Takao Saito Biography – Takao Saito Wiki
Takao Saito was a Japanese manga artist, although he rejected the term and considered his work gekiga. He was best known for Golgo 13, which has been serialized in Big Comic since 1968, making it the oldest manga still in publication. After graduating from junior high school, he decided to become a manga artist, influenced by movies like King Kong and War of the Worlds.
He debuted with his first manga Baron Air in 1955. In 1959, he founded the Gekiga Kōbō (劇画工房) in Tokyo with seven other artists, including Yoshihiro Tatsumi, in order to spread gekiga. Since April 1960, he has run Saito Production, a company with currently 19 employees.
He began Golgo 13 in Shogakukan’s Big Comic magazine in 1968 and serialized it continuously until his death. With the publication of volume 201 in July 2021, it was certified as holding the Guinness World Record for “Most volumes published for a single manga series.” In 2013, he said, “The manga has continued so long that it is no longer the property of the author; it belongs to the readers.” It has been adapted into two live-action films, one animated film, an OVA, an anime TV series, and several video games. In 1971 he also began to give courses in drawing manga.
Saito illustrated an adaptation of Shōtarō Ikenami’s Onihei Hankachō novel series that has been continuously serialized in Comic Ran magazine since 1993, although a mistake by the editorial department resulted in the September 2019 issue becoming the first in 25 years to not include a chapter. At first, he created it based on scripts by Sentarō Kubota (volumes 1–40), then on scripts by Kusumi Ohara from volume 40 until 53, when Ohara was joined by Kaori Moriyama.
JManga released digital English versions of several of Saito’s series, including Onihei Hankachō, Barom-1, Japan Sinks, and Doll: The Hotel Detective. He was also a close friend of fellow manga artist Shotaro Ishinomori. Saito was a director at Leed Publishing (株式会社リイド社), a publishing company spun-off from his Saito Production. It was founded in November 1974 and his older brother was its president and CEO until his death in 2016. Following his brother’s death, his brother’s eldest son took over. In addition to many other products, Leed jointly publishes the Golgo 13 tankōbon volumes with Shogakukan.
Some of the awards to his name include: In 1976, Saito won the 21st Shogakukan Manga Award in the General category for Golgo 13. In 2002, he and Golgo 13 won the Grand Prize at the Japan Cartoonists Association Awards. In 2003, the Japanese government gave Saito the Medal with Purple Ribbon for his contributions to the arts. In 2005, Golgo 13 was one of two winners of the Special Judges Award at the 50th Shogakukan Manga Awards. In 2009, Saito was among the 158 manga artists invited to celebrate the 50th anniversary of both Shogakukan’s Weekly Shōnen Sunday magazine and Kodansha’s Weekly Shōnen Magazine at the Tokyo Imperial Hotel.
In 2010, the Japanese government gave Saito the Order of the Rising Sun, 4th Class, Gold Rays with Rosette. In 2013, over 300 people attended an event at the Tokyo Imperial Hotel to celebrate 45 years of Golgo 13, including Deputy Prime Minister of Japan Tarō Asō.In 2017, Saito received the Iwate Hometown Special Manga Award at the 7th Iwate Manga Awards for having a residence in Hanamaki, Iwate, and including a character from the prefecture in Golgo 13. In January 2018, he received the Wakayama Prefecture Cultural Award from his birth prefecture.
In 2019, Saito was honored by the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly for his contributions to the arts as a meritorious resident of Tokyo. That year he was also awarded the Special Prize from the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize committee for his contributions to manga over the decades.
The Saito Takao Gekiga Cultural Foundation established the Saito Takao Award (さいとう・たかを賞, Saitō Takao Shō) in 2017 and first awarded it in 2018. It is given in three categories: manga artist, scenario writer, and editor/editorial department. The prize given is called the “Golgo 13 Trophy,” and winners in the manga artist and scenario writer categories also receive 500,000 yen (about US$4,530). Only professional manga editors can submit nominations. Nominated manga must target adult readers and be completely original works, not adaptations.
Takao Saito Age
He was born on November 3, 1936, in Wakayama, Japan, and died on September 24, 2021. He was aged 84.
Takao Saito Family
He was born in Nishiwasa city (now Wakayama city), and moved soon after, and grew up in Osaka. He did not know he was born in Nishiwasa until he was 43 years old.
Takao Saito Death
Saito died of pancreatic cancer at 84 on September 24, 2021. His death was announced five days later on Wednesday, September 29, 2021, by Shogakukan, along with his wish that Golgo 13 continue on without him. The Saito Production group of manga creators will continue its publication with the assistance of the Big Comic editorial department.
Takao Saito Cause of Death
He died of pancreatic cancer at 84 on September 24, 2021.
