(or in Japanese, more accurately Yokoo Tadanori)

So who is this guy?

Tadanori Yokoo is a Japanese graphic designer, printmaker, and painter, born in June of 1936.  He was born in the Hyogo Prefecture, and started out designing stages in Tokya for application within the realm of avant garde theatre. 

In the late '60s, he became interested in mysticism and the psychedelic (who didn't?) mostly as a result of traveling to India, and this influence shows throughout his work.  His design won several awards and was internationally acclaimed; notably he was included in the "Word & Image" exhibition at New York's Museum of Modern Art in 1968.  He retired from the commercial world in 1981 and began to just paint/design for kicks, and his work is still shown from time to time in exhibits here and there.

He was influenced by his countrymen Akira Kurosawa and Yukio Mishima, and his design reflects the influence of New York's Push Pin Studio (namely Milton Glaser and Seymour Chwast)

His works include prints (mostly commercial), paintings, and he also dabbled in animation. 

blah blah blah BLAH

Why do I care?

What, you mean you want something besides these enticing, supremely interesting facts?  Here's the deal.  Tadanori Yokoo's influence can be seen throughout most Japanese art today.  There's a growing community of Japanese psychedelic artists, but Yokoo's work also made waves with the mainstream.  This is not to say that he was THE GUY who shaped Japanese visual media, but he is certainly one of the pioneers of the visual style which the rest of the world associates with Japan.

Anyway, here are some examples:

 And here's a YouTube video he did called "Kachi Kachi Yama" (which roughly translates as "Fire-Crackle Mountain") 

There is a Japanese folktale by the same title, but this video either has nothing to do with it or Yokoo was tripping so hard that he thought it did. 

Sources

Wikipedia (shut up)

Tadanori Yokoo's official site

Pics yanked from Google