He received the international Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 1994 for his "lasting contribution to children's literature".
[1][2] Mado was born as Michio Ishida in Tokuyama, Yamaguchi prefecture.
He completed his education at the School of Industrial Instruction in Taipei and subsequently worked for the Office of the Governor-General.
In June 2013, two collections of the poetry of Mado, which the Empress had been asked to translate into English in the early Heisei era, Rainbow: Niji and Eraser: Keshigomu, were published.
Together with her previously published translations of Mado's poetry, including The Animals: Dobutsu-tachi, the publication of these new books means almost all the translations by the Empress of Mado's poems, which earned him the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1994, are now published.