Japanese manga artist Tetsuya Chiba, known for his…
Legendary Japanese manga artist Tetsuya Chiba, who precipitated a national sensation with his boxing collection “Ashita no Joe” or “Fighting for Tomorrow,” a story about an orphan turning into a skilled boxer, has died. He was 87.
Chiba’s masterpiece collection grew to become so widespread that followers even attended a mock funeral for the protagonist Joe Yabuki’s rival.
Chiba died at a Tokyo hospital last Thursday, his writer Kodansha Ltd. said Tuesday, without specifying the trigger of his death.
Japanese manga artist Tetsuya Chiba poses for a picture in entrance of his boxing manga character in “Ashita no Joe” in Tokyo, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026. Masanori Kumagai/Kyodo News via AP
While he depicted aspiring younger athletes preventing for their life and profession, Chiba was a vocal supporter of peace and freedom of expression, telling tales of his harrowing recollections of struggle as a baby in autobiographical tales and manga.
Months after he was born in Tokyo in January, 1939, his household moved to northeastern China and Chiba spent his early childhood there during Japan’s occupation in the area, where his father labored at a printing manufacturing facility.
At age 6, Chiba and his household marked Japan’s give up on Aug. 15, 1945, while they have been still in China.
There, they confronted hazard and starvation in the face of anti-Japanese riots, but survived with the help of his father’s Chinese translator who hid the household in an attic, where Chiba drew footage for his three youthful brothers.
The household ultimately fled to China’s port metropolis of Huludao and returned to Japan in 1946.
Japanese manga creator Tetsuya Chiba is seen in Tokyo, Tuesday, July 8, 2025. JIJI Press/AFP via Getty Images
The harrowing recollections later influenced his work and exercise with an anti-war theme.
Chiba debuted as a manga artist in 1956, initially drawing comedian books for ladies and later transferring on to works for boys in the early Nineteen Sixties.
In 1961, he debuted in a boys comedian magazine with a baseball manga “Chikai no Makyu (The Magic Ball),” paving the way in which for a new style of sports-themed manga in Japan.
Chiba’s sports-themed mangas also included “Ore wa Teppei (I’m Teppei),” the story of a high faculty pupil training in the martial artwork of kendo, “Notari Matsutaro” about sumo wrestling, and “Ashita Tenki ni Naare (Let’s hope the weather’s fine tomorrow)” about a teenage golfer.
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