Eisaku Kubonouchi

Eisaku Kubonouchi (b. 1966, Kōchi, Japan) is a manga artist and illustrator whose line has shaped the look of Japanese popular culture for almost four decades. He made his debut in Shōnen Sunday in 1986 and achieved wide recognition with Tsurumoku Dokushin Ryō (1988–1991), serialised in Big Comic Spirits and adapted for the cinema in 1991. It was followed by Watanabe (1992), Chocolat (1999–2003), Cherry (2006–2007) and Pikamon (2008–2010).

In recent years Kubonouchi has worked increasingly as an illustrator and character designer, moving between manga, animation and advertising. He created the characters for Nissin Cup Noodle's celebrated HUNGRY DAYS campaign, reimagining Sazae-san, Heidi, Kiki's Delivery Service and One Piece as contemporary high-school stories, and has provided original character designs for the anime series Sono Toki, Kanojo wa (2018, as original creator), Carole & Tuesday (2019) and Astro Note (2024). His hand-drawn short animation Departure of Sayo and Kou was later published as a picture book.

Kubonouchi is known above all for his pencil drawings, in which a few economical lines carry an extraordinary sense of breath and warmth; he has spoken of wanting each drawing to hold the softness of life itself with the fewest possible marks. His work is presented in Europe by Tokiol and will be shown at Art Market Budapest in October 2026.

Selected exhibitions

2026 Art Market Budapest, Budapest (with Tokiol)
2025 Solo exhibition, 9DAYS GALLERY, Shibuya, Tokyo
2024 Solo exhibition, Tsutaya bookstore, Hangzhou, China
2022 Solo exhibition, Isetan Shinjuku Art Gallery, Tokyo
2019 Esoragoto, Osaka University of Arts Sky Campus, Abeno Harukas, Osaka
2018 100 no Tokimeki, Yurakucho Marui, Tokyo, and Hakata Marui, Fukuoka
2014 Manga-ya Daizukan, solo exhibition, Taipei