Hara was born in the town of Kiyama in Saga Prefecture and attended Tomeikan High School. He would later be appointed first ambassador of his hometown.[2][3]
Hara then enrolled at Kyushu Institute of Design where he graduated with a Bachelor's degree in 1998 and a Master's degree in 2000. He enrolled at the university with the intention of becoming a film director but learnt it was difficult to make a living in the film industry. In this third year at university, he decided to become a manga artist because he could do everything by himself such as directing, writing scripts and drawing.[4][5]
During his time at university, Hara had drawn a lot of storyboards but never drawn manga. In 1997, he submitted his first work, Ueda-kun's Theory of Degeneration which won the Anticipation Award in the 36th edition of Young Magazine'sTetsuya Chiba Awards. In 1999, his work Ousamatsu won the runner-up grand prize at the 40th Tetsuya Chiba Awards He was assigned to an editor at Young Magazine where several of his one-shot stories were published but were never brought up at serialization meetings. At that point Hara gave up becoming a manga artist.[3][4]
Career
In 2000, Hara took a job at Fujitsu as a systems engineer where he worked for three years. During his time there, he gained experience on how teams worked as well as the difficulties encountered such as when his senior left the company and had to cover for him. He ended up losing money for the company but his bosses and seniors protected him. According to Hara, his time working there was crucial to developing Kingdom.[4][5][6]
Around this time, he became captivated by Records of the Grand Historian which he had started reading for his studies. This was the origin of the creation of Kingdom.[7]
In 2003, Hara won the Encouragement Award at the 23rd Young Jump MANGA Grand Prix for his one-shot manga, Ha to Sen.[3]
In 2005, Hara joined Weekly Young Jump as a manga artist to create the series, Kingdom. For several months he worked as an assistant to Takehiko Inoue which according to Hara was a very valuable experience.[4][6]
In 2006, Kingdom started serializing in Weekly Young Jump. Initially the series struggled to gain popularity and was at the risk of getting cancelled. Hara asked Inoue for advice to which Inoue stated "The story is interesting, it's just that Shin's eyes are too small". With only a few words from Inoue, Hara realized that his work up to then had more emphasis on story rather than illustrations and adjusted the art style of Kingdom.[3][5][6]
In November 2023, with the release of its 70th volume, Kingdom surpassed 100 million copies printed.[1]
Personal life
Hara was married in 2006 and has three children. In August 2020, Ruriko Kojima said on a radio show that she was currently in a relationship with Hara. In September 2020, he released a statement on Twitter confirming he had divorced in March that year and that he had committed adultery.[9] In July 2021, Kojima revealed they had broken up.[10]
^ abc"HARA Yasuhisa". Kyushu University | School of Design, Graduate School of Design, Faculty of Design. Archived from the original on March 29, 2024. Retrieved March 29, 2024.
^"オールタイムBEST部門". Culture Convenience Club. 2017. Archived from the original on November 2, 2020. Retrieved March 29, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
