Suihou Tagawa

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Suihou Tagawa (田河水泡 Tagawa Suihō, February 10, 1899 - December 12, 1989) was a Japanese artist. He was born Chūtarō Takamizawa (高見澤仲太郎, Takamizawa Chūtarō) in Tokyo.

He graduated from Fukakawa's municipal rinkai jinjo elementary school in 1911. In 1919 he joined the Japanese Imperial army, and left in 1922. In 1925 he graduated from Nihon Bijutsu Gakkō ("Japan School of Art"). In 1926 he became a rakugo author. He began producing comics in 1927. He gained a regular assignment selling comic stories and adopted the pseudonym Awa Takamizu, which was later corrupted into Suihō Tagawa. Suihō literally means "water bubble". In 1931 he began the long-running series "Private Second Class Norakuro" for the anthology magazine Shonen Club about a black and white dog in a dog army. Although at first intended to have only a brief lifespan, its immense popularity urged Tagawa to continue producing the strip. He has won numerous awards and is recognized as one of the pioneers of the Japanese manga industry. In 1988 he produced the autobiographical "Watashi no Rirekisho" ("my résumé") for the Japanese Sankei Shimbun newspaper. He died in 1989 at the age of 90.