Short answers, pulled from the story.
Da Vinci launched in 1994, published by Recruit Co. The first publisher was Yoshio Kimura, the editor-in-chief was Yasuhiro Nagazono, and the art director was Toshiaki Ichikawa. Kadokawa Corporation owns it today, having acquired the previous owner, Media Factory.
In May 2026, Kadokawa Corporation announced that Da Vinci would cease publication after 32 years. The final issue is set to release on the 6th of October 2026, covering the November 2026 issue.
Da Vinci created the manga essay genre. The magazine commissioned work from Haruko Ohtagaki and Saori Oguri, who were not yet established, and the resulting bestseller gave rise to a format called "Manga Essay Theater."
The Grand Prize of the Da Vinci Literature Award was one million yen. The Excellence Award and Reader's Award each carried 200,000 yen, and the Editor-in-Chief's Special Award was 100,000 yen. The contest ran for seven editions before ending in 2012.
The Da Vinci Book of the Year, which started in 2001, is based on votes from book critics, bookstore employees, Da Vinci survey members, and users of the Reading Meter reading-tracking service across Japan. It is not a straight sales ranking.
The Da Vinci Electronic Book Award was established in 2011 by Media Factory and ran under the name E-Book Award from 2012. Rankings were derived from annual sales data aggregated across 21 e-bookstores. The award stopped after 2014.