Yamano Hajime

Yamano Hajime (山野一) is the psydonym of Yasuo Hashiguchi (橋口 保夫).
He was born April 2nd 1961 in Kokura, Fukuoka prefecture. He graduated from the department of literature at Rikkyo University.
He's a manga artist and was the husband of Chiyomi Hashiguchi. He assisted with the production of Nekojiru though was established as an artist before Nekojiru's creation and continues to maintain his own individual career today.

Manga overview
The manga Yamano produced around his debut was focused on themes of impoverishment, human suffering and human cruelties like prejudice and hatred.
These themes are most fleshed out in his best known work "Sunset on 4th street" (四丁目の夕日), a manga depicting the lives and living conditions of factory workers.
After Sunset on 4th street's completion he shifted to creating erotic manga that featured many of his signature dark themes like protagonists who lived in states of abject poverty.

In 1990 he began assisting Chiyomi with the production of Nekojiru as a co-artist and co-writer. After Chiyomi's death in 1998 he inherited the series fully and releases new Nekojiru works under the psydonym 'Nekojiru y'.

In 2006 he remarried and became a father to twin daughters in 2008. This inspired the new direction for his personal manga career with the release of volume 1 of "Soseji" (そせじ) in 2014, a child-rearing manga about raising his daughters.
During this period he has also been sparsely active as Nekojiru y, in 2013 he released "Haunted apartment part 1" (おばけアパート前編) though it's unclear if he has plans to resume with part 2.

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