Person: Kubo Taito

Kubo Taito is a mangaka responsible for creating Bleach. He is also known as Kubo Tite and his real name is Kubo Noriaki (久保宣章).

The son of a town council member in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima, Kubo graduated from the local high school. In an interview, Kubo has stated that he entered a magazine's manga contest, and that although he did not win, one of the magazine's editors noticed his talent. They subsequently worked together on joint projects. Not long afterward, his first manga short, "Ultra Unholy Hearted Machine", was published in Shueisha's Weekly Shounen Jump Special in 1996. This was followed by two more shorts, and in 1999 his first serial, Zombiepowder., began in Weekly Shounen Jump and ran for four volumes until 2000, when it was cancelled. According to the author's commentary in the cover leaf of the third tankoobon, Kubo was in a state of severe emotional trauma when he wrote it.

His next series, Bleach, about a high school student who becomes a shinigami and fights evil spirits, began running in the same magazine in 2001. Kubo initially expected the series' serialization to continue no longer than five years. As of July 2009, Bleach has reached over 370 chapters, and an anime adaptation began running in Japan in 2004. The manga was named a winner of the Shogakukan Manga Award for its category in 2005.