This page introduces Horie Art School’s activities and achievements.
Students’ awards, exhibitions of student work, events we took part in, media coverage, manga experiences for visitors from overseas and more: the school’s history and achievements so far, gathered by year.
If you have only just heard of Horie Art School, this page will give you a sense of what kind of school we are and what we do.
An exchange event between students studying manga in Norway and Horie Art School’s students, and more
A booth at an Osaka Expo event, a Grade 6 student winning first place in a Shueisha manga award, and more
Running the manga and illustration club at an event for children who don’t attend school, the start of the high school diploma course,
students’ awards and editor assignments (a Grade 9 student assigned a Shonen Jump editor, an Honorable Mention in the Chiba Tetsuya Award, a student assigned a Weekly Shonen Sunday editor), and more
Special prices on Wacom pen tablets offered to students, a student winning the grand prize for manga in a contest, a training session using manga at Osaka University’s medical school, and more
Our first student exhibition, groups of children visiting from China for a manga experience, and more
Here we share topics such as media coverage, Horie Art School’s activities outside the school, and special offers for our students.
18 students from a manga vocational school in Norway came to Japan and took part in a cultural exchange with Horie Art School’s students!
Everyone drew illustrations on the same theme, designed characters based on Norwegian and Japanese folk tales, and chatted over Norwegian and Japanese sweets. It was a really lively time.
All the participants also drew illustrations together on one big sheet of drawing paper.
The Yuru-chara Grand Prix column article “Certification courses and correspondence courses for people who want to start studying for a qualification” featured us.
Please take a look.
Here we share topics such as media coverage, Horie Art School’s activities outside the school, and special offers for our students.
We had the opportunity to teach a manga class in the [Summer Program for International Students] at a Japanese language school in Shinsaibashi.
Students from China, Taiwan, South Korea, the Philippines, Kazakhstan, the United States, Ireland, France, Denmark, Russia and Mexico came together. From people who love Japanese anime and manga and draw often to people who don’t draw at all, everyone worked hard at learning how to draw illustrations.
We ran an illustration experience booth at Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan, and despite the heat, we were grateful that so many people came to try it.
A key visual made from illustrations by 110 of our students and instructors was shown 12 times on a giant screen during the event.
Our company’s representative was interviewed for Osakazine’s President Interview, a series that explores the thoughts and visions of the leaders of Osaka companies.
Please take a look.
Read the interview article here ↓↓
https://shacho.osakazine.net/e773149.html
We were interviewed by StudyChain, an education media outlet specializing in information on education and cram schools.
Please take a look.
Read the interview article here ↓↓
https://studychain.jp/interview/88-2/
20 students from a manga vocational school in Norway came for a trial experience!
They all love Japanese manga, and the conversation got lively over Jujutsu Kaisen, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Demon Slayer and more!
“Let’s do exchange study visits, and an online ‘draw manga for 24 hours’ event with the Norwegian students and Horie Art School’s students!”
That is what we talked about, and we have decided to keep our exchange going.
Five groups from all over China came for a manga experience.
A total of 150 children tried illustration and manga.
When we talked about behind-the-scenes stories of Japanese anime and manga and how to draw, everyone listened with great interest.
An adult student who has attended Horie Art School for 5 years to become a professional illustrator received an [Honorable Mention] in the 78th Shueisha Orange Bunko Illustration Award.
This student already receives commissions and keeps taking on new challenges to improve even further.
[Award announcement site / Shueisha Orange Bunko]
https://orangebunko.shueisha.co.jp/illust-award/winners/no78
An adult student with no experience at all, who attended Horie Art School to work in anime production, got a job at an anime production company
and worked on the opening animation of the popular anime “From Bureaucrat to Villainess: Dad’s Been Reincarnated!”, which is currently airing.
[“From Bureaucrat to Villainess: Dad’s Been Reincarnated!” opening video]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9RuD4zUzJY
[Anime website]
A Grade 4 girl who has attended the school for a year and a half won the Gold Award in the “This Is My Dream Town” Painting Contest.
