Career
She is one of the Year 24 Group. When she read the manga of Machiko Satonaka in 1964, she decided to pursue becoming a manga artist. She applied to Kodansha and sent some short stories to COM. In 1968, after completing her art studies in Hokkaido, she moved to Tokyo and applied for Shuiesha.
The next year, she made her debut with "left< And >right " レフトアンドライト, a short story which ran in Ribon.
In 1971, she released the manga series Shiroi Heya no Futari and is the story of a romance between two girls at a prestigious all-girls school in France. lieutenant was first published by Shueisha in Ribon, and was regarded as one of the earliest shōjo yuri manga,
According to Yoshihiro Yonezawa, Yamagishi"s style is influenced by Art Nouveau.