Chapter Commentaries 9

Uno's art has covered a wide range of genres, but the most extensive has been newspapers and magazines. The styles of this art have ranged from erotic to fairy-tale-like.

His first work in this genre was a year-long serialization of frontispieces for the women's magazine Shinfujin. For the next six years, Uno teamed up with photographer Tsuneo Suzuki to do the covers for this publication, combining photographs with illustrations in a novel way. Hanashi no Tokushu, with Makoto Wada as art director, was launched in 1965. Uno's erotic drawings were featured from the first issue as illustrations of Aido (Slaves of Passion) by Isamu Kurita. From the fifth issue, he was also illustrating Shuji Terayama's Ehon sen'ichiya monogatari (One Thousand and One Nights Picture Book with comical pictures. In other words, Uno managed to skillfully and differently illustrate stories of two writers in the same issue of a magazine.

In the 1970s, Uno illustrated the table of contents of the literary magazine Shukan Shosetsu with sensual drawings of women, while providing fantasy illustrations aimed at children for the Sanrio publication Shi to Meruhen (Poem and Märchen).In 1980, Uno began work on illustrations for Kakushi e douwa (Hidden Picture Fairy Tales) by Yoshitomo Imae, which was serialized in the Sunday edition of The Mainichi. Uno had always liked historical novels, and in the 1990s, he released illustrations of this genre in the weekly magazine, The Weekly Gendai. In 2009, he did the illustrations for the full-length historical novel, Dattan no uma (The Tartar Horse] by Noboru Tsujihara. The novel was serialized in The NIKKEI, a major newspaper, over fifteen months.

Since Uno read the text for novels appearing in newspapers and magazines before doing the illustrations, one could say it was a media that allowed him freedom to create using inspiration he got from their storylines. Uno worked with auchors, creating different illustrations and using different styles, materials and printing specs according to their preferences. This flexibility made it possible for him to create the wide range of illustrations he is known for.