Okamoto Ippei

Japanese, 1886 - 1948

BiographyOkamoto Ippei (岡本一平, 1886–1948) was a manga artist and lyricist. He was the father of artist Okamoto Tarō. He was born in Hakodate, Hokkaido, second son of a Confucian scholar. He studied Western-style painting at Tokyo School of the Arts (see Entry B6) under the instruction of Fujishima Takeji (藤島武二, 1867–1943). After graduation in 1910, worked as scenery painter for Imperial Theater. Encouraged by Natsume Soseki to draw manga, he started working as a cartoonist for Asahi Shinbun in 1912. He combined comic illustrations with clever, refined, comical texts (manga manbun). He became one of the most popular manga artists of the Taisho era. He also put his efforts into training younger people, and after retiring as a leader in the world of manga, he helped his wife in her work as a novelist.
After he had studied fine arts in Tokyo under Kubota Beisen (see Entry 33) and worked as a theater decorator, he began a career as a cartoonist in 1912 for the Asahi Shimbun newspaper and later for several other magazines. His caricatures took on political and social issues. Among other things, he illustrated parliamentary reports. In addition, he created comic strips for children and as a writer some essays and novels. His works for various magazines include Tanpō Gashu (1913), Kanraku (1914), Match no Bou (1915), Monomiyu-san (1916) and Nakimushi Dera no Yawa (1921).
After drawing Nakimushi Dera no Yawa, Okamoto traveled to the United States. For Asahi Shimbun he wrote articles about the importance of comics in America. He also described the two comic strips Bringing Up Father and Mutt and Jeff in detail. These articles resulted in Asahi first publishing American comic strips from November 1923 in a newly founded weekly magazine.
From 1929 to 1930, most of his works were successfully reissued under the title Ippei Zenshū in a 15-volume complete edition.
In 1910, he married the author Ōnuki Kano (1889–1939). Their son Tarō (1911–1996) emerged as an avant-garde painter.
Together with Kitazawa Rakuten, Okamoto was largely responsible for promoting American comic strips in Japan. Both laid the foundations for subsequent Japanese cartoonists and comic strip artists. Okamoto's students included Kondō Hidezō (近藤日出造, 1908-1979), Miyao Shigeo 宮尾重男, also written as 宮尾しげを, 1902–1982) and Sugiura Yukio (幸雄杉浦, 1911–2004).

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