My Picture Diary
$46.99
- Hardcover
284 pages
- Release Date
19 September 2023
Summary
The wife of Japan’s most lauded manga-ka documents a year in their lives with her own artistry.
In 1981, Fujiwara Maki began a picture diary about daily life with her son and husband, the legendary manga author Tsuge Yoshiharu. Publishing was not her original intention. “I wanted to record our family’s daily life while our son, Shosuke, was small. But as 8mm cameras were too expensive and we were poor, I decided on the picture diary format instead. I figured Shosuke would enjoy readin…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781770466623 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 1770466622 |
| Author: | Fujiwara Maki, Ryan Holmberg |
| Publisher: | Drawn and Quarterly |
| Imprint: | Drawn and Quarterly |
| Format: | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages: | 284 |
| Release Date: | 19 September 2023 |
| Weight: | 454g |
| Dimensions: | 165mm x 218mm |
Critics Review
“A charming and at times heartbreaking read.” —Malaka Gharib, NPR
“[My Picture Diary presents] universally empathetic glimpses of a wife and mother increasingly overwhelmed by home life, suffocating under sexist expectations.” —Booklist, Starred Review
“Decades after it was drawn, this glimpse behind the curtain of a troubled artistic relationship remains vital and resonant.” —Publishers Weekly
“[My Picture Diary is] a vessel for internal processing—the documented venting of a woman whose surroundings are constraining to the point of alienation.” —The Comics Journal
“A charming and at times heartbreaking read.” —NPR Books We Love
“Maki ends up giving a voice to countless women who feel stifled and trapped by roles pushed on them by society.” —Otaku USA
“My Picture Diary provides more context and insight into Tsuge’s work but also shows Fujiwara as an artist in her own right.” —Manga Bookshelf
“The diary entries portray both a simple story of family life… and a powerful critique of the patriarchal systems that Maki struggled against.” —Book Riot
“[An honest] example of domestic life portrayal in Japan in the early 1980s.” —Graphic Medicine
“Unvarnished… Fujiwara documents what it’s like living with depression in a frank manner.” —Comics Beat
Fujiwara Maki
Fujiwara Maki (1941-1999)
Fujiwara Maki was an artist, actress, and writer. After growing up in poverty during and after World War II, she moved to Tokyo in the 1960s and became a prominent actress in the underground theater scene.
In 1969, she met manga artist Tsuge Yoshiharu, and they married after their son, Shosuke, was born in 1975. Fujiwara began drawing and writing in the early 1980s, completing her first and most renowned work, My Picture Diary, in 1982. Her other publications include the children’s book Guess What Kind of Shop This Is (1985) and the painting collection Candy Store (1994).
After making cameo appearances in film adaptations of Tsuge’s manga in the early 1990s, Fujiwara died of cancer at the age of 57.
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