Background
Tagawa Suiho was born on February 10, 1899 in Sumida, Tokyo, Japan. Chūtarō Takamizawa grew up an orphan: his mother died upon his birth, his father and his uncle (who served as one of his stepparents) both died several years afterwards.
水泡 田河
Tagawa Suiho was born on February 10, 1899 in Sumida, Tokyo, Japan. Chūtarō Takamizawa grew up an orphan: his mother died upon his birth, his father and his uncle (who served as one of his stepparents) both died several years afterwards.
Tagawa graduated from Fukagawa's municipal Rinkai Jinjo elementary school in 1911. A student of the designing section Tokyo Academy of Fine Arts, he was famous for his series of comics of Norokuro a dog as the hero. In 1925 Suiho graduated from Nihon Bijutsu Gakkō ("Japan School of Art").
In 1926 Tagawa became a rakugo author. He began producing manga in 1927. He gained a regular assignment selling manga stories and adopted the pen name Awa Takamizu, which was later corrupted into Suihō Tagawa: Suihō literally means "water bubble".
In 1931 Chūtarō began the long-running series Norakuro in Kodansha's anthology magazine Shōnen Kurabu, about an anthropomorphic black and white dog in an army of dogs. Although at first intended to have only a brief lifespan, its immense popularity urged Tagawa to continue producing the strip. He has won numerous awards and is recognized as one of the pioneers of the Japanese manga industry.
After World War II he became a bona fide Christian; Chūtarō credited the faith in helping him overcome alcoholism after several failed attempts. In 1988 he produced the autobiographical Watashi no Rirekisho ("My Résumé") for the Japanese Sankei Shimbun newspaper.
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In 1928 he married Junko (younger sister of Hideo Kobayashi) in a church ceremony.