Profile

Born in Miyazaki Prefecture, he moved frequently across Kyushu, Hokkaido, and the Kanto region due to his father’s work.
After graduating from the Department of Oil Painting at Musashino Art University in 1990, he continued producing fine art works and submitting them to competitions, but they did not bring him much recognition. Feeling that manga, which requires the ability to capture outlines and contours, suited him better than oil painting, he expanded his practice into the field of manga. He made his debut in 2000 with Motehayashi (published in New Doboku) and won the 4th AX Manga Newcomer Award—Yusaku Hanakuma Prize in 2002 with Neo Taiiku. His style came to be described as “Neo Manga.”

His books were first published in France before Japan, and in 2009 he appeared at the J-POP SUMMIT in San Francisco, USA. In 2010, he held a solo exhibition at the Kawasaki City Museum. In 2016, he presented The World is Strange! Taiga TATEISHI + Yuichi YOKOYAMA’s Manga and Paintings, a two-person exhibition with Taiga Tateishi at the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art. In 2021, as part of a project by the museum during its long-term closure for renovations, he created newly drawn manga for signs and fences in Hijiyama Park.

His works are included in the collections of the Kawasaki City Museum, Kumamoto Contemporary Art Museum, The National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, and Mori Art Museum.