Yoshihiro Yonezawa

was a Japanese manga critic and author. He is also known for being Comiket's co-founder and president. He died of lung cancer at 53. He won the 2007 Seiun Award in the special category and 2010 Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize Special Award.

Biography Born in Kumamoto, Japan, on March 21, 1953, As a fan of Osamu Tezuka and Shigeru Mizuki he would start dōjin activities in middle school, releasing several works under the circle "Azu Manga Research Club." In 1969, Yonezawa joined the staff of Kyukon and met SF writer Shinji Kajio at age 16. Yonezawa would go on to attend Kumamoto Prefectural Kumamoto High School where he participated in anti-war student activism, throwing molotov cocktails while protesting the stationing of American nuclear aircraft carriers at USFA Sasebo and getting detained by the police. He began criticizing manga while he was studying engineering at Meiji University, as part of the group Meikyu. Yonezawa has said that in the early 1970s, mostly mainstream manga were published, as there were few manga magazines at that time. To explore the potential of the medium, he co-founded Comiket (The Comic Market) in 1975 with Harada Teruo (chairman) and Aniwa Jun, who were university students. Comiket is a bi-annual, 3-day event where dōjinshi manga is brought and traded. Yonezawa's publication of The History of Post War Manga Trilogy in 1980 showed his devotion to reviewing and chronicling manga. He was a judge for the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize. He was posthumously awarded the 2007 Seiun Award in the special category, and the special Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2010.

He was hospitalised on September 30, 2006, and on October 1, 2006, Yonezawa died of lung cancer at age 53. The library will also incorporate the collection of Tsuguo Iwata. The construction of the new library complex is expected to be complete in 2015.

Works Yonezawa, Yoshihiro (1980) Tokyo: Shinpyōsha Yonezawa, Yoshihiro (1980) Tokyo : Shinpyōsha Yonezawa, Yoshihiro (1981) Tokyo: Shinpyōsha Yonezawa, Yoshihiro, ed. (1991) Kodomo no Shōwa-shi: Shōjo manga no sekai I, Shōwa 20 nen – 37 nen (子供の昭和史──少女マンガの世界 I 昭和20年〜37年 "A Children's History of Showa-Era Japan: The World of Shōjo Manga I, 1945–1962") Bessatsu Taiyō series. Tokyo: Heibonsha Yonezawa, Yoshihiro, ed. (1991) Kodomo no Shōwa-shi: Shōjo manga no sekai II, Shōwa 38 nen – 64 nen (子供の昭和史──少女マンガの世界 II 昭和38年〜64年 "A Children's History of Showa-Era Japan: The World of Shōjo Manga II, 1963–1989") Bessatsu Taiyō series. Tokyo: Heibonsha Yonezawa, Yoshihiro (1997) Tokyo : Heibonsha Yonezawa, Yoshihiro (1999) アメリカB級グッズ道 "The World of Collection B-Class American Memorabilia" Yonezawa, Yoshihiro (2001) Sengō ero manga-shi (戦後エロマンガ史, lit. "A History of Postwar ero manga") Tokio: Seirinkogeisha Yonezawa, Yoshihiro (2002) 戦後野球マンガ史 "The History of Post War Baseball Manga" Heibonsha Yonezawa, Yoshihiro (2002) 藤子不二雄論—Fと(A)の方程式 "On Fujiko Fujio ~ The Formula of F and (A)" Yonezawa, Yoshihiro (2003) The Worldwide Phenomenon of Anime: Past and Present Nipponia 27 Yonezawa, Yoshihiro (2004) マンガで読む「涙」の構造 "The Formalism of "Tears" As Depicted In Manga" NHK Yonezawa, Yoshihiro (2007) Tokyo : Kawade Shobō Shinsha