Eiko Mizuno and the Free Air of Tokiwaso: Performing Arts Culture and Young People at the End of the 1950s

Eiko Mizuno and the Free Air of Tokiwaso: Performing Arts Culture and Young People at the End of the 1950s

Eiko Mizuno (Hideko Mizuno) is known as Japan's first real manga artist for girls. She used to frequent the legendary apartment house, Tokiwa-so. It was the place where Osamu Tezuka, Shotaro Ishimori (later Shotaro Ishinomori), Fujio Akatsuka, Fujio Fujiko, and others spent their youth.

In the late 1950s, Japan was on the threshold of high economic growth during the postwar reconstruction period. Television, manga, and movies were appearing one after another, and the younger generation was creating a new culture. However, society as a whole was still feudalistic, and manga was looked down upon as something for children.

The young people of Tokiwa-so were not deterred by such prejudice and were searching for new forms of expression in their impoverished lives. Eiko Mizuno frequented the house and collaborated with Shotaro Ishimori and Fujio Akatsuka. At that time, "harem topics" were an everyday occurrence at Tokiwaso. Harenchi" is what we now call "light-hearted provocation of taboos. There was an atmosphere of free discussion of sexual matters, without concern for public opinion. It was not mere spinelessness, but a rebellion against old morality, an energy that propelled manga into a new entertainment culture.

Mizuno himself brought "romance and love" to shoujo manga, opening up a world beyond mere educational manga. His attempts were not unrelated to the free spirit nurtured at Tokiwa-so.

And the young Shotaro Ishimori was like the innocent king of Tokiwaso.
He was a prankster and would play the following pranks on his friends, which drew laughter.

For example, he interfered with manuscripts at the deadline by playing "ping-pong dash," or by secretly turning over the pages of manuscripts on his desk and rearranging their order. Sometimes he would make phone calls posing as an editor, and would send his colleagues right and left, asking them to come to a meeting right away. Fujio Akatsuka, for example, fell for this many times.

Why did Ishimori repeatedly pull such pranks? It was because he was working on his manuscripts at an overwhelming speed and had plenty of time to spare, and it was also an unconscious way of creating a community, using laughter to relieve the tension in the small Tokiwaso house. For them, laughter was an "energy for living" that was just as important as comic expression.

This spirit of mischief flowed directly into the dark and light drama structure of Shotaro Ishimori's later works, such as "Cyborg 009" and "Masked Rider.

The freedom, laughter, and even the provocations of the dirty tricks that took place in the space of Tokiwaso were all the soil that would later enrich Japanese manga, anime, and entertainment culture as a whole.