In the second of our interviews to celebrate The Asahi Shimbun Display Manga now: three generations Nicole Rousmaniere, the IFAC Handa Curator of Japanese Arts, interviews the manga artist Hoshino Yukinobu. A specialist in science fiction and mystery manga, Hoshino Yukinobu has recently created a new series Rainman, first published in Big Comic in June 2015. The display features a portrait of Rainman’s protagonist Taki Amamiya, who, through an accident of birth can unintentionally see the dead.
One of Hoshino Yukinobu’s most enduring characters is the crime-fighting anthropologist Professor Munakata, who appeared in his own British Museum adventure in 2011. In this interview Hoshino Yukinobu discusses his creative process, connection to the British Museum and the inspiration behind his new series Rainman.
Nicole Rousmaniere: Can you tell us how you go about creating a manga?
Hoshino Yukinobu: In an ideal world, I would like to create manga which I would like to read. But once I start, this ideal becomes difficult to achieve. It is not an easy task to surprise myself. After having selected many key elements required for the story and managing to begin the series, what I would like to read or draw do not seem to matter. You like it or not, the deadlines approach and surviving each of them pushes me forward.
An illustration from Professor Munakata’s British Museum Adventure.
Nicole: How did you go about creating the story for Professor Munakata’s British Museum Adventure?
Hoshino Yukinobu: This story had to be part of the series which I had been working on so I could not begin with a completely original plot. I made a story based on my great admiration for the British Museum, to introduce the Museum and its history, collections and what goes on behind the scenes, which I myself had seen and learned first hand when I visited in 2008.
Nicole: Will Professor Munakata return to the UK and to the British Museum?
Hoshino Yukinobu: When there is an opportunity someday. Both Professor Munakata and I adore the United Kingdom.
Nicole: What do you feel about manga as an art form being displayed and represented in the British Museum’s collections?
Hoshino Yukinobu: Personally for me, I had never dreamed that my manga would have been displayed and collected at the British Museum. It is an honour beyond any words. I cannot thank those involved with the project enough. I also admire from my heart the British Museum’s spirit to accept Japanese manga in its collection along with other artistic objects from all times and places.
Hoshino Yukinobu (b. 1954), Rainman. Ink on paper, 2015. (© Hoshino Yukinobu)
Nicole: What is your inspiration for Rainman?
Hoshino Yukinobu: For a long time, I have been creating manga with themes ranging from science and space to Japanese history. What I had been interested in even long before then provides the basis of the Rainman. That is to say the issue of human consciousness, the soul, life and death. No one can ignore these issues. It appears to me that the scientific and spiritual worlds are getting very close through quantum physics today. I am hoping to get these two worlds to connect in Rainman.
The Asahi Shimbun Display Manga now: three generations is on display in Room 3 at the British Museum until 15 November 2016. Supported by The Asahi Shimbun.
