Watanabe, Sato

Taeko Watanabe debuted as a manga artist in 1979 with her story Waka-chan no Netsuai Jidai (Love Struck Days of Waka). Kaze Hikaru is her longest-running series, but she has created a number of other popular series. Watanabe is a two-time winner of the prestigious Shogakukan Manga Award in the girls category--her manga Hajime-chan go Ichiban! (Hajime-chan is Number One!) claimed the award in 1991 and Kaze Hikaru took it in 2003. Watanabe read hundreds of historical sources to create Kaze Hikaru. She is from Tokyo.