Masashi Kishimoto

Masashi Kishimoto, born in 1974 in Japan’s Okayama Prefecture, is a Japanese manga writer and artist. After attending art school for a time, he won the Hot Step Award for emerging manga artists with his manga “Karakuri.” The first version of “Naruto,” created in 1997, centered on a fox demon; the final version was first published in Weekly Shōnen Jump in 1999. His other works include “Boruto” and “Samurai 8.”