was an apartment where Osamu Tezuka

Osamu Tezuka

was a Japanese cartoonist, manga artist, animator, producer, activist and medical doctor, although he never practiced medicine. Born in Osaka Prefecture, he is best known as the creator of Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion and Black Jack...

 and many young manga artists

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...

 once lived before they became famous. Tokiwa-sō was a small, inexpensive apartment in Toshima

Toshima

-Place name:These places in Japan have the name "Toshima," written variously:* Toshima, Tokyo : one of the 23 special wards of Tokyo; population about 250,000...

-ku, Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

. Residents included Shotaro Ishinomori

Shotaro Ishinomori

was a Japanese manga artist who became an influential figure in manga, anime, and tokusatsu, creating several immensely popular long-running series such as Cyborg 009 and Himitsu Sentai Goranger, what would go on to become part of the Super Sentai series, and the Kamen Rider Series...

, Fujio Akatsuka

Fujio Akatsuka

was a pioneer Japanese artist of comical manga known as the Gag Manga King. His name at birth is 赤塚 藤雄, whose Japanese pronunciation is the same as 赤塚 不二夫....

, Fujiko Fujio

Fujiko Fujio

was a nom de plume of a manga writing duo formed by two Japanese manga artists. Their real names are and . They formed their partnership in 1951, and used the Fujiko Fujio name from 1954 until dissolution of the partnership in 1987....

, Yoshiharu Tsuge

Yoshiharu Tsuge

is a Japanese manga artist and essayist. He was active in comics between 1954 and 1987. The content of his works range from tales of ordinary life to dream-like surrealism, and often show his interest in traveling about Japan...

. It existed as a sort of atelier from 1952 to 1982.

The business of manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

 production today in Japan has a prototype in the collaborative activities pioneered at Tokiwa-sō. According to Tam Bing Man (one of the duo of actor), who was an assistant of Osamu Tezuka in earliest days, Osamu Tezuka first introduced this production system employing many assistants to make manga, in order to meet the deadlines of publishing in weekly manga magazines. This model of several assistants helping a main artist is still used today, providing young manga artists with training.