Sanpei ShiratoSanpei Shirato.

Noboru Okamoto (Japanese: 岡本 登, Hepburn: Okamoto Noboru; February 15, 1932, October 8, 2021), known by the pen name Sanpei Shirato (白土 三平, Shirato Sanpei), was a Japanese manga artist and essayist known for his social criticism as well as the realism of his drawing style and the characters in his scenarios. He is considered a pioneer of the controversial gekiga genre of adult-oriented manga. The son of the Japanese proletarian painter Toki Okamoto, his dream to become an artist equal with his father started when he became a kamishibai artist.