Isami Nakagawa is a Japanese manga artist and illustrator born on July 8, 1962, in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture. He began drawing manga during his student years and made his professional debut in 1985 with the story Trouble Man's Rumours, published in I'm Champion. Early in his career, he worked under the pen name Nakagawa Isao before transitioning to his current name.

Nakagawa rose to prominence in the late 1980s, becoming widely known for his manga series Kuma no Pūtarō. The series was first serialized in publications such as Big Comic Spirits and Big Comic Superior starting in 1989. The character and its absurdist comedy proved highly popular, leading to a television anime adaptation produced by Studio Deen. The Kuma no Pūtarō anime aired for 30 episodes from 1995 to 1996, with Nakagawa serving as the original creator. In addition to the original series, he later released subsequent volumes tied to the franchise, including Jisen - Kuma no Pūtarō - Banana, Jisen - Kuma no Pūtarō - Cheese, and later Kuma no Pūtarō - Hanbun and Kuma no Pūtarō - Mô Hanbun.

His artistic identity is strongly associated with humor. In the 1980s, his work was characterized as iconoclastic and deliberately aggressive comedy. Over time, his style evolved while retaining a focus on nonsense and absurdist gags. This shift was exemplified by the series Poguri, published in 2008, which was described as a collection of vignettes filled with non-sense and poetry, marking a departure from his earlier, more aggressive tone. Other works by Nakagawa include Izumi's Invotacion, Pojarica, Adult Bag, Gomute, Dry Cloth, and Strato!.

Beyond his manga series, Nakagawa has also worked on illustration and essays. His contributions to the medium have been recognized with industry accolades, including the Asahi Newspaper Award in 2003.