Miyako Maki started her career in 1957 and became one of the most famous shoujo manga artist of the 1960s decade; Takara's Licca-chan doll, seen as the Japanese equivalent of Mattel's Barbie doll, was inspired by Maki's shoujo characters. At the end of the 1960s decade, she moves away from shoujo manga and start to draw gekiga for female audience, thus pioneering the ladies' comics genre.



She married in 1961 the manga artist Leiji Matsumoto, with whom she has collaborated with on multiple works.