Mother Longing Chidori | Mitsutoshi Furuya

Mitsutoshi Furuya – Mother-Longing Chidori (母恋い千鳥), c. 1978

Original chapter title page from Mother-Longing Chidori, published in Princess (Akita Shoten).

Size: 25.5 x 36 cm
Media: pencil & ink on paper
Very good condition

Mitsutoshi Furuya (1936–2021) was one of Japan's most unconventional manga artists. After working with Osamu Tezuka and becoming a key creative collaborator of Fujio Akatsuka, he established himself as a master of irreverent humour and biting social satire.

With Mother-Longing Chidori, Furuya brought his provocative vision of family life into the world of shōjo manga. Serialized in Princess during the second half of the 1970s, the series shocked the shōjo world with its dark, often brutal melodrama about a beautiful but unfortunate young girl enduring cruelty while longing to be reunited with her lost mother. Far removed from the lighthearted romance commonly associated with girls' manga, it revealed another, more dramatic side of Furuya's storytelling.

This original chapter title page, entitled “Mother, I Wonder Where All That New Year's Gift Money Went!”, presents a surprisingly cheerful scene of Chidori and her stepsister flying kites during the Japanese New Year celebrations.