Summary of Interviews in Summer 2000
Machiko Satonaka
Mangaka
Professor of Oosaka Art University
Thursday, August 10, 2000
Female mangaka, Machiko Satonaka
Born 1/24/1948 in Oosaka
In 1964: “ Pia no shojyo (literally means “Portrait of Pia”) won Kodansha Shinpan manga prize…
In 1972: “Ashita kagayaku (literally means “Shine in tomorrow”) won Kodansha shuppan-bunka prize. For movie.
In 1973, “Aries no Otometach” (literally means “Virgin of Aries”) is for TV series …
In 1979, “Kariudo no seiza (literally means “a constellation of hunter”) became a TV drama …
In 1997, “Tsuru-kame (crane and turtle) waltz became a NHK TV drama
She is a committee member of many educational association and others including Ministry of Education and Japan UNESCO
*Look at the page of 101 in Schodt’s book!
Background
1. She was a child who was drawing all day instead of playing outside. Her parents encouraged her to develop her artistic ability by putting drawing paper on the walls. However, her parents and teachers were not happy that she became a mangaka since the status of mangaka was very low.
About manga
2. There are two main motivations of being a mangaka. One is that manga is the best method of creating one world depicted by oneself. In other words, the technique of creating manga is very similar to that of a movie; however, manga is based on story and picture. Another is that she wanted to change the low status of mangaka as artists in those days.
3. Although she was also reading female manga, she was strongly influenced by at least 3 male mangaka: Mr. Osamu Tezuka, Mr. Tetsuya Chiba, and Mr. Shotaro Ishimori (Ishinomori). From Mr. Tezuka, she learned to create manga for different age groups of readers in diverse themes. From Mr. Chiba, who often created manga in girls manga, she learned how to depict the mental state of girls’ point view. Finally, she learned how to depict the composition including frame, picture, and words effectively to express human sensitivity in manga from Mr.Ishimori.
4. She does not want to limit the themes in her manga except for sport since she cannot play sports although she loves watching sports.
5. Even if the mangaka does not have enough skill to depict pictures well, the talent of creating a story will cover the lack of skills.
6. The relationship between mangaka and editors varies depending on the publishing company. Some editors try to organize everything including the content of story, but some just give the due date and the total pages for the publication. It may be accurate to say that new mangaka tend follow the editor's opinions.
About comiket
7. It is not easy to judge if the Comike is good or bad since there are a lot of different dojinshi depending on different purposes. Some share their own taste with other people (like Dojinshi group). Some create original manga just for fun or expect to be admitted as mangaka by publishing companies.
8. She admits the value of the original purpose of the comic market was that it gave young people freedom tocreate their original manga to show the public without publishing companies. However, it is still a closed world of hobby for those people who share the same tastes and the power does not go beyond the world of comic market.
9. There are some serious problems with the Comic market: 1) It is a small, closed world, 2) the evasion of taxes, and 3) the problem of copyright. Especially, the problems of (1) and (2) are serious.
About (1), there is some concern that a famous mangaka who sells dojinshi through the comic market might not declare the sales. About (3), young people are not aware of the problem of copyright. Also, the comic market itself prioritizes the right of people who rent the booth space more than the originality of the manga (the copyright of the mangaka).
10. Although Pro-mangaka try to educate the dojinshi groups not to create parodies without the permission of the mangaka by destributing of pamphlets on the importance of copyright, it does not work well. The young people believe that using the characters from manga in their parodies is a results their respect for the mangaka. Therefore, the mangaka whose characters were used in parodies should be appreciated, but issues of copyright need not be addressed.
11. For the question of why young girls create the genre of YAOI (homosexuality in the parodies by using characters in famous manga), Ms. Satonaka believes that the homosexual scenes might not catch readers' attention or sell dojinshi. It is simply the artists' preference to see the characters in these situations, although the scenes are exaggerated in hardcore sexual scenes. For young girls, those sexual scenes are only one way to overlap/share their emotions to prove their love through those sexual scenes. Therefore, those sexual scenes are not pornography for them. (Ms. Satonaka said that this is her belief of reasons for YAOI, and the artists themselves might not conscious for the reason.)
12. In fact, there are many femal dojinshi groups over 30 years old and they draw the genre of YAOI. She thinks that this phenomenon reflects a social problem which Japan has: the psychological age of females is getting younger. Even when they reach their 30s, their mentality is the same as teenagers since they don't get married and have children. Actually, males are not exceptions.
About art education/education
13. Her opinion of the new curriculum of art education which adapted manga for 8th and 9th graders :
Due to the expression of manga depicted by pictures, manga tends to be associated with art, but she does not think that manga is a part of fine art. Manga is created based on many factors: not only pictures, but also writing and other things. Although it might be possible to teach manga as a part of Japanese history and literature since manga occupies an important position in pop-culture in Japan, the way of writing manga should not be taught through art education. Rather manga should be produced through club activities of schools just as music, theater, and sports activities. Children will even learn how to create attractive manga by themselves without education.
14. School should be a place to give children a basis to explore many opportunities and directions for their future.
15. The educational curriculum in schools should not divide the subjects. For example, based on one
theme, all subjects should be involved to encourage children's curiosity and support their problem solving abilities to find their own answer.
16. Teaching the skills of creating art is not art education; the role of art education should be to teach
the pleasure of creating art. Also, it should give a chance to be exposed to fine arts (even reproductions).
*She has a lot of opinions not only for education, but also for education.
