Shirako

Shirako was born in Gifu Prefecture and lives in Tokyo. She studied architecture and design at university, then taught herself landscape painting and colour theory from technique books published overseas. She finished the 21st class of the illustration course at Aoyama Juku, and she belongs to the art team Gokinjo. The picture she returns to is a place seen in daylight. Colour is mixed until the light sits correctly. For a long time she used a single brush. The surface is digital, and it keeps the look of a mark made by hand.

In July 2026 she held the solo show Bel sole at the Artcomplex Center of Tokyo in Shinjuku, from the 3rd to the 12th. Bel sole, she writes, means a beautiful sun and fine weather. The pictures came from a trip that March through Sicily, Germany, Bulgaria, and Austria, mostly views seen as a visitor, and they are brighter than her usual work. She wanted the dry air by the Mediterranean, and a busy market, to be felt in the room. For this show she added three or four brushes to the one she normally uses. A year earlier, at the same centre, she showed 昼光散乱. In November 2022, HB Gallery in Omotesando held the solo show 『နေသာတဲတ်』. In February 2020, the same gallery held ひとりでも楽しい.

Book jackets are the centre of the practice. Her site lists them by year, for houses including Shinchosha, Kodansha, Kadokawa, Bungeishunju, Hayakawa, Shogakukan, and Tokuma. Among the 2026 jackets are 『海のほとりのプラネット』 for Shinchosha and 『女の子がハッピーに生きるための3つのこと』 for Kodansha. Earlier jackets include 『ザリガニの鳴くところ』 for Hayakawa, 『クリスマス・キャロル』 for Shogakukan, and 『ウォーターダンサー』 for Shinchosha. She also made the picture book 『忘れてゆく樹とカブトムシ』 and jacket art for musicians including TOMOO and ユアネス. The jacket is a landscape with a story pressed into it.

Alongside the books, her page credits colour scripts and related picture work for animation. She names colour scripts for 『呪術廻戦』 in its second and third seasons, a colour script for the 『まじかるちいかわ』 special music video, a colour script for Love Live! Nijigasaki, opening background art for the second season of 『僕の心のヤバいやつ』, and a lighting script for 『屋根裏のラジャー』. For the second episode of 『夢中さ、きみに。』 she names art direction and concept design for the play within the episode, 『鉄と鉄』. These are jobs on her list. The characters belong to those productions. The light and the colour are the part she records as hers.

In 2021 Shoeisha published the art book ILLUSTRATION MAKING & VISUAL BOOK Shirako. Illustration magazine carried an interview in the December 2024 issue. Her pictures also appear in Greatest Illustrations and in Visions 2025. The solo rooms, the novel jackets, and the animation colour scripts stay one line of work: a place, a measured colour, and daylight.