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『毎日かあさん』
（出版社：毎日新聞社） |
Topics in Japan #53
Rieko Saibara ─ a strong “mother” cartoonist |
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Rieko Saibara is a 44-year-old female cartoonist, who’s celebrating the 25th anniversary of her career this year. Her history is quite unique and also full of ups and downs. She was born into a fishing family in 1964 in Kochi prefecture. Her father was addicted to alcohol and died when Rieko was three. Her mother got married again later, but the stepfather turned out to have a gambling problem and his debts kept growing. He committed suicide later on.
A few years after his death, Rieko had overcome the tragedy and moved to Tokyo to study art at university. But she soon realized that her classmates were all full of talent, and there would be no way she could compete with them. Instead of setting for being a loser, Rieko decided to find a way to survive with her “poor” drawing skills. She began drawing little cartoons for porno or gambling magazines for low fees. Eventually, her unique character and a talent for cartoon gained her recognition, and she received more and more job offers.
The biggest feature of Rieko’s cartoons is that most of them are based on her own experiences. She tries to experience whatever she’s interested in, even when it seems to be very dangerous or risky. She’s been to a lot of developing countries, sometimes during wartime, and communicated with local people. She’s also done a lot of gambling and investing and lost a lot of money. The reason her cartoons have always been so strong and funny is that they’ve reflected all these “real” experiences from her own life.
In 1996, she got married to a photographer, Yutaka Kamoshida. They had a boy and a girl, but Kamoshida died of cancer in 2007, as if Rieko hadn’t experienced enough hardships. But she always seems to grow in strength, to overcome the hardships and survive. Her current cartoon serial “Mainichi Kaasan (Everyday Mother),” which shows her life with her kids, has become a huge hit. The cartoon was made into a TV animation series this spring, and two other of her cartoons have been made into movies this year. It looks like both her life and career will just keep on going, no matter what may come ahead.
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