Artist Profile: Rui Hashimoto page 1 2 Occupation: Manga Artist Age: 37 Residence: Senkawa, Tokyo, Japan Pets: 3 cats and a dog Manga (Japanese comics) have taken the world by storm. While the popularity of manga continues to grow in places like the United States, the competition between manga artists in Japan has become intense. But Rui Hashimoto continues to draw manga comics that compete with the best artists. Like her manga character, Chiaki Mukai (the first Japanese woman astronaut), Rui works hard in an industry made up mostly of men. With confidence she says, "I don't think about that. It is about your work, not whether you are a male or not. There is a lot of energy expended (used). But there is a limit as to what a person, male or female, can do." There are many different categories of manga stories. These categories are called genres. Rui concentrates on doing work in the children's genre called kodomo manga. She enjoys helping people through the stories she draws. "One time, a mother wrote to say that she and her daughter read my manga together. The mother was a nurse, and she taught her daughter about her job through Nightingale (a manga about Florence Nightingale). This made me very happy." Rui studied and worked as an Italian to Japanese translator. She has always been an artist and started drawing manga about 8 years ago. She draws for many weeks to complete a manga, yet sometimes is unsure if it will get published. "Sometimes I'll hear that a publisher is looking for someone who can draw a certain type of manga, and I'll bring my samples. There are never any details about when it might be published. It is up to them, and I have to wait." The tradition of manga goes back many centuries in Japanese history. Ancient stories were told with pictures drawn on paper scrolls or carved on woodblock prints. In the 1950s, after World War II, manga storytelling was combined with the bold, illustrative style of American comics. Ancient and contemporary art influence Rui's drawing style. page 1 2 About Us | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy TM & © Copyright The Scribbles Institute, All Rights Reserved