Satonaka-sensei comes from the Golden Age of manga, and at a time where it was still largely a field dominated by boy action-oriented storylines. Sure, there was Osamu Tezuka around, but, during Satonaka's heyday, the idea of featuring empowering stories about young ladies and women was quite controversial.

Satonaka was one of the youngest mangaka of her day. Her first series, Piano Shouzou, won the first Kodansha New Cartoonist Award in 1964 at the age of 16. After completing several serializations, she ended her career in 1982. In 2006, she was awarded the Japan Ministry of Culture and Science Lifetime Works and Cultural Activities award. More recently, Satonaka has fought to create a National Media Arts Center for the preservation of manga and anime. She has also rallied against Tokyo's controversial 'Nonexistent Youth' bill which has severely hampered creativity in manga. Like many other mangaka and anime artists, she too has been heavily involved in the Japan Earthquake & Tsunami relief charities. I was able to find a picture of Satonaka with a sketch that went for 152,000 yen O_o


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