Takemaru Nagata

Takemaru Nagata was a frequent visitor to Tokiwa Manor. There's very little info on him in English, and most of what I have is from the Japanese wiki. From the bio in the "Playback" book, he was born in 1934 in Tokyo, real name Miyomaru Nagata. He debuted in Manga Shonen in 1951. In 1960, the first volume of "Bikkuri-kun" was published. While he also wrote "Otto! Yome-chan!", most of his later credits were as a chief assistant to the Fujio Fujiko duo starting in 1970 (about the time at which the "Tokiwa-Sou Monogatari" stories ran originally in COM).

His 16-page chapter starts with his exiting Iidabashi station (in central Tokyo, between Shinjuku and Tokyo station) and running into the Yamane twins - Akaoni (1935-2003) and Aooni (1935-) (Red Demon and Blue Demon, real names Takashi and Tadashi Yamane. There's a long list of works on the Ohio State website, but little real info in English). He continues on to a small publisher set up in a former school building, Gakudousha (publisher of Manga Shonen), where one of the editors is piling up stacks of magazines along one wall to the ceiling. The editor offers Nagata "cut work", which is a part-time clean up job for other people's manga. The next day, when he returns with the finished clean-up, the editor introduces him to Hirou Terada. Since Nagata lives with his mother about 10 minutes from Tokiwa Manor, he starts visiting regularly. Other artists working for Gakudousha include one half of Fujiko Fujio (FFF). At a request from the editor, the artists join together to form a manga group aiming to take manga to all-new directions. Unfortunately, they're so successful that most of the Tokiwa gang get licensed to appear in other magazines and Nagata has to go to the manor to pass on the bad news that Manga Shonen was ending because of the stiff competition.

Tokiwa Story