Kazuo Umezu was born in a village in Mt. Kouya, Wakayama prefecture on 3. September
1936, and was brought up in Gojo city, Nara in the western Japan.
His
prominent talent for making drawing was already seen in his scribblings.
They were made when he was a child, and he began to make his first cartoon
at the age of only 10, at his 4th grade in an elementary school.
At the age of 19, in 1955, he succeeded in starting his career as a professional cartoonist when his two stories “Betsu-Sekai” (Another World) and “Mori-no-Kyoudai” (The brother and sister in a forest) were released.
In this era, he mainly created his works for so-called “Kashi-hon”, the then magazines in Japan which were not for sale but only for rent.
With a funny story “Romansu-no-Kusuri” (The Magical Medicine for Romance), released in 1962, he became a pioneer of a genre so called “Rabu-kome” (Romantic comedy).
Meanwhile, Umezu released some other works like “Kuchi ga Mimi made Sake-ru Toki” (The Moment The Mouth Tears to Ears), “Hebi Shoujo” (The Snake Girl) and “Hito-kobu Shoujo” (A Girl Who Has A Human-faced Lump on Her Cheek) and they made Umezu famous also as a horror cartoonist.
His award-winning work “Hyouryu Kyoushitsu” (The Drifting Classroom) had been
serialized in a weekly magazine “Shounen Sunday” from 1972 to 1974.
In this story, he vividly portrayed children who were forced to live through
in a devastated future world. In 1975, this cartoon won Shougakukan Manga
Prize, which is sponsored by one of the largest magazine publishers in Japan.
However, Umezu made people surprised as he went opposite direction to the serious story of “Hyouryu Kyoushitsu” and released a slapstic comedy “Makoto -chan” (1976). The surrealistic, vulgar gags went down well.
Some of the most remarkable gags in this popular cartoon were some hand gestures such as “Gwashi!” or “Saba-ra!”, and these peculiar gestures became a kind of his symbol.
His creativity has been displayed also in music field. Umezu organized his band and took an active part in songwriting and dancing. In 1975, he even released an album “Yami no Album” (An Album in Darkness).
Ever since, Umezu has released many other outstanding comic works such as “Neko-me Kozou”(The Cat-eyed Boy), ”Orochi”, “Iara”（Era） “Senrei” (The Baptism), “Watashi ha Shingo” (My Name is Shingo), “Kami no Hidari-te Akuma no Migi-te” (God’s Left Hand, Devil's Right Hand) and “Fourteen” . Some stories were made into movies, TV drama series and other media products.
In 1994, he challenged to direct a haunted house “Kazuo Umez’s Haunted House – The Curse of the Family Azuchi -” in an amusement park “Kourakuen” in Tokyo.
Kazuo Umezu has been attracting people with his keen sense in all sorts of fields.
What makes Umezu so special? The answer is definitey in his originality - his uniqueness as an artist keeps himself above the ordianry cartoonists.
