― 5 ― 京都精華大学紀要　第四十九号 The worldwide success of manga can be partly attributed to the fact that Japanese comics provide a wide range of reading materials for girls. However even though shōjo manga existed for as long as shōnen manga, there are periods in the history of the genre we hardly know anything about. Shōjo manga research tends to focus on gender and due to that centers mainly on the 1970s and the manga of the Magnificent 49ers ( Hana no 24-nen gumi ), a group of female artists born around 1949 including Hagio Moto, Ōshima Yumiko, Takemiya Keiko and Yamagishi Ryōko, who became famous for their literary style and addressing gender and sexuality in their works. 1 This approach has resulted in many works being left out from the scope of research, be they from preceding periods or contemporary mainstream titles. The lack of detailed analysis of the 20 years of postwar shōjo manga up till the 70s can lead one to believe the 49ers singlehandedly created the genre out of nothing, when in reality by the time they appeared shōjo manga was a diverse and successful genre which sold over a million of its most popular magazines. 2 In an attempt at shōjo manga historiography the first part of this paper analyzes the discourse surrounding the genre, and finds reasons in publication history for the obscuring ofamong others the 1960s of shōjo manga. The second part of the essay contrasts assumptions about 60s shōjo manga with actual facts based on findings from an ongoing project, in which I examined so far over 250 issues of the magazine Shūkan Margaret published between 1963 and 1970, from the collection of the Kyoto International Manga Museum and the National Diet Library. I approach 60s shōjo manga through its site of publishing, shōjo magazines for two reasons. First, becauseas it will be later elaborated upon graphic narratives from this period are for the most part only available through the magazines; second, because the mediaas an environment for life 3 in the sense of Hansen, who aims “to move beyond the opposition between artifactual and transductive conceptions of the medium” 4 contextualizes the Introduction Kálovics Dalma the changes in 60s shōjo manga as seen through the magazine Shūkan Margaret The missing link of shōjo manga history :