Name: つりたくにこ | Kuniko Tsurita
Genre: Manga, Alternative
Years Active: 1965-1985
Notable Works: The Sky is Blue with a Single Cloud
[ID: Black and white photograph of a young Asian woman kneeling on the ground, with her legs tucked fully underneath her. Her left side is angled towards the camera. She has shoulder length dark hair, and is wearing a dark t-shirt and jeans. Her hands are resting on her lap. She appears to be outside. There is a light fence to her right, and shuttered metal door behind her. /end]
About the Author:
In 1965, at the age of just 18, Tsurita debuted in the alternative manga anthology magazine, Garo. She was the first female artist to be published in the collection, and, for a time, its only regular female comic artist. This came after many setbacks, with her submissions to other publications routinely rejected. It is claimed that one editor even told her to “draw about girls instead”.
Much of Tsurita’s work is created using the Gekiga (劇画) comic style. This was an art form that focused more on “mature” and adult-orientated content, using realistic art and character styles (sharp angles and lines etc.). In an essay included in the manga collection, The Sky is Blue with a Single Cloud, Ryan Holmberg and Asawaka Mistsuhiro discuss Tsurita’s art style and tendencies, referencing the “masculine norms” that her earlier style seemed to follow, while also noting how her later work would grow to be more androgynous and female-centric in tone.
Many of the themes in Tsurita’s work contained both political and feminist overtones. It dealt with issues related to gender and sexuality- including identity, gendered roles, and patriarchal society- and often subverted typical ideas regarding feminity.
In 1973 she was diagnosed with Lupus. She would die due to complications of the illness in 1985, at the age of 37. After her diagnosis, figures of death were quite heavily present in her work.
Influences
- French Literature
- Pop Art
- Art Nouveau
- Fellow Garo Artists
- Bohemian Youth Culture
List of Works:
Manga Collections
六の宮姫子の悲劇 | The Tragedy of Princess Rokunomiya
Originally Published: 2001
Publisher: Seirin Kōgeisha
Available Languages: Japanese
フライト : つりたくにこ作品集 | Flight: The Works of Kuniko Tsurita*
Originally Published: 2010
Publisher: Seirin Kōgeisha, Coconino Press (2019), Atrabile (2021)
Available Languages: Japanese, Italian (2019)**, French (2021)***
*This collection is also known as L’Envol in France.
**Translated by V. Filosa.
***Translated by Léopold Dahan.
彼方へ : つりたくにこ未発表作品集 | Beyond: Unpublished Works of Kuniko Tsurita
Originally Published: 2001
Publisher: Seirin Kōgeisha
Available Languages: Japanese
The Sky is Blue with a Single Cloud*
Originally Published: 2020
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly Publications
Available Languages:** English***
*This collection contains some stories from the collections mentioned above.
**All of the original stories in the collection were written in and translated from Japanese.
***Translated by Ryan Holmberg.
Archivist Comments:
I will be completely honest here, my wish to include Tsurita on the archive was the initial driving force behind the creation of the Author Spotlight segment. I had The Sky is Blue with a Single Cloud on my spreadsheet of books to be included, however, because I could not find specific information regarding possible disability representation within it, it is yet to be fully included.
The Disability Book Archive 
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