Jiro Taniguchi, "a legend in Japan's comic art of manga" whose legacy is "an international following for his exquisite line drawing of scenes from everyday life," died February 11, AFP reported. He was 69. Announcing his death on its website, Taniguchi's French publisher Casterman praised the artist's character, describing him as an "extraordinarily kind and gentle person. The humanism that imbued all his work is familiar to his readers, but the man himself was much less well-known, naturally reserved in character and more inclined to let his work speak on his behalf."
AFP noted that Taniguchi "first shot to fame in Japan at the end of the 1980s with the first volume of The Times of Botchan, which centers around Natsume Soseki, one of Japan's greatest writers. Just over a decade later, he hit the international manga scene with A Distant Neighbourhood, about a Japanese salaryman who travels back to his childhood--widely seen to this day as his masterpiece."
"He was seen by French readers, illustrators and publishers as a god, while he presented himself as a regular guy," fellow manga artist Tori Miki said on Twitter. In 2011, the French government awarded Taniguchi the Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters.