村上隆さんのインスタグラム写真 - (村上隆Instagram)「George Akiyama, the author of Haguregumo, one of the mangas closest to my heart, passed away. I join my hands in prayer. When I was around seventeen, I longed for the kind of family depicted in this story. It is a series revolving around the main character, Kumo, the owner of an express transportation company running messenger, palanquin, and shipping businesses during the tumultuous years at the end of Edo period. At a first glance, Kumo’s life only casually intersects with historical events, but each self-contained episode depicts the human follies and sadness with humor as Kumo participates in various people’s daily dramas. It was a huge influence on me during my emotional youth. 40 years later, I’m afraid my life now doesn’t quite resemble Kumo’s, who went about his life breezily and pleasantly. My family does, however, have the same makeup as his, with a wife, a son (older), and a daughter (younger). We do go through silly family blunders and confusions daily and experience the sadness and aches of life, so perhaps I can say I am living under the work’s influence. I named my son after the son in the manga, hoping that he would live a life filled with human empathy. I also read many other works by the same author, from when I started reading manga at around the age of five until I was 25 or so, and received influences from them all. His work always had the unique voice that seemed to either laugh off the hardship of living at the bottom of human society or blow it off with anger. (Since around age 25, I got increasingly committed to manga catered for otaku, such as Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira and Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaä…) Once again, I join my hands in prayer for Master George Akiyama. RIP 🙏 translation: @tabi_the_fat」6月3日 6時54分