Her mother shared her joy with us: “The picture she submitted after getting advice at the school won a prize. Thank you always for your teaching. It was something that also gave her confidence.”
Contest organizers: Osaka Wide-Area Ready-Mixed Concrete Cooperative, The Mainichi Newspapers
A Grade 5 girl who has attended the school for a year won the Judges’ Encouragement Award at the MOA Museum of Art Takatsuki Children’s Art Exhibition.
She had not been going to school, but after starting at Horie Art School she began going to school again.
Her mother shared her joy with us: “I never imagined she would grow this much in a year. It has far exceeded my expectations, and I’m full of surprise and happiness. In a class at school there was a time to present their dreams for the future, and she announced, ‘I’m going to be an illustrator!’ I want her to keep working hard so that her dream comes true.”
See the MOA Museum of Art Takatsuki Children’s Art Exhibition and the prize-winning works here
https://ameblo.jp/moatakatsuki/entry-12873451321.htm
A video introducing Horie Art School was made for us with an original rap song. It was made by teppei of Umeda Cypher, who has worked on songs including the ending theme of the anime “The Fable.”
At the “Nichi Nichi Mirai Expo” organized by the Osaka Nichi Nichi Shimbun, we ran a booth called “You Can Be an Illustrator Too!”, and lots of elementary and junior high school children came to try it.
A high school student who wants to become a manga artist and a high school student who wants to work as a painter in the future interviewed us about working in manga and working in drawing.
They asked many questions about what it takes to make drawing your job: what you should do to become a manga artist, how you can become one, what feelings drive us in our work now, what we do for clients when we receive drawing commissions, what we value, and what we think they should do now, while they are in high school.
Horie Art School’s director and a manga artist instructor answered their questions, and later we received a thank-you letter from the high school students who came for the interview.
A Grade 3 girl who has attended the school for a year won the Osaka Governor’s Award in the poster contest of “Waku Waku EXPO with the 19th National Convention for the Promotion of Food Education.”
Her work was chosen from 2,115 entries, and at the award ceremony she was presented with a prize and a certificate by Osaka Governor Yoshimura.
A Grade 6 (now Grade 7) student at Horie Art School, submitting manga for the first time to Shueisha’s [Ribon × Jump Elementary School Manga Awards], won the top prize, the “Super Manga Artist Award.”
The work will also be published in Ribon magazine (scheduled for release on August 2, 2024).
This was the 25th Elementary School Manga Awards, held by the shojo manga magazine “Ribon” since 2008. To mark both its own milestone and the 55th anniversary of “Weekly Shonen Jump,” it was held jointly by “Ribon” and three Jump publications (Weekly Shonen Jump, Shonen Jump+ and Saikyo Jump).
See the award details and results here ↓
https://ribonjump.shueisha.co.jp/
At the request of Hida City, Gifu Prefecture, we were asked to give a manga and illustration class for parents and children in the course series Hida Citizens’ College, and Horie Art School’s director taught the class.
The venue was “Hida Manga Kingdom,” which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.
It was a special program, and nearly 40 people came to take part.
This year, the students in our exam prep course
all passed, every one of the junior high school, high school and university applicants.
Congratulations, everyone.
[2023 academic year exam results]
🌸Junior high school🌸
Sakuya Konohana Junior High School: 2 students
🌸High school🌸
Osaka Prefectural Kogei High School: 1 student
Osaka Prefectural Konan Zokei High School: 1 student
🌸University🌸
Osaka University of Arts: 1 student
240 works by our students, including illustrations and manga, were exhibited, and more than 300 people came to see them.
This time we also held a special talk event between a professional manga artist and the school’s director.
The prize-winning works will be displayed at Kawachi Art Supplies, Hankyu Sanbangai store.
Read the online version of the newspaper article here
On March 8, International Women’s Day, the school’s director, Shirin Ito, received the “Active Woman Leader Award” and was presented with a commemorative plaque and flowers by Chairman Torii of the Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry. See the list of award winners here
A Grade 8 student received an Honorable Mention in the City of Osaka’s election poster contest.
