About Tezuka’s Life

Osamu Tezuka as Higeoyaji

Osamu Tezuka (手塚 治虫) was born on November 3, 1928 and died on February 9, 1989, but it is what happened in between that is really important.

Although he only spent sixty short years with us, what he did with his time is really quite amazing.  A scrawny young boy from a small town who grew up to be a storyteller, an entertainer, an innovator, a doctor, a businessman, an animator, an artist, a goodwill ambassador, a mentor, an inspiration and a cultural icon… and that’s only half the story.

The life story of the God of Manga is a complex one…”

In this section you will find an in-depth treatment of the life story of Osamu Tezuka, one that looks at the progression from his early days in Takarazuka, to his beginnings and rise as a popular manga artist, to the ups and downs of his career in animation, to his later years traveling the world as a de facto Japanese cultural ambassador.

However, the life story of the “God of Manga” is a complex one, and this overview merely scratches the surface.  For those readers interested in learning more about the man behind the manga/anime, we encourage you to visit our section on books about Tezuka.

In particular, we recommend Helen McCarthy’s, The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga, Frederik L. Schodt’s The Astro Boy Essarys: Osamu Tezuka, Mighty Atom, and the Manga/Anime Revolution, and Natsu Onoda Power’s God of Comics: Osamu Tezuka and the Creation of Post-World War II Manga as invaluable resources as well as entertaining reads.

Tezuka's Life (1928-57)

Osamu Tezuka (手塚 治虫) was born on November 3, 1928 to Yutaka (father) and Fumiko (mother) Tezuka. Although he was born in Toyonaka, a city near Osaka, the family soon moved to Takarazuka City, Hyogo - the home of the famous Takarazuka Revue.

Tezuka's Life (1958-64)

In 1958 Tezuka had two meetings that would shape his life. The first was a visit by staff from Toei Animation who were interested in developing Tezuka's manga series, Son-Goku the Monkey (1952-59) as an animated feature film.

Tezuka's Life (1965-72)

By 1965, Astro Boy (1963-66) was already entering it's third year in production, Mushi Productions had started work on a new animated television series known as Wonder 3 (1965-66), and was gearing up for it's latest ground-breaking series - the first...

Tezuka's Life (1973-80)

By August 1973, after fumbling along for a few years without Tezuka, Mushi Productions folded with a debt of roughly ¥400 million. While reading about it the next day in the newspaper, Tezuka was quite surprised to hear that people were saying that ...

Tezuka's Life (1981-89)

In 1981, after giving a talk at a medical university, a medical researcher who had been in the audience contacted Tezuka and sent him some documents detailing his own family history in medicine. In fact, Osamu Tezuka is part of a medical dynasty of sorts....