Hinako Sugiura

Hinako Sugiura (1958 – 2005) was a manga artist and researcher in the lifestyles and customs of Japan’s Edo period. Born in Tokyo, into a tradition-steeped family of kimono merchants, she studied design and took an increasing interest in feudal Japan. Her manga Sarusuberi, on which Miss Hokusai is based, has gained cult status for the vivid portrayal of Hokusai’s daughter. Sarusuberi was originally published in the magazine Manga Sunday from 1983 to 1987, and then compiled into two volumes. Structured as a series of short stories, with a few digressions into the supernatural as an added spice, the manga is set in 1814, when O-Ei is 23 and Hokusai is 55, and one of the most accomplished artists of his time. Perhaps not coincidently, it is the year Hokusai publishes the first volume of his best-selling manual series, Hokusai Manga. And although O-Ei’s birthdate is debated, it is perhaps no coincidence that Sugiura set O-Ei’s age in her comic very close to her own at the time, thus exposing her fascination for O-Ei as an artist, woman and daughter. Because Sarusuberi, far from being an attempt to delineate an accurate biography, is more than anything else Sugiura’s personal time slip into the floating world, aimed to establish a link with a bunch of outlandish artists enjoying their transient and chaotic lives in full. Sarusuberi is the Japanese name of a woody perennial tree known as Lagerstroemia indica, or crape myrtle in English. Originating from southern China, it is very common in Korea and Japan. It is written with three Chinese characters meaning “one hundred day-lasting red,” which refers to the tree’s extended blooming period. Sugiura explains that she could not find a more appropriate metaphor to describe Hokusai, who produced so many works of art, yet his creativeness seemed to never wither. She called the sarusuberi blooming season “a long festival,” an expression that Hara transformed into a dialogue line given by O-Ei at the beginning of the film, a heartfelt homage from the staff to a most respected woman and artist.