Yumiko Ōshima

Several artists have been influenced by her work. Manga artist Fusako Kuramochi and writer Banana Yoshimoto cite her as an influence. Manga critic Tomoko Yamada cites "Natsu no owari no totancho" (1977) as one of her favorite manga.

She received the 1973 Japan Cartoonists Association Award for excellence for Mimoza Yakata de Tsukamaete. She received the 1978 Kodansha Manga Award for shōjo for The Star of Cottonland, and the 2008 Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize Short Story Award for "Cher Gou-Gou...mon petit chat, mon petit ami," a short story in the ongoing series Gū-gū Datte Neko de aru. In 2021, she was honoured with the title Person of Cultural Merit.

She made her debut as a professional manga artist in 1968 with the short story "Paula no Namida" in the magazine Weekly Margaret. She became known for publishing short stories for this and other major magazines targeted at girls like Shōjo Comic, Bessatsu Shōjo Comic, Seventeen and Shōjo Friend. One of her short stories appeared in Funny, one of the earliest magazines for josei manga (then called "women's gekiga"). Her series Tanjō!, published from 1970 until 1971, gained attention for its depiction of teenage pregnancy. From 1978 until 1987 she published her most famous series The Star of Cottonland in LaLa.

Yumiko Ōshima (大島弓子, Ōshima Yumiko, born August 31, 1947) is a Japanese manga artist and is associated with the Year 24 group that heavily influenced the development of shōjo manga in the 1970s.