Tokiwa-sō 1.66

Tokiwa-sō was an apartment building in Toshima, Tokyo, Japan famous for being the early living-quarters of many prominent manga artists.DescriptionTokiwa-sō was a Japanese style no-frills apartment building, two stories high, built of wood. It was one of the pre-war buildings which survived the fire bombing of Tokyo during World War II and became part of the nucleus of the Minami Nagasaki residential area of Toshima ward. It had no baths, only cold water sinks and toilets. Residents went to local sentō bath houses, the Tsuru-yu and the Akebono-yu (now modern condominiums).The building existed as a sort of atelier from 1952 to 1982. It was demolished in 1982. It is now the site of a building belonging to a publisher of scientific and test preparation textbooks.Notable residents and relation to manga and animeThe second floor of this building housed many young budding artists in the late 1950s to the early 1960s, including Osamu Tezuka between 1953 and 1954. Residents included Hiroo Terada (1953–1957), Fujiko Fujio (1954–1961), Suzuki Shinichi (1955–1956), Naoya Moriyasu (1956), Shotaro Ishinomori (1956–1961), Fujio Akatsuka (1956–1961), Norio Yokota (1958–1961), Hideko Mizuno (1958) and George Yamaguchi (1960–1962).Tezuka offered a room to the writing duo Fujiko Fujio when he was moving out. Fujiko Fujio would make similar gestures themselves, offering rooms to rookie artists whenever one was made available, including to Akatsuka and Ishinomori.