Sanpei Satō

Sanpei Satō
サトウサンペイ
Born
Yukikazu Satō (佐藤幸一)

(1929-09-11)September 11, 1929
Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Empire of Japan
DiedJuly 31, 2021(2021-07-31) (aged 91)
Tachikawa, Tokyo, Japan
Years active1953-2021
Notable work
  • Dotanba's Manners
  • Fuji Santarō
Awards

Sanpei Satō (サトウサンペイ, Satō Sanpei; 11 September 1929 - 31 July 2021) was a Japanese manga artist best known for salaryman manga such as Fuji Santarō and Dotanba's Manners. He was born as Yukikazu Satō (佐藤 幸一, Satō Yukikazu) in Nagoya, but grew up from a young age in Ōsaka after his father built and managed a clock manufacturing plant there as part of the family business. When Satō was in junior high, he worked at a munitions plant during World War II.

After studying dyeing at Kyoto Technical College, he was hired at Daimaru where he started in clothing sales and quickly moved into advertising department. In 1953, he made his manga debut in the Shin Ōsaka newspaper. Only four years later, he quit his job at Daimaru in order to work full time as a manga artist. He moved to Tokyo in 1961.

Both Satō and his works have received multiple awards and recognition, including the Bungeishunjū Manga Award in 1966, the Tokyo Metropolitan Cultural Honor Award in 1991, the Medal of Honor from the Emperor of Japan in 1997, the Order of the Rising Sun in 1996, and the Special Award at the Japan Cartoonists Association Awards in 2017.

Satō died in 2021 from aspiration pneumonia at age 91.

Biography

Yukikazu Satō was born on 11 September 1929 in Nagoya in Aichi Prefecture in the Empire of Japan.[1][2] His extended family owned Satō Clock (佐藤時計製作所, Satō Kurokku), a clock manufacturing and sales company.[1][3] His father was assigned to build and manage a new manufacturing plant and office in Ōsaka, so the family moved to Tennōji-ku when Satō was between 3 months and 2 years old.[notes 1][4][5]

While growing up, he enjoyed manga such as Tank Tankuro and Norakuro.[6] Satō became skilled at drawing, and was selected to enter a drawing contest in Ōsaka.[1] While attending Ikuno Junior High School, was conscripted and put to work at a munitions manufacturing plant where he worked on a lathe creating shells for anti-aircraft guns.[1][3]

After junior high school, he wanted to pursue painting and enroll in the Imperial Art School by taking advantage of a special post-war exemption that allowed entering a technical school instead of high school.[1] His father objected, and rationing and post-war scarcity forced him to instead study dyeing at Kyoto Technical College (now Kyoto Institute of Technology).[1][5][6] While attending school there, Satō became a fan of the Yaneura 3-chan manga by Shōtarō Nanbu.[6] He later became friends with Nanbu and joined a Kansai-area manga group with Nanbu.[1]

After graduating from Kyoto Technical College,[2][7][8][9] one of Satō's professors introduced him to the advertising manager at Daimaru.[1] He interviewed for the job, but the advertising manager lost his resumé. Because he was unable to take the exam required for the job, he instead submitted a comic detailing his previous experience, which got him the job.[3][5][6][10] He started in sales in the womens' clothing department before moving into the advertising department, where he worked on newspaper advertisement layout and copywriting.[5][6]

At some point, the manga he wrote to replace his resume found its way to someone at the Shin Ōsaka newspaper, and he made his manga debut in 1953 with the yonkoma manga Son of Ōsaka (大阪の息子, Ōsaka no Musuko).[1][5][10] He chose his pen name, "Sanpei", because he didn't think he would ever be as good as Okamoto Ippei.[3] While working at Daimaru, high school student and future manga artist Sou Nishimura would sometimes visit Satō at work asking for advice.[6] After working on his manga part-time for a few years, Satō quit his job at Daimaru in 1957 and started working on his manga full time.[5][6]

Satō moved to Tokyo in 1961, beginning his Instant Madame (インスタントマダム, Insutanto Madamu) series that year in the Sankei Shimbun evening edition.[1][5][9] He began serializing Fuji Santarō in The Asahi Shimbun in 1965, and he won the Bungeishunjū Manga Award in 1966 for Asakaze-kun and Fuji Santarō.[2][7][6] The latter ran for 26 years until ending in 1991.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government honored Satō in 1991 with the Tokyo Metropolitan Cultural Honor Award.[9][11] The Emperor of Japan, Akihito, presented the Medal of Honor with a Purple Ribbon to him in 1997 for his contributions to the arts.[2][7] In 2006, he received the Order of the Rising Sun 4th class, Gold Rays with Rosette from the government of Japan.[7][12] The Japan Cartoonists Association recognized his complete body of work in 2017 with the Special Award at the Japan Cartoonists Association Awards.[2][7][13]

Satō died in a Tokyo hospital on 31 July 2021 from aspiration pneumonia at age 91.[2][7][8]

Works

Works are listed chronologically, from oldest to newest.

