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The Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize is a yearly award given to a number of extraordinary manga artists. The award was founded in 1997 and is sponsored by Asahi Shimbun in honor of Tezuka’s impact in the manga industry. This year, award-winning manga Yotsuba&! adds yet another accolade to its stellar history by clinching the Tezuka Prize.
Yotsuba&! follows the day-to-day life of a strange five-year-old girl named Yotsuba. The popular manga debuted in 2003 in the magazine Dengeki Daioh and has since published thirteen volumes as of November 2015 with more than 13 million copies sold.
In addition to winning the Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize, Yotsuba&! has also received the Excellence Prize in the manga division of the 10th Japanese Media Arts Festival. The manga has been translated into English and thirteen other languages and is published in 23 countries selling over 2 million copies.
More on the manga artist Azuma Kiyohiko
Azuma Kiyohiko was born in 1968 in Hyogo Prefecture. In 1999, he started the manga Azumanga Daioh in the Dengeki Daioh magazine. Azumanga Daioh depicted the lives of a unique group of high school girls and was an instant hit. It was eventually animated. In 2003, Azuma brought to the world Yotsuba&!: the daily life of an unusual little girl.