42 Japanese illustrators

Takami Akai is an illustrator, game creator, character designer and animator born on November 21, 1961 in Yonago, Tottori Prefecture, Japan.

Yoshitaka Amano is a Japanese visual artist, character designer, illustrator, a scenic designer for theatre and film, and a costume designer. He first came into prominence in the late 1960s working on the anime adaptation of Speed Racer. Amano later became the creator of iconic and influential characters such as Gatchaman, Tekkaman: The Space Knight, Hutch the Honeybee, and Casshan. In 1982 he went independent and became a freelance artist, finding success as an illustrator for numerous authors, and worked on best-selling novel series, such as The Guin Saga and Vampire Hunter D. He is also known for his commissioned illustrations for the popular video game franchise Final Fantasy.

Kamui Fujiwara is a Japanese character designer and manga artist. Fujiwara's father was a soldier in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. He excelled in mathematics and computer science when in grade school. He graduated from the Kuwasawa Design School. Fujiwara won an honorable mention in 1979 for his debut manga titled Itsu mo no Asa ni in the 18th Tezuka Award along with Toshio Nobe and Tsukasa Hojo, who won the top prize awarded. He was heavily influenced by Katsuhiro Otomo, and a defining feature of his work is the fine attention to detail. His nom de plume "Kamui" has its origins in the name of the Ainu god of creation, Kamuy, and he has used it since high school. He has had stories published in the manga anthology series Petit Apple Pie.

Jin Goto is a Japanese nihonga and picture book painter.

Katsushika Hokusai, known simply as Hokusai, was a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period. Hokusai is best known for the woodblock print series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji which includes the internationally iconic print The Great Wave off Kanagawa.

Shinichi Hoshi was a Japanese novelist and science fiction writer best known for his "short-short" science fiction stories, often no more than three or four pages in length, of which he wrote over 1000. He also wrote mysteries and won the Mystery Writers of Japan Award for Mōsō Ginkō in 1968.

Masuo Ikeda was a Japanese painter, printmaker, illustrator, sculptor, ceramist, novelist, and film director from Nagano Prefecture.

Isamu Imakake is a Japanese animator, screenwriter, television director and producer. He also worked as illustrator for some manga like Geobreeders.

Daisuke Ishiwatari is a South African-Japanese video game developer, illustrator, musician, composer and voice actor. He is best known for creating the 2D fighting game series Guilty Gear. He designed the characters and storyline, and wrote the music. He also provides the in-game voice for the characters Sol Badguy and Order-Sol, as well as Freed Velez in Battle Fantasia.

Noizi Ito is a Japanese light novel and video game artist. She is employed by the H-game maker UNiSONSHIFT and is a part of the circle Fujitsubo-Machine. Unlike most romanized Japanese words and names, Noizi Ito's name uses the Kunrei-shiki romanization form.

Sachiko Kamimura is a Japanese animator. She is noted for her work with Sunrise, where she was the supervising animator and character designer for the City Hunter series and several others, mentoring future several Sunrise character designers and animators, including Toshihiro Kawamoto.

Naoyuki Kato is a Japanese illustrator, a native of Hamamatsu City, Japan.

Toshihiro Kawamoto is a Japanese animator. He is co-founder and director of the anime studio Bones. He was character designer and animation director of Cowboy Bebop.

Kobayashi Eitaku was a Japanese artist and illustrator specializing in ukiyo-e and nihonga.

Osamu Kobayashi was a Japanese animator, illustrator, mechanical designer, and animation director primarily known for BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad and Paradise Kiss; his guest appearance as director of episode 4 of Gurren Lagann, and, most recently, episode 15 of Dororo. After graduating from high school, he worked as a designer and manga artist, but following his participation in Grandia he was mainly active in the field of animation. He originally directed avant-garde shorts and music videos for Studio 4°C and has more recently done two TV series for Madhouse Studios. He died of kidney cancer on April 17, 2021.

Kohno Michisei was a Japanese painter, illustrator, and printmaker known for his association with the yōga movement of the early 20th century. His work is considered representative of the Taishō period in Japanese art.

Kōno Bairei was a Japanese painter, book illustrator, and art teacher. He was born and lived in Kyoto. He was a member of the Ukiyo-e school and was a master of kacho-e painting in the Meiji period of Japan.

Motoichi Kumagai was a Japanese photographer and illustrator of books for children, known for his portrayal of rural and school life. He has illustrated numerous children's books, books containing his photography, and other works. His works have won prizes, beginning with a photography prize from the Mainichi Shimbun in 1955.

Katsuji Matsumoto was a Japanese illustrator and shōjo manga artist. Matsumoto's 16-page The Mysterious Clover (1934) is recognized as a pioneering work in the field of manga, but he is best known for his shōjo manga Kurukuru Kurumi-chan, serialized from 1938 to 1940, and again from 1949 to 1954.