Manga

  • Son of Ōsaka (serialized in Shin Ōsaka in 1953)[1]
  • Ossu Messu (serialized in Sankei Sports in 1957)[5]
  • Instant Madame (serialized in the Sankei Shimbun evening edition from 1961-1965)[7]
  • Asakaze-kun (serialized in Manga Sunday from 1963-1965)[5]
  • Fuji Santarō (serialized in The Asahi Shimbun from 1965-1991)[2]
  • Lunch-kun (serialized in Heibon Punch from 1965-1968)[5]
  • Hanabē (serialized in Shūkan Bunshun from 1966-1967)[5]
  • Sukatan Company (serialized in The Sunday Mainichi from 1967-1974)[5]
  • Yūhi-kun (serialized in Shūkan Asahi from 1968-1985)[5]
  • Dotanba's Manners (one volume, March 1982, Shinchōsha, ISBN 4101265011)[14]
    • The Stylish Japanese: Dotanba's Manners Foreign Edition (February 1986, Shinchōsha, ISBN 4101265046)[1]

Awards and recognition

Satō received numerous awards over the course of his career.

Year Organization Award title,
category 		Work Result Ref.
1966 Bungeishunjū Bungeishunjū Manga Award Asakaze-kun
Fuji Santarō 		Won [2][7][6]
1991 Tokyo Metropolitan Government Tokyo Metropolitan Cultural Honor Award - Awarded [9][11]
1997 Akihito, Emperor of Japan Medal of Honor,
Purple Ribbon 		- Awarded [2][7]
2006 Government of Japan Order of the Rising Sun,
Gold Rays with Rosette 		- Awarded [7][12]
2017 Japan Cartoonists Association Japan Cartoonists Association Award,
Special Award 		For his full body of work Won [2][7][13]

Notes

  1. ^ Sources differ on how old he was when he moved to Ōsaka.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 峯島正行 (Masayuki Mineshima) (June 1992). ナンセンスに賭ける [Betting on Nonsense] (in Japanese). Seiabo. pp. 9–31. ISBN 4-7905-0375-5. NDLBibID:000002192378.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 漫画家サトウサンペイさん死去、91歳 「フジ三太郎」 [Manga artist Sanpei Satō, creator of "Fuji Santarō," passes away at age 91] (in Japanese). Asahi Shimbun Digital. 6 August 2021. Archived from the original on 5 December 2025. Retrieved 5 December 2024.
  3. ^ a b c d 真実一郎 (Ichirō Majime) (2 April 2017). ユーモアとウィットと風刺～『フジ三太郎』と4コマ漫画の時代【あのサラリーマン漫画をもう一度】 [Humor, Wit, and Satire: "Fuji Santarō" and the Era of Four-Panel Comics - Revisiting Those Salaryman Comics] (in Japanese). Fusosha. Archived from the original on 5 December 2025. Retrieved 5 December 2025.
  4. ^ 斉藤明美 (Akemi Saitō) (July 2011). 家の履歴書 文化人・芸術家篇 (in Japanese). Kinema Junpo. p. 38. ISBN 978-4-87376-361-3. NDLBibID:023108284.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 佐藤忠男 (Tadao Satō) (June 1969). 著者略歴 [Author Biography]. サトウサンペイ集 [Satō Sanpei Volume]. 現代漫画 (Gendai Manga) (in Japanese). Vol. 8. Chikuma Shobō. pp. 305–314. ASIN B000J91KY2.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i 寺光忠男 (Tadao Teramitsu) (March 1990). 正伝・昭和漫画 ナンセンスの系譜 [The True Story of Shōwa Manga: The Lineage of Nonsense]. Mainichi Newspapers Company. pp. 142–178. ISBN 4-620-30721-1. NDLBibID:000002032325.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 漫画家のサトウサンペイさん死去 「フジ三太郎」で世相描く [Manga artist Sanpei Satō, known for depicting social conditions in his "Fuji Santarō" manga, passes away] (in Japanese). Sankei Shinbun. 6 August 2021. Archived from the original on 5 December 2025. Retrieved 5 December 2025.
  8. ^ a b 漫画家サトウサンペイさんが死去 「フジ三太郎」を新聞に連載 [Manga artist Sanpei Satō, who serialized "Fuji Santarō" in newspapers, passes away] (in Japanese). Kyodo News. 6 August 2021. Archived from the original on 6 August 2021. Retrieved 3 December 2024.
  9. ^ a b c d サトウサンペイ [Sanpei Satō] (in Japanese). Kotobank. Archived from the original on 5 December 2025. Retrieved 5 December 2025.
  10. ^ a b Satō, Sanpei (July 1983). けっこうエーこといってるんですが [Saying Some Pretty Cool Things] (in Japanese). Shinchosha. pp. 169–173. ISBN 4101265038.
  11. ^ a b 都民文化栄誉章受賞者一覧 [List of Tokyo Metropolitan Cultural Honor Award recipients] (in Japanese). Tokyo Metropolitan Government. Archived from the original on 5 December 2025. Retrieved 5 December 2025.
  12. ^ a b 芦田淳さんら4028人 秋の叙勲 [Jun Ashida and 4,028 others receive autumn decorations] (in Japanese). Kyodo News. 3 November 2006. Archived from the original on 27 December 2013. Retrieved 3 December 2024.
  13. ^ a b 日本漫画家協会賞 [Japan Cartoonists Association Award]. 漫画家協会WEB (in Japanese). Japan Cartoonists Association. Archived from the original on 5 December 2025. Retrieved 5 December 2025.
  14. ^ Satō, Sanpei (March 1982). ドタンバのマナー [Dotanba's Manners] (in Japanese). Shinchōsha. ISBN 4101265011.
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