is a Japanese

Japanese people

The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...

 manga artist

Mangaka

is the Japanese word for a comic artist or cartoonist. Outside of Japan, manga usually refers to a Japanese comic book and mangaka refers to the author of the manga, who is usually Japanese...

. She made her professional debut in 1957 with . She received the 1989 Shogakukan Manga Award

Shogakukan Manga Award

The is one of Japan's major manga awards, sponsored by Shogakukan Publishing. It has been awarded annually for serialized manga since 1955 and features candidates from a number of publishers.The current award categories are:...

 for General for Genji Monogatari

Genji Monogatari (manga)

is a Japanese manga version of Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji by Maki Miyako. In 1989, it received the 34th Shogakukan Manga Award for general manga.-See also:*List of characters from The Tale of Genji...

, a Japanese manga version of Murasaki Shikibu

Murasaki Shikibu

Murasaki Shikibu was a Japanese novelist, poet and lady-in-waiting at the Imperial court during the Heian period. She is best known as the author of The Tale of Genji, written in Japanese between about 1000 and 1012...

's The Tale of Genji

The Tale of Genji

is a classic work of Japanese literature attributed to the Japanese noblewoman Murasaki Shikibu in the early 11th century, around the peak of the Heian period. It is sometimes called the world's first novel, the first modern novel, the first psychological novel or the first novel still to be...

. She is the creator of Licca-chan

Licca-chan

, full name , is a very popular dress-up doll series introduced in Japan on 1967-07-04 by Takara, enjoying the same kind of popularity in Japan as the Barbie series does in the United States. The Licca-chan dolls tend toward a more Japanese body as far as height and features. Takara had sold over...

, a popular Japanese doll. Her husband is well-known manga artist Reiji Matsumoto. After marrying Matsumoto she ended her career and started to live as a traditional Japanese housewife.