Do you know the manga work of Mizuki Shigeru? He’s been doing yokai (supernatural creatures) manga for decades, GeGeGe no Kitarō being probably his best known work. He first learned about yokai from an old woman whom he memorialized in Nonnonba.
His historical manga, the four volume series on the Showa era and his remembrances of his WWII experiences, Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths, are good introductions to one side of 20th century Japan and very autobiographical. His manga biography of Hitler is also very good.
