Nizou Yamamoto (山本 二三, Yamamoto Nizō) was born on 27 June 1953 in Fukue-shi (a town within Gotou City [Gotou-shi]), in Nagasaki Prefecture, and was one of the most well-known anime art directors and background artists in Japan. He was especially famous for his work on several of the Studio Ghibli films directed or produced by Hayao Miyazaki or Isao Takahata including Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986), Grave of the Fireflies (1988), Only Yesterday (1991), Whisper of the Heart (1995), Princess Mononoke (1997), and Spirited Away (2001).