Ōten Shimokawa (or Hekoten Shimokawa)(下川凹天Shimokawa Ōten, May 1892 - 1973-05-26, Miyakojima, Okinawa, Japan) a Japanese artist, is considered to be one of the founding artists and pioneers of anime. Little is known of his early personal life, other than his family moved to the Tokyo area when he was nine years old. Here he began working for Tokyo Puck Magazine as a political cartoonist and manga series artist, later becoming an editorial assistant.