Waki Yamato


Waki Yamato is a Japanese manga artist. She debuted in 1966 with the short story Dorobou Tenshi.
Since her debut, Yamato steadily created and published a variety of works in the genre of shōjo manga. Among her early time works, Mon Cherie CoCo, 1971, was adapted into an anime television series, and her work, Haikara-san ga Tōru, 1975 to 1977, was very successful, winning the 1st Kodansha Manga Award for shōjo in 1977. It was also made into a musical for the Takarazuka Revue, an anime series, and a live-action movie. Through these early works, she established her position as one of the most popular manga artists.

Works

After the success of Haikara-san ga Tōru, she continued to create many manga, including the comedy Aramis '78, Yokohama Monogatari, and N. Y. Komachi. The latter two were historical manga, set during the Meiji period.
The heroines of these stories were active girls who traveled overseas. Yamato's early work Reidii Mitsuko, 1976, was based on the true story of Mitsuko Aoyama, who was the mother of Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi.
Similarly, in Yokohama Monogatri, Uno visits California, marries her Japanese lover there and returns to Yokohama, while Mariko visits London to meet her Japanese husband. In N. Y. Komachi tomboy Shino travels to New York and becomes a camerawoman. At the end she settles in America with her husband Danny.

Asaki Yume Mishi

Yamato's major work is Asaki Yume Mishi. Yamato spent 13 years completing this famous long work, based on Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji. Yamato studied the historical details of the Heian period. But she made radical changes to the characters and plot, to fit contemporary mores. Yet her work remains one of the best visualizations of the Heian era.

List of works