21 Facts About Takao Saito

Takao Saito was a Japanese manga artist, although he rejected the term and considered his work gekiga.

Takao Saito was best known for Golgo 13, which has been serialized in Big Comic since 1968, making it the oldest manga still in publication.

Takao Saito won several awards in his 66-year career, including the Shogakukan Manga Award twice, and received the Medal with Purple Ribbon and Order of the Rising Sun from the Japanese government for his contributions to the arts.

Takao Saito did not know he was born in Nishiwasa until he was 43 years old.

That same year, Takao Saito quit the family business to focus on manga, an act that angered his mother so much, that she never picked up one of his works for the rest of her life.

In 1959, Takao Saito co-founded the Gekiga Kobo in Tokyo with seven other artists, including Yoshihiro Tatsumi and Masahiko Matsumoto, in order to spread gekiga.

Takao Saito entered the mainstream manga industry in 1963 with 007, an adaptation of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels for Shogakukan's Boy's Life magazine.

Takao Saito started Golgo 13 in Shogakukan's Big Comic magazine in 1968 and serialized it continuously until his death.

In 1971 Takao Saito started to give courses in drawing manga.

Takao Saito illustrated an adaptation of Shotaro Ikenami's Onihei Hankacho novel series that has been continuously serialized in Leed Publishing's Comic Ran magazine since 1993, although a mistake by the editorial department resulted in the September 2019 issue becoming the first in 25 years to not include a chapter.

Takao Saito initially created it based on scripts by Sentaro Kubota, then on scripts by Kusumi Ohara from volume 40 until 53, when Ohara was joined by Kaori Moriyama.

JManga released digital English versions of several of Takao Saito's series, including Onihei Hankacho, Barom-1, Japan Sinks and Doll: The Hotel Detective.

Takao Saito said he suffered retinal detachment at the age of 28 and was diagnosed as diabetic at 48.

Takao Saito was a close friend of fellow manga artist Shotaro Ishinomori.

Takao Saito died of pancreatic cancer at 84 on September 24,2021.

Takao Saito's death was announced five days later by Shogakukan, along with his wish that Golgo 13 continue on without him.

Takao Saito was a director at Leed Publishing, a publishing company spun-off from his Takao Saito Production.

In 1976, Takao Saito won the 21st Shogakukan Manga Award in the General category for Golgo 13.

In 2009, Takao Saito was among the 158 manga artists invited to celebrate the 50th anniversary of both Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine and Kodansha's Weekly Shonen Magazine at the Tokyo Imperial Hotel.

In 2017, Takao Saito received the Iwate Hometown Special Manga Award at the 7th Iwate Manga Awards for having a residence in Hanamaki, Iwate and including a character from the prefecture in Golgo 13.

In 2019, Takao Saito was honored by the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly for his contributions to the arts as a meritorious resident of Tokyo.