KAMIJIMA, Japan >> Murals of popular manga on vacant houses and public facilities have turned a remote island with a population of 11 in the Seto Inland Sea into a new tourist destination as a manga island. The works depicted include “Dr. Coto’s Clinic,” “Great Teacher Onizuka” and “Candy.” With a manga school scheduled to open next spring, the mural project is revitalizing the depopulated island.

To reach Takaikami Island, visitors take the Setouchi Shimanami Kaido expressway — which connects Onomichi, Hiroshima prefecture, with Imabari, Ehime prefecture — to Innoshima Island and transfer to a ferry for a 50-minute ride. Upon arrival to the small island, which has a circumference of about 3-1/3 miles, passengers will see a row of colorful character murals.

Osamu Hasebe, 76, who runs a medical company in Yamanashi prefecture, launched the manga revitalization project. He first visited the island in 2007 at the invitation of his business partner Sadamu Kimura, 74, who is the head of the island’s community association.

Beautiful islands

Hasebe was fascinated by the beauty of Takaikami Island and its many surrounding islands in the gentle Seto Inland Sea. He began visiting every month.

The island’s population had been gradually declining from a peak of about 190 in 1970. In 2007, that number dropped to only about 50. Vacant houses were scattered here and there, and houses damaged by typhoons had been left abandoned. The following year, there were no children left on the island and the population continued to decline.

After hearing Kimura’s worries that the island would eventually be uninhabited, Hasebe began to act. He turned his focus to manga, popular across generations, and planned to create a manga mural at his own expense.

In 2016, Hasebe asked Takatoshi Yamada, a friend and the creator of “Dr. Coto’s Clinic,” to help with his plan. Yamada readily agreed.

“It fit the image of my manga,” Yamada said. The work involves a medical practice set on a remote island, and he created an original painting based on the manga.

The painting was made into a 65-by-32 1/2-foot mural by a signboard company. It’s canvas: the community center.

More and more murals

Since then, three to five new manga murals have been added to Takaikami Island every year. With Yamada’s help, original paintings were provided cost-free by Nobuyuki Fukumoto, creator of “Gambling Apocalypse: Kaiji,” and Hiromi Morishita, creator of “Shonen Ashibe” (Young boy Ashibe). Much of the artwork was created specifically for the island.

Over the past five years, Takaikami Island has gradually become well known via social media. The island now attracts more tourists — not just day-trippers, but also those who stay overnight at a guesthouse on the island.

This year, four new murals are planned for Takaikami Island. In September, work began on a mural based on “Abare Hanagumi,” which was serialized in the Monthly Shonen Jump manga magazine. Artist Yuichi Oshiyama visited the island to see the work.

“Once murals of a manga are on the island, the work will be known by young people. It is a great honor for a manga artist,” Oshiyama said.

New residents

In April, Masafumi Baba, 49, moved to the island from Aichi prefecture with his wife and two daughters, who are in elementary and junior high school. The family increased the island’s population from seven to 11. Baba visited the island after learning about it online and fell in love with it.

He was slated to open the island’s only restaurant, Manga-tei, in October.

“The power of manga is dawning on the island. I think it will attract more new residents, thanks in part to the murals,” said Baba. “There are many inconveniences, but it is rather interesting to start from nothing.”

Before the Baba family moved to Takaikami Island, all the residents were over 70 years old. “The island is becoming more and more colorful, and home to more and more people,” said Kimura with a laugh. “It’s just like a success story in a manga.”

Manga school

In April, Hasebe and his team will open a manga school in an abandoned school leased from the town. They plan to ask the manga artists who helped with the mural project to be instructors.

“I dream of producing a manga artist who will graduate from the school and draw a mural in the future,” Hasebe said. “I seriously want to show that even a ‘marginal island’ can revive itself. I want to use manga, which is part of Japanese culture, to also attract foreign tourists to the island.”