Posted in: Comics | Tagged: dementia, Ebisu Yoshikazu, lakes, wales
Welsh/Japanese Dementia Comic Has Ebisu Yoshikazu’s Final Painting
This Welsh/Japanese dementia comic features Ebisu Yoshikazu’s final painting on the cover and premieres at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival in Kendal this weekend.
My mother suffers from severe dementia and is cared for by my dad, who also pays for twice-daily carers at a vast expense to help him with her. I visit every other Wednesday to sit with her and try to talk with her while he gets out of the house for a few hours to go to a local talking group. This is his life, I am glad to give him some reprieve. Every family seems to have such a story these days, in one way or another. And now there’s a comic book. Welsh arts-in-health charity Re-Live has announced Here and Now, a trilingual life-story comic co-created with people living with dementia and their families in Wales and Japan. The flip-book features the final painting by alternative manga legend Ebisu Yoshikazu, himself living with dementia, and is available to pre-order now through UK and European comic shops. The comic premieres at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival in Kendal this weekend and goes on sale on the 11th of November 2026in three editions: English, Welsh (Yma Nawr), and Japanese (今、ここに立つ). And it comes at a time when the current British Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, is making social care in the UK his lead priority ahead of the next election, announcing a National Care Service.
Here and Now is Re-Live’s third life-story comic, following two issues of Coming Home that shared the mental health experiences of military veterans. It is the charity’s first international collaboration, made with Tenjin-kai, a dementia care organisation in Ofunato, northern Japan, as part of the Wales–Japan 2025 Culture Programme. Designed as a flip-book with two covers, one side reads left to right in the Western style while the other reads right to left in the manga tradition. The four true stories, two from Wales and two from Japan, sit side by side, inviting readers to learn from each other’s experiences of dementia and approaches to care.
The Japanese-facing cover carries the final painting by Ebisu Yoshikazu, one of the originators of Japan’s heta-uma (“bad but good”) movement, a long-time contributor to the legendary manga anthology Garo, and a familiar face on Japanese television. Now in his eighties and living with dementia, Ebisu licensed the painting, titled Relieved (ほっとした), for the project. Welsh illustrator Jonathan Edwards has painted two of the comic’s real storytellers, Mr and Mrs Sato, standing before it in a gallery.
“Within these pages are stories shared by people living with dementia, and by family members, in both Wales and Japan,” says Karin Diamond, Artistic Director of Re-Live. “We are deeply thankful for the courage and openness it has taken each storyteller to share their experiences with us. We have seen how creativity can help people reconnect with parts of themselves and with one another.” “We realised that the humour, humanity, and surprising moments we encounter every day in our lives alongside people with dementia might be expressed and shared through comics,” adds Dr Yukimi Uchide, Chair of the Tenjin-kai Social Welfare Foundation.
Here and Now
Here and Now
Here and Now
Here and Now
- Patrick, a former rugby player living with vascular dementia, on his diagnosis and what keeps him going – family, friends, a Sunday roast and a turn on the dance floor. Drawn by Matt Beese.
- Carri, on caring for her mother Mavis – the isolation and loneliness that family carers rarely speak about, and the love running underneath it all. Drawn by Archie McKenzie.
- Ritsuko Sato, from Ofunato, on life alongside her husband as his dementia progressed, and one extraordinary day when his carers took him back to his home and his old school. Drawn by Tokyo mangaka Kawakatsu Tokushige.
- Dr Yukimi Uchide, one of Japan’s leading dementia specialists, on what her own mother Fumiko-san taught her about dementia – insights that a lifetime of professional expertise had not given her. Drawn by Yuki Monou.
The collaboration stretches back fifteen years. Karin Diamond first travelled to Ofunato in 2011 on a Churchill Fellowship to study with Dr Uchide, whose relationship-centred approach to care went on to shape Re-Live’s theatre work with people living with dementia and its training for more than 5,000 care workers across Wales and beyond. “What I really love about Tenjin-kai’s philosophy of care is the belief that people living with dementia still have a part to play in their own lives and in the lives of those around them – cooking, cleaning, gardening, caring for each other, and contributing to the everyday life of the community,” Karin Diamond says. “As Dr Uchide taught me, connections with people living with dementia are found in the ordinary, seemingly insignificant moments of daily life. There is so much we can learn from that in Wales.” “I hope that, by reading this comic, more people will deepen their understanding of those living with dementia and grow kinder not only towards them, but towards all people,” says Dr Uchide. “If that happens, perhaps our communities can become gentler, brighter, and more welcoming places for everyone.”
Here and Now,44 pages, full colour, £5, is available to pre-order now from UK comic shopsh of October. Copies are also available directly from Re-Live at www.re-live.org.uk. US distribution is expected to be announced shortly
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