Leiji Matsumoto, is a Japanese mangaka, creator of several anime and manga series. His wife Miyako Maki is also a manga artist.

Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese animator, director, producer, screenwriter, author, and manga artist. A co-founder of Studio Ghibli, he has attained international acclaim as a masterful storyteller and creator of Japanese animated feature films, and is widely regarded as one of the most accomplished filmmakers in the history of animation.

Junko Mizuno is a Japanese manga artist. Her drawing style is often termed as Gothic kawaii or kawaii noir style.

Range Murata is a Japanese artist and designer, known for his unique style combining dieselpunk and Japanese anime elements. He is best known for his conceptual design work on anime series Last Exile and Blue Submarine No. 6.

Shusei Nagaoka was a Japanese illustrator. He is best known for his music album cover art in the 1970s and 1980s. Artists for whom he illustrated covers include Electric Light Orchestra, Earth, Wind & Fire, Deep Purple, Space, Maze, George Clinton, Kitaro, Rose Royce, Caldera, and Pure Prairie League.

Nakamura Fusetsu was a Japanese painter in the yōga style. He was also known as a calligrapher.

Takashi Nemoto is a Japanese comics artist and illustrator.

Okamoto Ippei (岡本一平) was a Japanese illustrator, cartoonist, and writer.

Kiichi Okamoto was a Japanese painter best known for his illustrations for children.

Toshio Saeki was a Japanese illustrator and painter, known for his erotic works.

John Shelley (ジョン・シェリー） is a British-born illustrator, particularly noted for his work in Japan.

Ui Shigure is a Japanese illustrator, mangaka, light novel character designer and virtual YouTuber.

Yuko Shimizu (清水裕子) is a Japanese illustrator based in New York City whose work combines Japanese heritage with contemporary reference points. Works by Shimizu address a range of serious issues including sex, race, and cultural identity, but also can be light and whimsical.

Makoto Niitsu ; born February 9, 1973), known as Makoto Shinkai , is a Japanese animator, filmmaker, author, and manga artist.

Yoji Shinkawa is a Japanese artist. He is best known as the lead character and mecha designer for the Metal Gear franchise. He has collaborated with Hideo Kojima on each of his games.

Akemi Takada is a Japanese manga artist and anime character designer born in Tokyo, Japan. Her character-design work is one of the more recognizable styles of the 1980s, when she worked on series like Creamy Mami and Kimagure Orange Road. She is also noted for her long collaboration with director Mamoru Oshii. She graduated from Tama Art University, after which she worked for Tatsunoko Pro. She is currently a freelance manga artist with her own studio, though she is also a member of the creative group Headgear. She also has her own designer jewelry store called Diakosmos.

Osamu Tezuka was a Japanese manga artist, cartoonist, and animator. Born in Osaka Prefecture, his prolific output, pioneering techniques, and innovative redefinitions of genres earned him such titles as "the Father of Manga" , "the Godfather of Manga" and "the God of Manga" . Additionally, he is often considered the Japanese equivalent to Walt Disney, who served as a major inspiration during Tezuka's formative years. Though this phrase praises the quality of his early manga works for children and animations, it also blurs the significant influence of his later, more literary, gekiga works.

Akira Toriyama is a Japanese manga artist and character designer. He first achieved mainstream recognition for his highly successful manga series Dr. Slump, before going on to create Dragon Ball and acting as a character designer for several popular video games such as the Dragon Quest series, Chrono Trigger, and Blue Dragon. Toriyama is regarded as one of the artists that changed the history of manga, as his works are highly influential and popular, particularly Dragon Ball, which many manga artists cite as a source of inspiration.

Toyotarou is a Japanese manga artist. He has drawn several Dragon Ball-related manga and is best known for illustrating Dragon Ball Super (2015–present), which is written by series creator Akira Toriyama.

Satoshi Urushihara , the "Master of Breasts", is a Japanese manga artist and illustrator known for his distinctive style of beautiful characters. His work is the basis for anime such as Plastic Little and Legend of Lemnear, and appears in the Langrisser and Growlanser series of tactical role-playing video games.

Eiji Usatsuka is a Japanese light novel illustrator. He is notable for the illustration for the series Zero no Tsukaima. He illustrates insert images for many novels.

Mamoru Yokota is a Japanese anime illustrator, and character designer, and producer.

Yoshida Hanbei was a late seventeenth-century Japanese illustrator in the ukiyo-e style, the leading illustrator in Kyoto and Osaka around 1664–1689. Unlike many more famous ukiyo-e artists, who worked primarily on individual woodblock prints and paintings, Hanbei worked primarily, if not exclusively, in illustrations for woodblock printed books. Alternatively known as Yoshida Sadakichi, his name is also sometimes romanized as Hambei.