The work was displayed at the Tsurumi Ward Office and was also posted on the City of Osaka website.
Here we share topics such as media coverage, Horie Art School’s activities outside the school, and special offers for our students.
A 21-year-old student who attended the school for 6 years, starting in Grade 8, was assigned an editor at Shogakukan’s Weekly Shonen Sunday with their very first submission, and won an Encouragement Award with their second work.
In the Osaka Prefecture “Dental Health” Drawing and Poster Contest, a Grade 8 student won the Osaka City Board of Education Award.
The work was chosen from 3,092 entries and was also displayed inside the “Dental Art Traveling Museum No. 8020,” a whole JR Osaka Loop Line train chartered for the exhibition.
In Washoku Sato’s “2nd Smile & Kids’ Lunch Illustration Contest,” a Grade 2 student won the Excellence Award for the second year in a row.
The work was chosen from 937 entries.
We were interviewed by The Yomiuri Shimbun, and the article was published on its “Living & Family” page.
A junior high school student at the school and their parents kindly took part in the interview. The student talked about what they are doing and how they feel as they work toward their dream of becoming a manga artist, and the parents talked about their feelings in supporting their child.
We ran an illustration experience booth at “Animarche,” a community event that uses anime and manga to bring life to Takatsuki City and Shimamoto Town in Osaka Prefecture.
With food, merchandise and workshop booths and plenty of fun programs on stage, the event drew more than 20,000 visitors.
The Horie Art School booth was so busy that there was a wait of more than an hour.
In the 4-Panel Manga Grand Prix, we also gave a Horie Art School Award to 3 people.
Unique Career Inc. (https://1dau.co.jp/) runs “Career no Mi” (https://www.j-n.co.jp/career/), where
Horie Art School was introduced.
See the article page here ↓↓
https://www.j-n.co.jp/career/illust-lesson-osusume/#4-4
200 works by our students, including illustrations and manga, were exhibited, and more than 300 people came to see them.
The prize-winning works will be displayed at Kawachi Art Supplies, Hankyu Sanbangai store.
This year, the students in our exam prep course
all passed, every one of the high school and university applicants.
Congratulations, everyone.
🌸High school🌸
Osaka Prefectural Kogei High School, Osaka Prefectural Konan Zokei High School
🌸University🌸
Osaka University of Arts, Kyoto University of the Arts (formerly Kyoto University of Art and Design)
A student’s work was chosen for the camellia illustration feature “Bright Beneath the Winter Sky.”
https://www.pixivision.net/ja/a/8430
A graduate of the school received an “Honorable Mention” in the Young category of the 87th “Chiba Tetsuya Award”❗️❗️
↓↓Read the winning work on this site↓↓
https://yanmaga.jp/.../c5804498bc1ace2cf253b2470a9f1ba5
What does “normal” even mean?
You can be just as you are.
Here, you can do what you love and talk about what you love.
Why not learn manga and illustration at a school like that?
In the 5 years since opening, we have given one-to-one manga and illustration lessons to more than 3,000 people in total,
and more than 300 students attend at any time. Horie Art School has now opened
Horie Art High School Academy, where you can earn a high school diploma.
We have received many inquiries,
and we welcome visits and individual consultations at any time.
↓↓↓
Information about Horie Art High School Academy is here
Grade 8 students from Daito City Nango Junior High School came to Horie Art School for their “inquiry learning about working.”
They searched for companies they were interested in and made the request through their teacher.
They listened to Horie Art School’s students, interviewed our instructors, and tried the job of an illustrator.
“It was amazing how the teachers taught the students carefully and in a way that was easy to understand.”
“I thought it was nice that the students were drawing what they wanted to draw.”
“I thought it was nice that they could do what they love, but I was also impressed by how much they were doing (like making things).”
These are some of the comments they shared with us.
Our students range in age from 5 to over 70, with all kinds of occupations, and they live across a wide area including Osaka, Hyogo, Kyoto, Nara and Wakayama.
Some of our students are from other countries.
