Hibari Shobô can be considered as one of the first and the greatest japanese horror manga publishing company during the first half of postwar Shôwa era (1926~1989). The company stand out with its gruesome cover illustrations and dreadful stories written and drawn by incredible authors who are now mostly appraised as horror manga masters.

But Hibari Shobô didn't publish horror manga before 1958 with their Kaidan and All Kaidan kashihon manga collection (under Tsubame Shuppan's name for the former). It was first well known for their akahon manga and jidaigeki stories until the end of the 1950s. Let's try to make some sense with the few informations I succeed to retrieve.

Here some horrifying Hibaro Shobô manga covers.

This series of articles will be divided into 4 parts, for now.
1. The akahon manga era: Hibari no Manga (1947~1954)
2. The jidaigeki kashihon manga era: Hibari no Manga Zenshû & Chôhen Katsugeki Manga Bunko (1954~1959)
3. The horror kashihon manga era: Kaidan & All Kaidan (1958~1968)
4. The tankôbon individual volume era (197X~)

The akahon manga era: Hibari no Manga (1947~1954)

Hibari Shobô was founded by Yûji Andô in August 1947.¹ Little is known about Andô and his intentions nowadays. Well, wa can guess he wanted to make children happy by releasing a lot of manga! And he had such a smile!

Yûji Andô (1919/06/16~2011/03/21)

There was two types of books released by Hibari Shobô at the time : (B6 akahon) manga and illustrated books. The National Diet Library let us find two mangas published in 1947 : Fushigi na Bôken, by Yasuo Hara, and Shirayuki-hime (Swow White) by Shôsuke Kurakane. Others are illustrated books, one is about Gulliver's Travels. There was probably more at the time, so let's not consider them as the "first Hibari Shobô's manga" even if it feels that way.

After a few month, in 1948, the publisher released (B6 akahon) manga under the label Hibari no Manga (ひばりのまんが).
They also released illustrated books under the label Hibari no ehon. I'm doing my best to separate them from the manga ones, but it is difficult without images. Still, let's keep in mind that illustrated books were also a huge part of their business.

It took me a while, but you can see a list of manga from that label Hibari no Manga in the list section. There is no numbering like the future Hibari no Manga Zenshû label, but I found 48 of them, which is quite great! I put them in order when I found the release date.
I added a link to let you read more informations and/or the manga itself when they make it available.
Most of those worldwide readable ones were written by Jirô Ôta. It is only an assumption, but the fact that we can find a lot of Jirô Ôta's manga/illustrated books nowadays make us understand that he was a well respected and profitable artist at the time. I recently had the pleasure to go to 2 exhibitions about his works in Tokyo. I'm still surprised at how cute and enjoyable his characters are. I posted some informations about Jirô Ôta a while ago on Mastodon and I will repost them on this website with more details later. :)

Kuntarô Chinyûki, Jirô Ôta, Hibari Shobô, label Hibari no Manga, Oct. 1st, 1948. Here a link to read it.

This is quite interesting to find a jidaigeki manga in 1948, because the genre was forbidden during the US occupation until 1952. More than that, there is a second story released in january 1949! But we can not read it online. ^^"
His Sorori Shinzaemon released in may 1949 is also a jidaigeki manga and is available on the NDL website. You can read it here!

Fushigi na Tama, Kunio Saitô, Hibari Shobô, label Hibari no Manga, Sept. 10, 1949.

Considering the fact that there is almost no informations about the first years of Hibari Shobô in books and internet, I wrote way more than expected. To avoid any confusion with the next two labels and explanations, I decided to cut in two the first part I had in mind, which will make it a 4 parts article about the history of the publisher.
The second part is almost done, but I still need to transcribe japanese title into readable rômaji. :)

End of the first part. Modifications are expected.

