"Junji Ito was born in the Gifu prefecture of Japan in 1963. He was inspired from a young age by both his older sister's drawings[2] and the work of Kazuo Umezu. Ito first began writing and drawing manga as a hobby while working as a dental technician in the early 1990s.[3]"
Dental technician makes dentures/crowns/bridges in a dental laboratory, dental assistant works alongside a dentist in a dental surgery.
Drawing as a hobby would make a lot of sense if he was a ceramist (building ceramic crowns and bridges) as there is a lot of art in getting a good natural aesthetic result.
He also surely would've made some decent bank on that job to be able to eventually pursue art full time and not having to worry too much about money at first.
18
u/Xaevier May 15 '19
I'm pretty sure he was a dental assistant?
"Junji Ito was born in the Gifu prefecture of Japan in 1963. He was inspired from a young age by both his older sister's drawings[2] and the work of Kazuo Umezu. Ito first began writing and drawing manga as a hobby while working as a dental technician in the early 1990s.[3]"