Kazuo Umezz
Date of birth: 1936-09-03
Place of birth: Kōya, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan
Known for: Writing
Also known as: 楳図 かずお
Biography
Kazuo Umezu or Kazuo Umezz (楳図 かずお, Umezu Kazuo, birth name 楳図一雄; born September 3, 1936) is a Japanese manga artist, musician and actor. Starting his career in the 1950s, he is among the most famous artists of horror manga and has been vital for its development, considered the "god of horror manga". In 1960s shōjo manga like Reptilia, he broke the industry's conventions by combining the aesthetics of the commercial manga industry with gruesome visual imagery inspired by Japanese folktales, which created a boom of horror manga and influenced manga artists of following generations. He created successful manga series such as The Drifting Classroom, Makoto-chan and My Name Is Shingo, until he retired from drawing manga in the mid 1990s. He is also a public figure in Japan, known for wearing red-and-white-striped shirts and doing his signature "Gwash" hand gesture.
Movie Credits
Gu Gu, the Cat
2008-09-06
Asako, a comic book artist in her early forties, is devastated by the death of her precious cat, Sab
Kaidan. Strange Stories of Japanese Ghosts
2023-10-12
An exploration of the spirit world as portrayed in the height of the J-horror era of the late ‘90s.
Gozamareji
2003-04-26
Monster Heaven: Ghost Hero
1990-07-28
A major electronics company on the verge of developing technology to create a 3D image that can be p
Monster Heaven
1986-09-21
An anthology of strange horror tales featuring yokai. It begins with astronauts finding a katana on
Yaji & Kita: The Midnight Pilgrims
2005-04-02
Yaji and Kita are two men who live in Edo. They are deeply in love. Yaji is married to a woman, whil
Kazuo Umezu's Terror Zone: Horror!
1993-01-01
Makoto-chan
1980-07-26
A series of interconnected vignettes regarding Makoto Sawada, an energetic yet socially inept kinder
Hoodlum Soldier
1965-03-18
A young intellectual conscientious objector is forced to serve with the Japanese army in Manchuria.
God's Left Hand, Devil's Right Hand
2006-06-22
What's scary is being a human being, and what's scary is being myself. Truly horrifying things resid
Why Horror?
2014-10-03
Horror fan Tal Zimerman examines the psychology of horror around the world to find out why people lo
Tokyo Zombie
2005-12-10
Two Japanese friends accidentally kill their boss and dump his remains in Black Fuji, a mountain/lan
The Snake Girl and the Silver-Haired Witch
1968-12-14
Up until this point, young Sayuri Nanjo has had to live most of her life in a nun-run boarding schoo
The Drifting Classroom
1987-07-11
An entire Japanese international grade school—and all within—are mysteriously transported to a foreb