Gōjin Ishihara

, known by the pseudonyms and , was a Japanese painter and illustrator.

Biography Ishihara was born in the city of Taisha, Shimane in 1923. He first encountered art through his frequent visits to a local theatre. In 1941, at the age of 18, he moved to Manchukuo and then Mengjiang where he made a living painting advertisements for silent films.

He was eventually drafted into the Imperial Japanese Army as part of its mobilization during the Second World War. While stationed in Mongolia, he was nearly killed in an incident of friendly fire, an experience that affected him greatly. Ishihara later attributed his disdain for authority of any kind to this event. After returning home to Japan, he attended lectures at Nihon University's art department where he was exposed to the artistic principles of Norman Rockwell. He began his career as an illustrator in earnest around 1955, drawing for the magazines and .

He rapidly developed a reputation as an artistic genius, and so his contribution was in high demand and he began to work under an onerous schedule. At one point, he was obliged to draw 100 illustrations in 3 days. His motto was .

One of his final works, a 1996 full-page cover illustration for the first issue of the magazine featuring figurers such as Shoko Asahara and Ruth Norman, was published just prior to his death in 1998.