Yoshihiro Yonezawa

Yoshihiro Yonezawa (米澤 嘉博) (March 21, 1953 – October 1, 2006) 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, Yoshihiro Yonezawa began drawing parodies of his favourite manga characters when he was a child. In 1969, Yonezawa joined the staff of Kyukon at age 16. He began criticising manga while he was studying engineering at Meiji University. Yonezawa has said that in the early 1970s, mostly mainstream manga were published, as there were few manga magazines at that time. COM, a manga magazine with a reputation for publishing experimental manga had closed in 1972, and Yonezawa believed that by 1973 and 1974, it was very difficult to publish "unusual" works in anything other than "underground" zines devoted to dōjinshi. 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. Since 1999, he regularly reviewed manga on his column, "Yoshihiro Yonezawa's Commentary on Contemporary Mangas [sic]", in Media Factory's Monthly Comic Flapper until October 2006. 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. On the last day of Comiket 71 which was held from December 29 to 31, 2006, as announced in the event's catalogue, a thirty seconds of silence was held on 15:59 just before the announcement of closing.

Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library
In 2009, Meiji University opened a dōjin manga library, named “Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and Subcultures” to honour its alumni. The library is located at the university's Surugadai campus. The core collection comprises Yonezawa's dōjinshi collection, consisting of 4,137 boxes, or over 140,000 items. 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) Sengō SF Mangashi (戦後ＳＦマンガ史) Tokyo: Shinpyōsha
 * Yonezawa, Yoshihiro (1980) Sengō Shōjo Mangashi (戦後少女マンガ史) Tokyo : Shinpyōsha
 * Yonezawa, Yoshihiro (1981) Sengō Gyaggu Mangashi (戦後ギャグマンガ史) 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) Tezuka Osamu manga taizen : kodomo no shōwashi (手塚治虫マンガ大全： 子どもの昭和史) Tokyo : Heibonsha ISBN 4582942911
 * Yonezawa, Yoshihiro (1999) アメリカＢ級グッズ道 "The World of Collection B-Class American Memorabilia"
 * 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) Tezuka Osamu mangaron (手塚治虫マンガ論) Tokyo : Kawade Shobō Shinsha ISBN 9784309269597