If you are wondering whether to come to Horie Art School for a trial lesson, we hope you find it helpful!
Horie Art School was introduced in the “100-Person Relay Challenge,” which presents citizens’ groups and companies active in Osaka in one-minute videos.
https://kyodo-portal.city.osaka.jp/board/24000014824/
Horie Art School, together with Panda-chan no Ouchi Gakko, held an online illustrator work experience.
It will run 4 times in total, through August.
We were interviewed by the Osaka Nichi Nichi Shimbun.
Thanks to all of you, our number of students has grown, and from July Horie Art School has 2 floors.
They are the 7th and 10th floors of the same building.
A place where adults and children alike can easily learn manga and illustration!
With the belief that this is useful for education, for work, and for making life more enjoyable,
it will soon be a full 6 years since we opened Horie Art School.
We look forward to your continued support.
(The photo shows the inside of the school on the new 7th floor)
A student has been assigned an editor at Shueisha’s Shonen Jump.
And they are still only in Grade 9.
At Horie Art School we also support people who want to go professional.
Of course, beginners are very welcome too.
We have added comments and works from the instructors at Horie Art School.
Please take a look here ↓↓ (tap the image to see the Instructors page)
173 works by our students, including illustrations and manga, were exhibited, and many people came to see them.
The prize-winning works were displayed at Kawachi Art Supplies, Hankyu Sanbangai store.
Organized by Class Japan Gakuen, Japan’s first “large-scale online conference for children who don’t attend school” was held under the theme that children’s growth can also happen here, along another path.
There was also a special talk show by Akihiro Nishino of King Kong.
Horie Art School ran the online club “Manga & Illustration Club,” and children from all over Japan got to try drawing manga and illustrations.
On the website of Cielia Tower Osaka Horie, under construction in Minamihorie, Nishi Ward, Osaka City, “Education that shares advanced values across generations and isn’t bound by the conventional path.
Introducing two distinctive lessons in Horie,” Horie Art School was introduced as one of the two.
See the introduction page here: https://www.cielia.com/m/horie500/voice/feature3.html
Here we share topics such as media coverage, Horie Art School’s activities outside the school, and special offers for our students.
We were interviewed by the Asahi Shogakusei Shimbun, and the article was published in its “A New Era of Learning (Lessons Edition)” corner.
Two elementary school students at the school also kindly took part in the interview. They talked about the fun of drawing illustrations and manga,
how learning to draw helps with their everyday studies, and how they feel about coming to the school.
TV Osaka’s new venture, “Kansai Yume Kobo, a web service that supports Kansai’s hard workers with video,”
held a special live-stream program on the theme “Teach Us, Shirin Ito Sensei! Let’s Learn How to Draw Illustrations!”
and we did a test stream from Horie Art School.
Nozomi and Poppo of the Shochiku Geino comedy duo “Dokidoki☆Junjo Girls” visited Horie Art School.
We had a lively time drawing illustrations together with the two of them, who are both good at drawing.
Thank you to everyone who watched.
Freelance announcer Akane Umeyama, who says she isn’t good at drawing, tried an illustration trial lesson.
It will also be uploaded to YouTube later, so look forward to seeing Ms. Umeyama’s illustration before and after!
The company that runs Horie Art School creates advertising manga, illustrations and more on commission from businesses.
This time, the children of Starlit got to try the work of an illustrator.
We received wonderful news from a former student.
They won the grand prize in a contest on “TieUp,” a light novel site that pairs novels with illustrations.
“I won the grand prize under the name 黒江景秋! It’s thanks to everything you taught me, like perspective! Thank you!”
We were so happy to receive this comment.
On top of that, they have also been assigned an editor at Weekly Shonen Jump.
https://production-static.tieupnovels.com/.../index.html
160 works by our students, including illustrations and manga, were exhibited, and many people came to see them.
It is a 15-page booklet with a “drawing self-check” that shows where you are now, quick-reference training charts by skill and by weak point,
training methods by hobby and by profession, and more.
We have given it to the students attending Horie Art School, and it has been well received.
