until she seemingly drove it into remission. Sadly, on July 30, 2008, it was reported that she had passed away from complications from such cancer at the age of 68. Three days later, her former husband would follow her in death, succumbing to pneumonia while having never recovered from his vegetative state.

## List of Works

Although a comprehensive listing of her contributions is unknown, Tomoko's assistant work on Akatsuka's manga can be figured to have extended from mid-1961 to at least 1965, although Kenichiro Takai had become a more prominent assistant by the later years and a "Fujio Pro" system would slowly and gradually begin to take shape (culminating in May 1965 and on). The listing of works below is tentative based on this time span and her primarily being used for a "shojo touch", other than titles that are outright confirmed to have had her involvement in some way.

She had never gotten the chance to author or openly contribute to a series on her own, but her initial influence and help in developing *Akko-chan* was always spoken fondly of by Akatsuka in interviews on the series. Her concept designs and samples of her own style were finally put on public display in the ***Shojo Manga-ka: Fujio Akatsuka*** book by Gambit Publishing, which was released in April 2020.

### Assistant work for Fujio Akatsuka

While Akatsuka still did the inking for his own art in many early works, Tomoko's contributions could have ranged anywhere from finishing the art to having to substitute for him or design minor/background characters to fill out crowds. Confirmed titles are bolded for importance.

* **Matsuge-chan** (Final chapter of Hitomi run in April 1961, 2nd run in Ribon from July to December 1961) - *Debut*
* **Ohana-chan** (later chapters from spring 1961 to 1962)
* **Happy-chan** (April to June 1961)
* **Oh Ma-chan** (later chapters from spring to November 1961)
* **Nama-chan** ("Primary School Studies" run from April to November 1961, final Manga King run from December 1961-May 1962)
* **Boku Knows Best** (April 1961 to March 1962)
* Kantaro (Adventure King version, May to September 1961)
* What is Mama Doing Now (July 1961 to March 1962)
* The Little Kid Gang (August 1961, adaptation of "The Little Rascals")
* White Kappogi (September 1961)
* Sunset Angel: 2-Ko 2-Ko Life (November 1961 to April 1962, adaptation of the Aoi Takagaki TV drama)
* Gathered in the Living Room (January 1962) \*
* Chankichi-kun (January 1962)
* Mister Kaguya (January 1962)
* I am a...Salaryman (April 1962)
* **Osomatsu-kun** (earliest chapters through at least 1962)
* O-chan's Eleven Friends (April 1962 to March 1963)
* Yuki's Blue Eyes (April to June 1962)
* Popular Star Manga Kyu-chan (May 1962, manga-style biography of Kyu Sakamoto)
* **Akko-chan's Got a Secret!** (June 1962 to September 1965)
* 3cm Boy (August 1962)
* **Leave it to Chota** (October 1963 to September 1965)
* Opposite Address 3
* The Replacement Housekeeper (March 1965)
* **Kibimama-chan** (October 1965 to August 1966)

### Characters designed for Akatsuka works

Tomoko was mainly utilized for heroine design ideas, but would sometimes offer her input for small child characters and others that she could contribute her style to.

When it came to the first run of *Akko*, she remained entrusted for general fashion sense and possible looks for other female characters that popped up in stories. These clothing ideas would wind up getting more use outside the series; the lead in *Yuki's Blue Eyes* is seen to eventually wear a near-identical outfit to Akko's very first one, and many of Akko's fashions were also recycled for Totoko in *Osomatsu-kun*.

A hallmark of Tomoko's concept art would be the voluminous hair on the heroines, with them often wearing elaborate updos such as bouffants and beehives. She would also illustrate rather detailed dresses that would wind up simplified or altered some for Akatsuka's final choices.

Confirmed characters are bolded, while potential others that may have had input are also listed when taking certain design patterns into mind.

* Chiko, Machio (*What is Mama Doing Now?*)
* Yuki and Yo-chan (*Gathered in the Living Room*)
* **The Sextuplets** (*Osomatsu-kun)-* Initial redesigns for chapter 2 that were further refined by Akatsuka and later assistants like Takai.
* **Atsuko Kagami** (*Akko-chan's Got a Secret!)-* Early concept art, of which some potential ideas were taken and merged together by Akatsuka for her finalized appearance. Also devised transformation concepts. The name of Atsuko/Akko was taken from that of her own sister Akiko. Her husband re-using Akko's design and fashions for Totoko would make her indirectly responsible for that character's creation as well.
* Moko, Moriyama-sensei, many incidental girls (*Akko-chan's Got a Secret!*)
* Yuki (*Yuki's Blue Eyes*)
* Tomoko, Kayoko (*O-chan's Eleven Friends*)- Tomoko's facial design drastically changed a few chapters in to be more "shojo" and in line with other girls of this time, while Kayoko's design became more refined as well. Both wind up sporting fashions that seem to fall in line with what Akko, Moko, and other girls wear.
* Tomoko (*3cm Boy*)
* **Chota** (*Leave it to Chota*) - Refined, post-chapter 1 design
* Sacchan (*Opposite Address 3*)
* Keiko/Tetsuko (*The Replacement Housekeeper*, *Kibimama-chan*)- A prototype to such a design can also be seen as a background character in a *Chota* frontispiece.
* **Kimiko Haruno** (*Kibimama-chan*)- Early concept art, most design ideas were unused aside from her fashion. The prototype in *The Replacement Housekeeper* was also very likely adapted from Tomoko's heroine illustrations.

As seen above, her name would be homaged with a few different characters in this time span as well;

* The Tomoko in *O-chan's Eleven Friends* is the first heroine to be seen with such a name.
* Moko's initial full name was given as "Tomoko Ina" in the second *Akko-chan* chapter. This was eventually done away with for the remade run in Ribon which emulated some alterations made for the 1969 Toei series, Moko's name (Motoko Naniwa) being one of the changes that carried back to subsequent incarnations.
* Totoko's name would seem to have come from an alteration of "Tomoko", with the first few syllables replaced with "Toto" ("fish") as a punny hint toward the character's fishmonger heritage.
* Tomoko of *3cm Boy* is a somewhat younger girl than the first three, but bears a 1960s beehive style that the actual Tomoko herself had loved to wear as well as incorporate into her concept designs.

Aside from the fictional characters in each manga she contributed to, Tomoko's art sense could be seen in some intricate designs and effects included in panels. The initial usage of the real-life music duo **The Peanuts** on a television in *Akko-chan* appears to also be in her style, and it would be a visual that Akatsuka would like to re-use in other manga.

## Heroine Concept Art

The initial design for Akko-chan.Concept art of Akko and two others, one possibly Moko and the other Chiko from "Art in Autumn is a Huge Mess".A glimpse at another heroine sketch or two.More heroine concepts.Akko hairstyle studies.Possibilities for Akko's fashions.More hair tests.Concepts for Kimiko/Kibimama-chan.