Sazaesan is a household name in Japan and while its anime version is the longest-running anime that focuses on the everyday of an intergenerational Japanese family, its original manga series (1946-1976) used a four-panel format to deal with ordinary life that included social issues of the time. 

*Based on memory

Machiko Hasegawa is the creator of Sazaesan and her original drawings and writing, crude but of its own charm, were used to recreate the real world around her.

The manga revolves around all three generations of the Isono family but Sazae san is its main character. She is full of mischief and always getting into some trouble. She is an “ordinary housewife” who also subverts gender and social roles and simultaneously attempts and fails at “ladylike” behavior.

The left is of the original manga as published in Asahi Shimbun and in comic books. The right is of recent publishings of the manga strip. The publisher took liberties in the translation and the writing but it’s still a wonderful comic strip.

How did we come to know about Sazae san? Back in the days of video rentals, we found the whole collection of Sazae san comic books (used) at a Japanese video rental shop. We snatched them up and re-read each book 50 times or more. Unfortunately, they disappeared from the shelf one day but my sister and I really loved them while they were around. Neither of us were Japanese-speaking but each strip’s kanji characters were accompanied with hiragana (simple Japanese alphabet) and the illustrations alone were enough to understand the story and punchline.