Masashi Kishimoto
is a Japanese manga artist best known for the "Ninku" series which was serialized in Shueisha's "Weekly Shōnen Jump" manga magazine between 1993 and 1995, and was adapted into an anime series and film. A second manga titled ran from 2005 to 2011 in the "seinen" magazine "Ultra Jump". His works inspired artists such as Masashi Kishimoto of "Naruto" fame, who used to copy Kiriyama's drawings in his studying to become a manga artist.