Kiyohiko Azuma

Kiyohiko Azuma (あずまきよひこ, Azuma Kiyohiko, born May 27, 1968) is a Japanese manga artist. From 1999 to 2002, he authored the yonkoma comedy manga series Azumanga Daioh, which was later adapted as an anime series by J.C.Staff. In 2003, he began Yotsuba&!, a slice-of-life manga series about the adventures of a five-year-old girl; it is serialized in the monthly magazine Dengeki Daioh.

Azuma entered the Department of Visual Information Design in the Faculty of Art and Design at Kobe Design University. About a year after entering the university, he began doujin activities in a private magazine called "A-Zone," drawing fan-made parody manga of Sailor Moon and other characters. Upon graduating from college, he received a Bachelor of Arts (Art and Engineering) degree.

Azuma became famous for Azumanga Daioh, which was serialized in the monthly comic Dengeki Daioh starting in 1999. However, he felt that he did not want to “limit himself to a niche topic” and decided to choose a topic in which he had little experience, and began serializing Yotsuba&! since 2003. In 2006, Azumanga Daioh and Yotsuba&! were both selected as one of Japan's Top 100 Media Arts in the manga category.

In May 2000, he established Yotsuba Studio in Nerima-ku, Tokyo, with Hideki Satomi.

Although he does not disclose much about his private life, in a blog post written in 2011, he has stated that he feels hesitant when buying children’s furniture to use as reference for his manga because he has no children.

• Kiyohiko Azuma's Yotsuba website (in Japanese)
• Kiyohiko Azuma at Anime News Network's encyclopedia