Taro Minamoto (1947–2021) was a Japanese manga artist and manga historian from Kyoto Prefecture. He made his professional debut in 1967 with “Aniki Kanpai” and pursued research and criticism on manga history and visual expression alongside his work as a cartoonist. His representative work, “Fūunji-tachi,” begins with the Battle of Sekigahara in order to explain the long chain of events leading to the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate. Covering the formation of the shogunate, the politics and finances of regional domains, the development of Dutch learning, and the arrival of foreign ships, it gives substantial attention to figures often treated as minor characters in conventional historical accounts. Minamoto used comedy and deliberately modern language to make complicated institutions, political conflicts, and intellectual debates accessible. In 2004, the series received the Special Award at the eighth Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize for opening new possibilities in historical manga and contributing to manga culture.
