Sazae-san
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Sazae-san | |
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| サザエさん (Sazae-san) |
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| Genre | comic strip |
| Manga | |
| Authored by | Machiko Hasegawa |
| Publisher | Asahi Shimbun |
| Serialized in | no |
| Original run | April 22, 1946 – February 21, 1974 |
| No. of volumes | approx. 10,000 comic strips |
| TV anime | |
| Directed by | |
| Studio | |
| Network | Fuji Television |
| Original run | October 5, 1969 – present |
| No. of episodes | over 1820 [1] |
Sazae-san (サザエさん) is a Japanese comic strip created by Machiko Hasegawa.
Sazae-san was first published in Hasegawa's local paper, the Fukunichi Shimbun (フクニチ新聞), on April 22, 1946. When the Asahi Shimbun (朝日新聞) wished to have Hasegawa draw the comic strip for their paper, she moved to Tokyo in 1949 with the explanation that the main characters had moved from Kyūshū to Tokyo as well. The comic dealt with contemporary situations in Tokyo until Hasegawa retired and ended the comic on February 21, 1974. As one of Japan's longest running and oldest comic strips and animations, the series is known to nearly every Japanese person, young and old.
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[edit] Characters
The main character, Sazae Isono (磯野 サザエ Isono Sazae), married Masuo Fuguta (フグ田 マスオ Fuguta Masuo) very early in the cartoon's run. In the beginning Sazae's mother, Fune Isono (磯野 フネ Isono Fune), was worried that Sazae was too unladylike to ever attract a husband. Masuo moved in with Sazae and her family; she eventually gave birth to a child, Tarao Fuguta (フグ田 タラオ Fuguta Tarao, usually called Tara or Tara-chan タラ ちゃん).
Many of the storylines revolve around Sazae's other family members, like her father, Namihei Isono (磯野 波平 Isono Namihei), and her young siblings, brother Katsuo (カツオ) and sister Wakame (ワカメ).
Also, two families sometimes appear: a neighbourhood family, Isasaka (伊佐坂), which consists in a novelist husband, his wife, who was a friend of Fune from their high school days, and their children; also, another branch of the Isono family, Namihei's nephew Norisuke Namino (波野 ノリスケ Namino Norisuke), his wife Taiko (タイ子) and their one-year-old baby Ikura (イクラ).
The names of the characters are derived from marine animals and things relating to the sea:
- the surnames Isono, Fuguta, and Namino: iso means beach, fugu means blowfish, and nami means wave
- Masuo: masu means trout
- Fune: ship
- Sazae: turban shell - a kind of sea snail
- Tara: codfish
- Namihei: nami means wave
- Katsuo: skipjack tuna, a type of fish
- Wakame: the edible kelp commonly served with miso soup
- Norisuke: nori, the variety of seaweed used to wrap sushi
- Taiko: tai is red snapper or sea bream
- Ikura: salmon roe
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The inspiration for the characters is said to have come to Hasegawa as she was strolling along the beach one day.
Although the comic ran for twenty-eight years, the characters never aged: Sazae was always 27 years old, her husband 28, her father and mother were always 54 and 48, and Sazae's siblings were around eleven and seven years of age, respectively.
[edit] Plots
The comic was very topical. In the beginning, Sazae was more interested in being herself than dressing up in kimono and makeup to attract her future husband. Hasegawa was forward-thinking in that, in her words, the Isono/Fuguta clan would embody the image of the modern Japanese family after World War II.
Sazae was a very liberated woman, and many of the early plotlines revolved around Sazae bossing around her husband, to the consternation of her neighbours, who believed that a man should be the head of his household. Later, Sazae became a feminist and was involved in many comical situations regarding her affiliation with her local women's lib group.
Despite the topical nature of the comic, the core of the stories revolved around the large family dynamic, and were presented in a lighthearted, easy fashion. In fact, the final comic, in 1974, revolved around Sazae's happiness that an egg she cracked for her husband's breakfast produced a double yolk, with Katsuo remarking about the happiness the "little things" in life can bring.
[edit] The move from Japanese to Western clothing
As the comic moved from the 1950s to the 1960s, the clothes the characters wore changed to fit the times. Sazae, who was famous for wearing a nondescript dark dress, now started wearing pantsuits and even the occasional miniskirt. Holding the traditional role of matriarch, Fune did not dress modern at home but wore Western clothes on family outings.
[edit] Publishing
The comic strip was published in book form by Shimaisha (姉妹社), which Machiko ran with her sister, Mariko. In April 1993, this publishing company went out of business and the comic books went out of print. The same year, Asahi Shimbun purchased the right to publish the forty-five paperback volumes. Selected comics have been published in the United States by Kodansha America, Inc.
[edit] Sazae in the Japanese media
In 1955, a radio station aired a serial drama based on the comic strip. The same year, a short-lived animated television series was started, and was aired on what is now TBS.
In November 1965, TBS started a dramatic television series modeled after the comic strip. It aired until September 1967.
In 1979, NHK made a dramatic serial which ran for six months, focusing on the creation of Sazae-san and Machiko Hasegawa in her younger days.
In the anime series El-Hazard, the character Jinnai names three of his Bugrom henchmen Katsuo, Masuo, and Namihe.
[edit] Sazae-san animated series
In October 1969, Fuji Television started an animated comedy series, which is still on the air today and currently in production (making it Japan's longest running TV anime). It has been broadcast every Sunday from 6:30 to 7:00 p.m. and contains three vignettes. The animated series has some characters, like Katsuo's classmates, who don't appear in Hasegawa's original works.
The end credits for each episode include brief animations of some of the original comic strips, with the dialogue appearing in word balloons. Since November 1991, each show has ended with a janken match between Sazae and viewers at home.[2] From 1969 to 1991, Sazae would toss up a bean in the air and catch it in her mouth at the end of each show. This was often imitated by viewers. In 1990, a child choked to death after imitating the trick, and Fuji Television switched to the janken match.