New students receive one when they join. (2021.6.15)
For the “Coloring Page Project” we carry out together with Kinki Social Welfare College, Horie Art School was honored by the Small Kindness Movement Headquarters, a public interest incorporated association (representative: Tsuneo Suzuki).
The reason given for the award was that “during the COVID-19 pandemic, to bring enjoyable moments to elderly people whose visits and events had been called off, they create coloring page designs and give them as gifts.” (2021.2.18)
This time, a notable feature was that many people drew illustrations from “Demon Slayer,” whose movie was a huge hit!
We held a staff training session for Horie Art School’s instructors.
At Horie Art School, we place great importance on communication with our students.
This time, for a 3-part training series, we invited a journalist with 30 years of experience at a major newspaper as the trainer.
We plan to hold practical training for our staff regularly so that we can meet our students’ needs. (2020.11.13)
(2020.11.1)
At the open campus of Kinki Social Welfare College, Horie Art School’s director taught a hands-on coloring page making session. (2020.10.24)
Osaka University Hospital was the venue where Horie Art School’s director served as a training instructor on the theme “Expression and Communication Skills That Move People, Learned from Manga Expression.” In this training program for advanced clinical research coordinators, the director gave lectures and exercises to the participants. (2020.10.17)
The Nippon Dental University School of Life Dentistry at Niigata’s visiting professor, Dr. 中野智子, has a new book, “The New Common Sense of Food Education, Starting from ‘Chewing’: Elderly & Nursing Care Edition”, and Horie Art School’s director drew its illustrations. It is published by Tokuma Shoten. (2020.8.29)
As a student benefit, you can now buy Wacom pen tablets and pen displays at a special discount price.
This time, a notable feature was that many works were related to the novel coronavirus!
Kinki Social Welfare College and Horie Art School are working together on a coloring page project.
Pictures drawn by Horie Art School’s students and instructors will be used as “coloring pages” for recreation at elderly care facilities in many areas, starting with the Nara Higashi Hospital Group. (2020.6)
Our visitors were students from the junior high school attached to Shandong Normal University: 40 in the morning and 40 in the afternoon, 80 in total. (2020.1.21)
Here we share topics such as media coverage, Horie Art School’s activities outside the school, and special offers for our students.
Our exam prep course started in earnest in 2019, and 3 students passed university entrance exams. (AO admissions)
This time, junior high school students from Changsha, China came to Horie Art School for a manga experience.
It was the last day of a week-long Japanese culture tour and the children were a little tired, but they worked hard at drawing manga and illustrations for about 3 hours. (2019.7.23)
This time, elementary and junior high school students who attend a painting school in Beijing, China came to Horie Art School for a manga experience. We also issued them certificates of completion. (2019.7.16)
The magazine is Bunkasha’s “Muteki Ren’ai S-girl,”
April issue (*an 18+ shojo manga magazine).
The work was published about 6 months after the student started at Horie Art School. (2019.2.28)
We hear that experiencing Japanese culture is popular in China right now.
This time, more than 60 elementary and junior high school students came in 2 visits on a tour run by New Oriental, a Chinese exam prep school. (2018.7.29/8.12)
Horie Children’s School (a program certified by Nishi Ward, Osaka City) hosted our hands-on business lesson. (2018.4.7)
Horie Children’s School is run by the Horie Association. Horie Art School is a member of the Horie Association, which works to make the neighborhood a better place.
See the site that also introduces the many shops in the Horie Association here: http://horiestyle.jp
We contributed 4-panel manga to “Yonkoma Komachi-san,” a doujinshi market for 4-panel manga works.
It was a wonderful event with a homey atmosphere and content that kept visitors entertained throughout. (2018.2.11)
The Osaka Nichi Nichi Shimbun covered our 1st Student Exhibition. (2017.12.18)
Interviews with Horie Art School’s children were broadcast on Radio Kansai’s “Osama Radio Kids.” (2017.5.28) See how the interview went here
Mention any activity or course that caught your attention when you send an inquiry.
