The 26th Annual Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize sponsored by Asahi Shimbun announced the winner of the Grand Prize on Monday, April 25, 2022.

Manga author Uoto‘s Chi -Chikyū no Undō ni Tsuite- (Chi – On the Movements of the Earth) has won the Grand Prize for the Manga Award.

Author Natsuko Taniguchi received the New Creator Prize for his manga Kyōshitsu no Katasumi de Seishun wa Hajimaru (Youth Begins in a Corner of the Classroom) and Konya Sukiyaki da yo (It’s Sukiyaki for Tonight).

Ii Toshi o (Have a Good Year) and Hakumokuren wa Kirei ni Chiranai (White Magnolias Do Not Fall Beautifully) by Izumi Okaya won the Short Work Prize this year.

Newspaper Asahi Shimbun had scheduled an awards ceremony in Tokyo on June 2. The Grand Prize winner will get a bronze statue and 2 million yen (about US$19,000), with the other winners receiving a bronze statue and 1 million yen (approximately US$9,000).

Earlier in February 2022, 26th Annual Tezuka Osamu Cultural Awards announced nine manga works for the “Manga Award” nominations. The nominees were chosen on the basis of the manga that has a compiled volume published in Japan in 2021.

The judges for this year’s award nominations included manga creator Osamu Akimoto (Kochikame), manga creator Machiko Satonaka (Machiko’s One Thousand and One Nights), entertainer Minami Takahashi, writer, and Tohoku University of Art and Design instructor Yukiko Tomiyama, professor and scholar Shōhei Chūjō, manga critic Nobunaga Minami, and comedian and manga creator Taro Yabe (Prince of the Stars).

Last year, Kazumi Yamashita‘s Land won the Grand Prize. The New Creator prize went to Kanehito Yamada and Tsukasa Abe‘s Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, and the Short Work Prize went to Hiroko Nobara‘s Kieta Mama Tomo and Tsuma wa Kuchi o Kiite Kuremasen. The committee also gave Koyoharu Gotouge‘s Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba manga the Special Prize.

Named after Osamu Tezuka (Astro Boy/Mighty Atom, Kimba the White Lion/Jungle Emperor, Phoenix, Black Jack), the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize is a yearly manga prize awarded to manga artists or their works that follow the Osamu Tezuka manga approach founded and sponsored by Asahi Shimbun. The prize has been awarded since 1997, in Tokyo, Japan.

Source: Asahi Shimbun