Yu Takita (1931–1990) was a Japanese manga artist and essayist whose real name was Yusaku Takita. Raised in Terajimacho, Tokyo, he apprenticed under manga artist Suiho Tagawa and worked in the rental-manga market before gaining wider recognition through the alternative manga magazine Garo. His autobiographical manga “Terajimacho Kitan” depicts the backstreets and residents of Tamanoi, a red-light district in prewar Tokyo, through the memories of a young boy. He received the Bungeishunju Manga Award for works including “Enkabashi Hyakkei” and the Grand Prize of the Japan Cartoonists Association Award for “Uramachi Serenade.”