Watanabe, Yoshiko - 1 Original drawing - Principessa Zaffiro - Shikishi

Great opportunity to own an original, one-of-a-kind piece by Yoshiko Watanabe.

Original 10x10cm shikishi by Yoshiko Watanabe, handcrafted and signed, with the official artist's stamp (hanko) affixed.

On the shikishi, a bust of Princess Sapphire was created using pencil and ink.



Yoshiko Watanabe
Romics d'Oro of the 29th edition
Yoshiko Watanabe, a manga author, animator, and illustrator, was born in Tsingtao, China, in 1943. She attended Musashino Art University in Tokyo, graduating from the Department of Scenic Design. In 1965, she joined Mushi Production, an animation studio founded by Osamu Tezuka, as an animator. From that moment until 1972, she had the opportunity to work as an animator on the famous TV series 'Astroboy,' 'Princess Sapphire,' 'Kimba the White Lion,' 'Monkey,' 'Rocky Joe,' and many others. Working alongside master Tezuka, she contributed to animated feature films such as 'One Thousand and One Nights' and 'Cleopatra.' She then dedicated herself to experimental animation works like 'The Birth of Japan,' 'The Gentle Lion,' and 'The Exhibition Paintings.' In 1978, she moved to Tezuka Productions, where she worked on the animation for the feature film 'The Phoenix – Dawn.' Moving to Italy in the 1970s, she drew comic series such as 'Tiramolla,' 'Masters of the Universe,' 'Poochie,' and 'Pistillo' for the magazine 'Più' (Editoriale Domus), and simultaneously illustrated fairy tales for both the Italian and Japanese markets. She collaborated with Mondo TV on RAI animated series 'Robin Hood' and 'The Black Corsair.' From the 1990s onward, she participated in the production of Italian feature films such as 'The Blue Arrow,' 'The Gabbianella and the Cat,' and 'Opopomoz' by Enzo D’Alò, 'Aida degli Alberi' by Guido Manuli, and 'Johan Padan and the Discovery of the Americas' by Giulio Cingoli. She created the short film 'Kitty, the Zombie,' which won the Panorama Award at the Hiroshima Animation Festival in 1994. During the same period, she began teaching a Manga course at the Roman School of Comics. Alongside teaching, she produced graphic novels such as 'The Story of Sayo' (Kappa Edizioni, awarded 'Best Book of Japanese School' at the 10th Romics), 'Donran' (GP Publishing), and later 'Sute – The Son of Spirits' (GP Publishing) and 'NoraNeko – Stray Cats' (Editoriale Cosmo), written with Giovanni Masi. In 2003, she storyboarded the animated series 'Winx' (Rainbow Productions). In 2010, she published the educational manual 'Manga Course' (Dino Audino Editore), co-written with Marco Vignati. In 2016, she received the 'Best Book of Japanese School' award at the 15th Romics for 'Like a Rock Music Ballet' (Star Comics Editions), written with Stefano Simeone. In 2020, the illustrated fairy tale 'The Golden Leaf' (Tora Edizioni) was published. An adaptation of George Orwell's novel 'Animal Farm' (Fanucci Comics), written by Alessandro Ruggieri and colored by Mirko Milone, is upcoming.