Mauricio writes...
Story 2 - Tezuka-san, My Latter-day Brother (Part One)
Mauricio writes...
Story 2 - Tezuka-san, My Latter-day Brother (Part One)
Tezuka Osamu, master of Japanese cartoons and animated comics, has not been among us since 1989. But during the last years of his life, there unfolded between us a friendship, a camaraderie which I have experienced very few times with anyone else.
For those who don’t know, Tezuka is the creator of characters known worldwide as Mighty Atom, Princess Knight, Kimba the White Lion and others.
Our first meeting took place in Tokyo during a trip offered to me by the Japan Foundation to study the reality of Japanese children: their habits, their desires, how they are treated and what is done for them in their country. Therefore, contact with the idol of children and of three generations of Japanese, master (sensei) Tezuka Osamu, was certainly a requisite.
And he himself went to the airport to welcome me. Alice, my wife, was accompanying me. It was already nighttime, we had been flying for nearly 30 hours, but he insisted that we go with him for a special dinner at the luxurious restaurant of the New-Otani Hotel. We went. And what awaited us there was truly a surprise: an enormous schooner, over three feet in length, stood on the table laden with every possible and imaginable type of sashimi. For those who are not familiar with it, sashimi is raw fish. Which I can’t stand. But the banquet was in my honor, sashimi is an extremely refined dish, Tezuka-san was a person of renown... what was I to do?
Eat. And Tezuka-san explained the origin and type of each fish as he offered it to me. That night I went to sleep honored and my appetite for fish sated for a long, long time.
Subsequently, he took me to the local TV stations to talk about our work in Brazil and later introduced me to a number of fellow cartoonists. It was a good beginning for a friendship, extended by a visit that Tezuka-san made to Brazil, likewise sponsored by the Japan Foundation.
Our next encounter was during another trip I made to Japan, this one specifically planned to become better acquainted with Tezuka-san and his work. Which ended with a memorable party celebrating his fifty years of artistic activity.
The party was the epitome of luxury at the ultimately fine Akasaka Hotel in Tokyo. All of the principal artists of Japan and many other countries were there to wish the sensei well. A plethora of Japanese delicacies of every kind, the finest beverages, extraordinarily beautiful ice sculptures of his characters, girls dressed in elegant short-skirted uniforms criss-crossing the luxurious salon, equally attentive to every guest. And covering the face of each girl was a mask representing the caricatured visage of the one being honored. There were dozens of “tezukettes” in the room.
Old friends, grateful publishers and figures of authority took turns offering their words of appreciation, all according to a time schedule. I was allowed three minutes to deliver my message. In Japanese! According to reports, I read it correctly.
Mauricio de Sousa
December 29, 1996(Part Two)
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