Nekojiru

Chiyomi Hashiguchi (橋口 千代美), known by the pen name Nekojiru (ねこぢる), was a Japanese manga artist.

In 1990, she debuted the June issue of the monthly manga anthology Garo with Nekojiru Udon, which is now considered her definitive work.

Early life
Hashiguchi was born on January 19, 1967, to a wealthy family in Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture. Her first spoken word was "idiot". Her schooling is unknown but editor Yoshiaki Yoshinaga states Hashiguchi attended a beauty school near her hometown. As a student she religiously followed new wave musicians such as EP-4 and TACO.

At 18, she would marry alternative manga artist Hajime Yamano, assisting his work by shading in scenes. At that time, she had no interest in becoming a mangaka.

Career
While absentmindedly sketching "an odd octopus-like cat" Yamano took interest in Nekojiru's drawings, stating "it had a raw childlike appearance that wasn't filtered through adult eyes - it was cute, repulsive, and cruel-looking all at the same time." Using the sketch as a motif Yamano wrote a script and Nekojiru illustrated what would become Nekojiru Udon. She was completely self-taught, having received no formal lessons from her husband. The work was brought to Garo and was well-received by editor Maki Takaichi.

Her work would experience a surge in popularity through the subversive manga trend during the mid to late 1990's. The pop aesthetics and surreal presentation of her work began to appeal to the general public, teens in particular. The couple took any solicitations for work they could get, resulting in an incredibly arduous workload for both of them.

In April and May 1998, Nekojiru spoke with several editors complaining about the workload and artistic limitations imposed by the new influx of work. In a call with a Hakusensha editor she stated: "I'm tired of drawing manga. I want to quit and move to a developing country with my husband."

Works
With the exception of Tsunami, all Nekojiru's work has main characters drawn as cats. Even in her manga essays, Jirujiru Travel Journal and Jirujiru Diary, she drew herself as a cat. But though the characters appear as animals, the artist chose as her setting not a forest, but rather the human world. Her manga detailing the daily life and adventures of the cats Nyāko and Nyatta are held in high esteem. The major themes of her work are a childlike zaniness, cruelty and nostalgia. And, as is shown in Dream Memo, included in the posthumously released compilation Nekojiru Udon 3, many of her bizarre works of fantasy were based on her own dream experiences. Psychedelic drugs like magic mushrooms and LSD also often appear in her works.

Yamano Hajime, using the pen-name Nekojiru-y, took over Nekojiru's world, and continues to produce new works. On his official site, one could read a free chapter of Nekojiru's manga. At the end of November 2020, it was announced the site would be closed for a long time, and remains down as of July 2023.

There have been two animated adaptations of Nekojiru's manga, both of them focusing on the family of Nyāko, Nyatta and their parents. The first of these was Nekojiru Gekijō (ねこぢる劇場), a 27 × 2 minute series which aired on Japanese TV in 1999 as one segment of Asahi Television's Bakushō-Mondai no Boss-Kyara-Ō (爆笑問題のボスキャラ王), led by comedy duo Bakushō Mondai. The second, and more famous, at least among English speakers, is the 2001 OVA Nekojiru Sō (ねこぢる草), released in English as Cat Soup.

List of works

 * Nekojiru Udon (ねこぢるうどん)
 * Nekogamisama (ねこ神さま)
 * Nekojiru Manjū (ねこぢるまんじゅう)
 * Nekojiru Dango (ねこぢるだんご)
 * Nekojiru Shokudo (ねこぢる食堂)
 * Nekojiru Senbei (ねこぢるせんべい)
 * Jirujiru Ryokōki (ぢるぢる旅行記)
 * Jirujiru Nikki (ぢるぢる日記)

Nekojiru also worked as an illustrator and character designer on other projects.

Death
Hashiguchi died by suicide on May 10, 1998. Her suicide note included: "Forget I even lived"; "I don't need a grave"; and "Don't talk about why I died". Yamano declined to provide details about motives but denied media allegations that it was a copycat suicide after musician hide's death. Contrary to her wishes, her family did bury her in a cemetery.

Shortly before her suicide, Nyāko and Nyatta, the two main characters of Nekojiru Udon, were selected to be used by Tokyo Electric in promotional campaigns. The death of their creator cancelled that.

In popular culture
The Gothball episode "Japan" is an homage to Nekojiru's work. Pieces of paper (LSD) with Nekojiru cat faces are seen in the episode "Goth's Trip".