Yuriko Omura is the professional maiden name of Yuriko Yamawaki, a celebrated Japanese illustrator of children’s picture books. Born in Tokyo on December 3, 1941, she began her artistic career while still in high school by illustrating a self-published book written by her older sister, Rieko Nakagawa. She made her professional debut under the name Yuriko Omura while a student at Sophia University. For the majority of her career, she worked in close collaboration with her sister, who was the author and lyricist known for her work on the songs in the Studio Ghibli film My Neighbor Totoro.

Yuriko Omura is the credited illustrator for the children’s book Sora Iro no Tane, also known as The Sky-Blue Seed. This picture book, written by Rieko Nakagawa and published in 1964, was the source material for a series of three animated television shorts. Studio Ghibli and Nippon Television Network adapted the story into these shorts, which aired in Japan in 1992. Additionally, the picture books she created with her sister served as the foundation for two animated shorts shown exclusively at the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Japan. The museum short titled The Whale Hunt was released in 2001, followed by Treasure Hunting in 2011. All three of these anime projects were directed or developed by Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki.

Beyond her contributions to these specific works, Yuriko Omura and her sister Rieko Nakagawa were the creators of the internationally beloved Guri and Gura series of children’s books, which debuted in 1963 and has sold tens of millions of copies worldwide. Her artistic identity is firmly rooted in the world of children’s literature, characterized by a decades-long collaboration with her sister that produced simple, endearing, and enduring stories. In recognition of their collective impact on Japanese literature, the two sisters were jointly awarded the Kikuchi Kan Prize in 2013.