One of Japan’s true giants of manga, Shigeru Mizuki, died today aged 93, following a fall in his house on 11 November.

Shigeru Mizuki is most famous for his Japanese horror manga GeGeGe no Kitarō (first published in 1960), which has been adapted as an anime many times since. The series was about a young boy fighting monsters, called yōkai, based on Japanese folklore.  That boy, Kitarō, was missing a left eye; Mizuki may have been keen on highlighting a disabled hero as he himself lost his left arm while fighting in New Guinea during World War II.

Born in 1922, Mr Mizuki was greatly affected by his war experiences and went on to write many award winning mangas with war themes, including wotk that covered US wartime bombing, the abuse he suffered under commanders and a biography of Adolf Hitler.

A household name in Japan Mr Mizuki has a street dedicated to the ghosts and monsters that appear in his stories in the town of his birth, Sakaiminato – one hundred bronze statues of his characters line both sides of the road.