Jiro Taniguchi

was a Japanese manga writer/artist. His works belong to the gekiga, or "dramatic pictures", genre of manga. In France he was knighted a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2011.

Career Jiro Taniguchi at Angoulême International Comics Festival in 2015.

Taniguchi began his career as an assistant of manga artist Kyūta Ishikawa. He made his manga debut in 1970 with Kareta Heya, published in the magazine Young Comic.

From 1978 to 1986, he created several hard-boiled comics with the scenarist Natsuo Sekigawa, such as City Without Defense, The Wind of the West Is White, and Lindo 3. From 1987 to 1996, Taniguchi and Natsuo Sekigawa produced the 5-volume series The Times of Botchan. In the 1990s, he came up with several albums, among which were , , and .

From 1980 to 1983, he collaborated with Garon Tsuchiya for the manga , , and .

He illustrated Baku Yumemakura's works, Garōden from 1989 to 1990 and The Summit of the Gods from 2000 to 2003. He later received awards at the Angoulême International Comics Festival in 2002 and 2005. For The Summit of the Gods, he hiked to Kathmandu, Nepal, for research.

A Distant Neighborhood was adapted into a live-action Belgian film in 2010. While there, he was interviewed by local Parisian blogger, whose nom de plume is Tokyobanhbao.

In 2016, an excerpt of The Walking Man was featured at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg as part of the "Hokusai X Manga: Japanese Pop Culture since 1680" exhibit. An accompanying catalog book was published that same year.

Taniguchi has cited Hiroshi Hirata, Takao Saito, Moribi Murano, and Kyūta Ishikawa as major influences.

Selected works Year Series Notes 1981 Jiken ya Kagyō 1983 Shin Jiken ya Kagyō 1986 Hotel Harbour View 1987 The Times of Botchan Based on Botchan by Natsume Sōseki 1988 K 1990 Garōden Based on a novel by Baku Yumemakura 1992 The Walking Man 1992 Samurai Legend 1994 A Journal of My Father 1996 Benkei in New York 1997 Kodoku no Gourmet 1998 A Distant Neighborhood 1999 The Quest for the Missing Girl 2000 Icaro 2000 The Summit of the Gods Based on a novel by Baku Yumemakura 2002 Sky Hawk 2004 The Ice Wanderer 2005 Hare Yuku Sora 2008 A Zoo in Winter 2012 Furari 2014 Guardians of the Louvre 2014 Venice Art book

Legacy Jiro Taniguchi's death was announced by his publisher, Casterman, and which described the artist as "deeply kind and gentle". Taniguchi's art inspired scholarship in a variety of ways, including academic presentations, museum exhibits, articles, and academic book entries.

In 2020, Taniguchi was highlighted in chapter 10 of a compiled book Comics Studies here and now titled, "Jirō Taniguchi: France's Mangaka". 2021 was an impactful year for those inspired by Taniguchi. At the Cannes Film Festival, an anime film adaptation of Taniguchi's art from The Summit of the Gods was featured. Shortly after, Fusanosuke Natsume, along with two other scholars from Portland State University wrote an article titled, "Time to Re-Evaluate Taniguchi Jiro's Pace in Manga", reviewing Taniguchi's work alongside contemporary manga. Later that same year, the "Jiro Taniguchi Exhibition" was launched at the Setagaya Literary Museum, showing from October 2021 to February 2022. In March 2022, due to the opening of a new bandes dessinées bookstore in Tokyo's Kita Ward, The Japan News mentioned Taniguchi and his most popular manga. Then, in June 2022, the Kyoto International Manga Museum held an exhibition titled, "The Man Who Draws: Jiro Taniguchi". Four days after his death, a writer for The Comics Journal wrote a brief obituary for Taniguchi. In January 2023, the same journal translated an essay titled, "Taniguchi Jirō and His Gekiga Years", by Fusanosuke Natsume. 2024 saw the release of a Japanese live-action film adaptation of The Solitary Gourmet (Kodoku no Gourmet).

Since 2021, Japan has been reprinting new editions of "The Jiro Taniguchi Collection" into English translations as "an investment in ensuring the continuance of Taniguchi’s legacy."