Abstract

This is the definitive, complete text edition of the popular NHK E-Tele series "The Last Lecture," featuring previously unreleased material that wasn't included in the broadcast.
Yamazaki Mari was a young girl who loved insects and drawing. At just 14 years old, she traveled to Europe on behalf of her viola-player mother, later dropping out of high school to study art in Florence. While aspiring to become a painter, she moved in with a poet at age 17. At 27, an unexpected pregnancy brought her back to Japan. She scraped by doing jobs like hot-spring TV reporting, and it wasn't until the age of 41 that she could finally make a living as a manga artist—a career path she had taken as a sharp pivot.
While living in Italy, she had spent her days in apartments without bathtubs. Yet, a sudden flash of inspiration one day led to "Thermae Romae," catapulting her into stardom as a popular manga artist.
Her life was filled with extreme poverty and the harsh reality of not being able to survive as a Western-style painter. Even after turning to manga to make ends meet, success didn't come easily, forcing her to juggle up to ten different jobs at once.
How do you chase your dreams while coming to terms with reality amidst such a chaotic life? This complete edition is packed with invaluable life wisdom: the importance of not hyper-focusing on just one thing, and how the dots of life eventually connect, even when they seem like pure coincidence.

Author’s Information

Manga Artist, Writer, and Painter. Special Invited Professor in the Department of International Studies, Faculty of International Studies at Japan Women's University, and Visiting Professor at Tokyo Zokei University.

In 1984, she moved to Italy, where she majored in Art History and Oil Painting at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze. Following her marriage to an Italian scholar of comparative literature, she lived in various countries, including Egypt, Syria, Portugal, and the United States.

In 2010, she won the Manga Taisho (Cartoon Grand Prize) and the Short Work Prize at the 14th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize for her smash-hit series "Thermae Romae." Her other prominent accolades include the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s Art Encouragement Prize for New Artists in 2015, and the Order of the Star of Italy (Commendatore) in 2017. In 2024, her work "Pliny" (Plinius, co-authored with Tori Miki) won the prestigious Manga Taisho at the 28th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize.

Her published books include “Viola Kaasan” (Mother Viola), “Musuko Monogatari” (The Story of My Son), “Aruki nagara Kangaeru” (Thinking While Walking), “Tobira no Mukouganga” (The Other Side of the Door), and “Binbo Pizza” (Poor Man's Pizza). She is currently serializing "Thermae Romae Redux" (Zoku Thermae Romae) on Shueisha's "Shonen Jump+" platform.