Restoring the Tokiwaso Manga Museum

First, there was God

Appropriately for what was to later become known as the sacred place of manga, the first to move in was the man known as the God of manga, Osamu Tezuka. After the war, when manga was a relatively rarity, he created futuristic, philosophical visions of what might be yet to come - mostly famously, "Astro Boy", which were received with delight by boys and girls throughout the country and endure to this day.

Tezuka moved to Tokyo from his native Hyogo prefecture in 1953, the year after Tokiwa-so was constructed. Introduced to the place by the editor of the magazine "Manga Shonen", which published some of his works, including "Kimba the White Lion" [Schoolchildren, 1950], he became a resident of Room 14 - a merely four and a half tatami mats' worth of living space. Six months later, Hiroo Terada, of Niigata prefecture, was also introduced by the editors of "Manga Shonen", and became the second resident manga artist. Osamu Tezuka lived there for only a year, but this was just the start of Tokiwa-so as a living place for the manga community.

Joined by future masters

The next arrivals, from Toyama prefecture, were Fujiko F. Fujio (real name Hiroshi Fujimoto) and author of the seminal "Doraemon", along with Fujiko Fujio A (real name Motoo Abiko), famous for "Ninja Hattori-kun". Other future masters of the media such as Shotaro Ishinomori ("Kamen Rider") from Miyagi prefecture and Fujio Akatsuka ("Tensai Bakabon") from Niigata started their lives in the capital at Tokiwa-so.

A place where a rare passion could be shared

At this time, manga had not yet gone mainstream, and manga artists had little social standing. Manga was frequently derided, with its critics claiming that it made children stupid and lazy. In 1955, the Parents & Teachers Association even started a campaign to ban it. Needless to say, this was a difficult time for the media and for its creators. Fujiko. F, Ishonomori et al - who were around 20 years old at the time- took comfort in the fact that they were living amongst like-minded people, away from the critical public eye.

Connected via the magazine

The residents of Tokiwa-so shared facilities - a bathroom and a kitchen - and soon went from being strangers to being friends. In fact, they had always had something in common. The "Manga Shonen" magazine, published by Gakudosha, was the only one that accepted submissions from children, and the Tokiwa-so residents had already been published in it, with Fujiko F. Fujio and Fujiko Fujio A, amongst others having been regulars in it for years by the time they arrived. In other words, they knew of each other before they ever met up.

The birth of a movement

The confines of Tokiwa-so were soon bubbling over with manga-related ambitions and manifestos. The "Shin Manga-tou", the "New Manga Party", gathered many of them, with the intention to conceptualize their ideal manga. Terada played a central role in bringing it together with the two Fujiko. F and Fujiko A, with Ishinomori, Akatsuka and Suzuki joining later. Their stated goal was "working hard and drawing good manga", but in reality, a key advantage of membership seems to have been the gatherings they organized once or twice a month.

Hunger is the best spice

The artists at Tokiwa-so frequently gathered for fun dinners. These were said to have made up for in atmosphere what they lacked in food and drink quality, with a standard menu consisting of fried cabbage, delivery meals from a nearby Chinese restaurant (called "Matsuba"), and the cheap drink known as "Chuder", a mixture of Shochu and fizzy drinks. When Tokiwa-so was demolished in 1982, a reunion was held at the house. This was filmed, and you can see the now-famous artists sitting down with joy to a simple yet probably quite nostalgic dinner of stir-fried cabbage, cooked by Akatsuka and seasoned with just salt and pepper.

The benefits of living together

It was convenient for both the manga artists and the editors that the artists live together at Tokiwa-so. As a manga artist, you had friends and contemporaries a thin wall away who might be able to give you an assistance, and there were numerous opportunities to present work to the editors that were frequently visiting the building. As an editor, if you needed a project done at short notice, then Tokiwa-so was the place to come. Some editors would refuse to visit Tokiwa-so, which suffered badly from excessive heat in summer and excessive cold in winter, as well as bed-bugs. Preferred was a pleasant, air-conditioned cafe called Eden, which also became a famous location in the manga scene.

Everyday life for the artists

Tokiwa-so was located in Shiina-machi, considered a highly cultural part of town at the time. The Tokiwa-so crowd could often be found in the area's movie theatres, record stores, and second-hand bookshops, broadening and deepening their perspectives and giving further inspiration for their own works.

After leaving the nest

As they gained recognition, the artists tended to leave Tokiwa-so for various reasons - often getting married, or just wanting a larger workshop. In 1961, the house suffered a blow as no fewer than five of its long-term residents - including Fujiko. F, Fujiko A and Ishinomori - moved out. But this was not to be the end of their connection to Tokiwa-so. The anime production company "Studio Zero" was formed by the Tokiwa-so graduates. Also, many of the manga artists created a series called "Tokiwa-so Story" together in 1970.

The manga artist as hero

There has been much water under the bridge since the 1950s and 1960s, when Tokiwa-so was at its peak, and the building itself no longer exists. As the Tokiwa-so crowd have gradually passed away, in 2009 a monument was erected to commemorate this critical time during the development of manga culture. Its title? "Heroes at Tokiwa-so". The ten artists it names cannot change their identities or crush their enemies, but they do serve arguably the most critical role of the hero - to inspire children.

Though the artists may not, the characters created by them very much still live on, and as time has passed, there has been growing public curiosity about the place and the friendships it inspired. In the summer of 2020 - nearly 70 years after Osamu Tezuka first moved his few possessions into a tiny Tokiwa-so room - the Toshima Ward Tokiwa-so Manga Museum opened, a long-standing project of the local community. And so, the story of manga's sacred place continues to be told.