Shirato Sanpei was born in Tokyo in 1932. His father, Okamoto Tōki, was an oil painter whose artistic endeavors exposed the young Shirato to a variety of perspectives. Okamoto notably instructed Kurosawa Akira in painting and design before the latter became a filmmaker. After a seven-year stint as a kamishibai artist, Shirato would begin working in the kashihon manga market in 1957. Kaze no Fujimaru, an animated series based on an original story by Shirato, began to be broadcast in 1964. This was the first animation for which the young Miyazaki Hayao was in charge of original drawings. The Legend of Kamui debuted that same year in the pages of Garo--a manga periodical founded by Shirato--and now best known as a launching pad for other revered manga talents like Mizuki Shigeru and Tsuge Yoshiharu. Shirato died in 2021.