Ryoko Yamagishi

Ryoko Yamagishi (山岸 凉子) is a female manga artist. She is considered to be one of the Year 24 Group. She studied ballet as a child, which plays a part in many of her works. When she read the manga of Machiko Satonaka in 1964, she decided to pursue becoming a mangaka. Although her parents did not agree with this, in 1966 she entered a competition in Shōjo Friend and was a semi-finalist. She applied to Kodansha and sent some short stories to COM. In 1968, after completing her art studies in Hokkaido, she moved to Tokyo and applied for Shuiesha. The next year, she made her debut with "left< And >right " レフトアンドライト, a short story which ran in Ribon. In 1983, she won the Kodansha Manga Award for shōjo manga for Hi Izuru Tokorono Tenshi. In 2007 she won the Grand Prize for the 11th Annual Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize for Maihime Τερψιχόρα (The Dancing Girl; Terpsichore)

Her works normally have occult themes, although her most popular are Arabesque, about Russian ballet, and Hi Izuru Tokorono Tenshi. According to Yoshihiro Yonezawa, Yamagishi's style is influenced by Art Nouveau.