Explanation of exhibits
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On the opening of Kazuo Umezz The Great Art Exhibition
Noi Sawaragi
Kazuo Umezu brought us many outstanding manga works that have made their mark on history. The genres range from horror manga, gag manga, boys' and girls' manga, gekiga, science fiction, action, and a genre that can only be called Umezu world, a realm beyond classification. His work is so wide-ranging and deep that it is difficult to believe that it is the work of a single artist. His unprecedented achievements have earned him the title, "treasure of the manga world." At the same time, however, everywhere in Umezu's works, we see a futuristic worldview and fantastic vision that cannot be described through the current lens of manga alone. The purpose of this exhibition is to capture these aspects of his work by presenting "Kazuo Umezu as an artist" in a more universal sense.
The exhibition focuses on three representative works, The Drifting Classroom, My Name is Shingo and Fourteen, which foresee the future based on the path that we have taken, bringing us to the end of that path. In addition, ZOKU SHINGO: Small Robots: Shingo Museum is presented as his latest work in which these ideas are developed in an unknown dimension under a new state of mind.
At the heart of his work lies a hope for the future that is created by the inner drive of each one of us, always youthful, courageously taking steps forward in the face of any crisis. We never give up hope, even when we face catastrophic hardship. Guided by an inexhaustible, undying love for others, we imagine wildly and act boldly. It is our most important key to understanding the work of Kazuo Umezu as "great art."
(Noi Sawaragi, Art Critic) -
The Drifting Classroom
Weekly Shonen Sunday, Shogakukan
May 28, 1972 (No. 23)–June 30, 1974 (No. 27)The Drifting Classroom: The compassion and courage of a group of boys who do their best to survive while fighting against the shadow of death in a land separated from the rest of the world by time and space! It's science fiction romance that warns us of a humanity without tomorrow! One morning, there was a big explosion at Yamato Elementary School. All that was left was a huge hole in the ground that stretched deep and wide. The entire school building has disappeared! Where have all the children and teachers disappeared to?
It's a story of guidance for the future for a human race that is intent on persevering, filled with visions of the coming of the Anthropocene, large-scale climate change, and frequent natural disasters in the 21st century, as well as thoughts and lessons on how to overcome them. -
My Name is Shingo
Big Comic Spirits, Shogakukan
Part 1 (Pro. 1–Pro. 4) April 30, 1982 (No. 8)–November 15, 1984 (No. 21)
Part 2 (Pro. 5–Pro. 7) December 30, 1984 (No. 24)–September 1, 1986 (No. 27)My Name is Shingo: It's a wake-up call for the 21st century! A masterpiece by Kazuo Umezu! One day, an industrial robot suddenly becomes sentient! Its consciousness was created by the purity in the hearts of a boy and girl—Satoru and Marin! Satoru's father tells him that a robot will be joining his company, and Satoru is fascinated by robots. The next day at school, he tells his classmates about this, but no one takes him seriously. It is around then that a robot arrives at Satoru's father's factory. Who is this robot?
What happens when humanity interacts with new entities such as robots and artificial intelligence (AI), who have capabilities and intelligence beyond those of people? Life emerges from the machine. Is it capable of love? -
Kazuo Umezz
Section Description
ZOKU SHINGO: Small Robots: Shingo Museum, which took four years to complete, is Umezu's first new work in 27 years, since Fourteen in the 1990s.
The work is a sequel to My Name is Shingo, which was written in the 1980s. At the same time, it is also a parallel world that transcends time and space.
Although this work is similar to manga in that it the story is told in chronological order and has a narrative element, each of the 101 pieces that comprise this work has been created as an individual painting, with no manga panel layout.
Please take a look at this new world of Shingo, which was created by Kazuo Umezu forty years after My Name is Shingo. -
Kazuo Umezz
Artist Name / Biography
Mr. Umezu was born in Koyasan, Wakayama Prefecture in 1936 and raised in Nara Prefecture.
He began drawing manga in the fourth grade, and he made his debut in his third year of high school with Another World and The Brother and Sister in a Forest, which were published as individual books by Tomo Book Sha. He is known as the "god of horror manga" for hit works such as Snake Girl and The Cat-eyed Boy. He won the Shogakukan Manga Award for The Drifting Classroom.
Meanwhile, he also demonstrated his talent for comedy with Makoto-chan. "Guwashi," a reference to one of the gags in Makoto-chan, became a social phenomenon. He has published many other hit works, including Orochi, Baptism of Blood, My Name is Shingo, God's Left Hand, Devil's Right Hand, and Fourteen. He is also a television personality, singer, and film director, and is active in a wide variety of genres. In 2018, he won the Prize for Inheritance at the Angoulême International Comics Festival in France for My Name is Shingo. In the same year, he received the Commissioner for Cultural Affairs Award. In 2023, he received the Special Prize of the 27th Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize for his contributions to manga culture through a wide range of genres, including horror, science fiction, and comedy, as well as for his first new work in 27 years, ZOKU-SHINGO Small Robots Shingo Museum, which was presented at Kazuo Umezz the Great Art Exhibition held in 2022. -
Fourteen
Big Comic Spirits, Shogakukan
January 12, 1990 (No. 4 and 5)–September 4, 1995 (No. 37)Fourteen: "It all ends when you're fourteen years old." The story begins with these mysterious words uttered by a fortune teller. What will happen to the earth? Is there a future for humanity? This is the culmination of Kazuo Umezu's work, which sounds an alarm to life on earth. In the earth of the future, the inhabitants avoid the polluted atmosphere above ground and create a comfortable world to live in underground. Meals are also artificially created and supplied with the help of biotechnology. In such a world, a mutated organism is born from the cells of what was supposed to be chicken meat that was lab-grown in a bio-food factory. The creature grows at an astonishing rate and possesses tremendous intelligence. His name is Chicken George!
The work explores themes such as genetic engineering and immortality, the onslaught of unknown viruses, the finite nature of food, humanity's relationship with animals and plants, the arrival of extraterrestrial life, the possibility of escaping into space, and other endless journeys and adventures to save a dying Earth. -
To the future
In the final scene of The Drifting Classroom, the children are the seeds of the future, headed up to the sky in front of Sho's mother. Although they cannot return to the present where their mother waits for them, in Fourteen, the children travel to the outer limits of the universe aboard the Tyrannosaurus. Finally, they break through the boundaries of the universe and save a dying caterpillar on another world, which resurrects our universe with the earth in one corner, which resided in the caterpillar. After the universe and Earth are brought back to life, the children return to Earth, where Gokinchi, the only surviving intelligent cockroach on the planet, is waiting, this time taking the path opposite of that of the drifting classroom. The rudder used for this is kept by the father of the President of the United States, who would not let go of it even in death. Thus, the final scenes of The Drifting Classroom and Fourteen form a beautiful arc—a rainbow that transcends time and space. It's all for the life of a new humanity that believes in miracles that allow anything to happen, clearing the path for a future in which they will not succumb to any hardship.