---

List

Hibari no Manga
ひばりのまんが

1947.09.15 | Yasuo Hara ------| Fushigi na Bôken (ふしぎな冒険)
1947.10.25 | Shôsuke Kurakane | Shirayuki-hime (白雪姫)
1948.01.20 | Yasuo Hara ------| Moshi Moshi Kame-san (もしもしかめさん)
1948.02.05 | Masao Shimada ---| Shin-chan no Tanken-ki (しんちゃんの探険記)
1948.02.20 | Shinjin Kazama --| Marathon Kyôsô (マラソン競争)
1948.03.25 | Shinjin Kazama --| Hikyô Tanken (秘境探検)
1948.05.01 | Jirô Ôta --------| Mahô Tarô no Bôken (魔法太郎の冒険), available online.
1948.05.25 | Tamotsu Maki ----| Ôgon-tô no Himitsu (黄金塔の秘密)
1948.06.20 | Shinjin Kazama --| Manga Nikki (まんが日記)
1948.09.05 | Shinjin Kazama --| Shinbun Kisha (新聞記者)
1948.10.01 | Jirô Ôta --------| Kuntarô Chinyûki (君太郎道中記), available online.
1948.11.10 | Yôichi Nakamura -| Mitsurin Tengoku (密林天国)
1948.12.05 | Kikuo Nakashima -| Yukai na Nakama 1 (ゆかいななかま①)
1948 ------| Kazuo Nozawa ----| Kaiwan Toshu (怪腕投手)
1949.01.01 | Tetsuji Takano --| Oshi no Ôji (唖の王子)
1949.01.05 | Jirô Ôta --------| Pinocchio (ピノチオ), available online.
1949.01.15 | Jirô Ôta --------| Zoku Kuntarô Chinyûki - Sokonuke Dôchû no Maki (続君太郎道中記・底抜け道中の巻)
1949.01.15 | Kôtarô Ôki ----- | Nazo no Kaima-tô Tanken (謎の怪魔島探険)
1949.01.15 | Hideo Tomi ------| Biyadaru Tantei (びやだる探偵)
1949.03.01 | Kikuo Nakashima -| Yukai na Nakama 2 (ゆかいななかま②)
1949.04.15 | Masao Shimada ---| Mahô no Mori Tantei (魔法の森探険)
1949.05.01 | Eiichi Miyasaka -| Dangan Jeep (弾丸ジープ)
1949.05.20 | Jirô Ôta --------| Sorori Shinzaemon (曽呂利新左衛門), available online.
1949.06.15 | Kunio Saitô -----| Dangoyama Homare no Dohyô-iri (団子山誉れの土俵入)
1949.07.10 | Keisuke Izumi ---| Grimm Manyûki (グリム珍遊記)
1949.07.15 | Hideo Tomi ------| Hananaga Jim (鼻長ジム)
1949.09.10 | Kunio Saitô -----| Fushigi na Tama (ふしぎな玉)
1949.09.10 | Tetsuji Takano --| Kin no Kaminoke (金のかみの毛)
1949.09.25 | Haruo Takahashi -| Hokkyoku Tanken (北極探検)
1949.10.01 | Masao Shimada ---| Kojiki Ôji (乞食王子)
1949.11.01 | Kunio Saitô -----| Ningyô to Hop Ojisan (人形とホップおじさん)
1949.12.10 | Susumu Katabira -| Harikiri Hacchan (はりきりはっちゃん)
1949 ------| Eiichi Miyasaka -| Speed-oh (スピード王)
1949 ------| Hideo Tomi ------| John to Mari no Bôken (ジョンとマリーの冒険)
1950.10.05 | Jirô Ôta --------| Shônen Dageki-oh (少年打撃王), available online.
1950 ------| Tetsuji Takano --| Tom Sawyer no Bôken (トムソーヤの冒険)
1950 ------| Haruo Takahashi -| Alibaba no Bôken (アリババの冒険)
1951.04.25 | Komichi Negishi -| Shirayuki-hime (白雪姫), with Hitomi Kawasaki.
1951 ------| Akira Okada -----| Jungle Boy (ジャングル・ボーイ)
1951 ------| Haruo Takahashi -| Tonma-chan no Hogaraki Nikki (とんまちゃんのほがらか日記)
1951 ------| Kunio Saitô -----| Nakayoshi Kyôdai (仲良しきょうだい)
1951 ------| Jirô Ôta --------| Pinocchio (ピノチオ), with Susumu Katabira.
1951 ------| Tetsuji Takano --| Santa no Katsuyaku (三太の活躍)
1951 ------| Tetsuji Takano --| Hokuro no Ôji (ほくろの王子)
1953 ------| Moyuru Shikano --| Horafuki-kun (ほらふきクン)
1953 ------| Akira Okada -----| Ekibasha (The Carriage of Texas) (駅馬車)
-----------| Tetsuji Takano --| Yadonashi Huck (宿なしハック)
-----------| Haruo Takahashi -| Soratobu Ôji (空飛ぶ王子)

---

References
1. https://www.mandarake.co.jp/publish/trash/005/
2. http://blog.livedoor.jp/yamadi99/archives/40221548.html
3. https://www.library.pref.hokkaido.jp/web/reference/qulnh000000006rv-att/vmlvna0000006ats.pdf
4. https://www.ndl.go.jp/jp/library/supportvisual/docs/soshin_202208_t_000028.xlsx

Last Update: Oct. 15, 2023. 11:36.