Hiraga Gennai was a Japanese polymath and rōnin of the Edo period. Gennai was a pharmacologist, student of Rangaku, physician, author, painter and inventor well known for his Erekiteru, Kandankei (thermometer), and Kakanpu. Gennai also composed several works on (homosexual) life and desire in Japan, such as the Nenashigusa (1763), the Kiku no en (1764), the San no asa (1768), and the Nenashigusa kohen (1768). He also wrote a few satirical essays, including "On Farting" Rootless Grass, and A Lousy Journey of Love. His birth name was Shiraishi Kunitomo, but he later used numerous pen names, including Kyūkei (鳩渓), Fūrai Sanjin (風来山人), Tenjiku rōnin (天竺浪人) and Fukuchi Kigai (福内鬼外). He is best known by the name of Hiraga Gennai.
Hiro Mashima is a Japanese manga artist. He gained success with his first serial Rave Master, published in Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine from 1999 to 2005. His best-selling work, Fairy Tail, published in the same magazine from 2006 to 2017, became one of the best-selling manga series with over 72 million copies in print. Mashima began the currently ongoing Edens Zero in 2018.
Hiroko Takenishi is a Japanese fiction writer and literary critic. Takenishi is best known for her semi-autobiographical short story "The Rite" (1963), which tells of her experience surviving the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima. In 2012 she was named a Person of Cultural Merit for her writing.
Hiromi Kawakami is a Japanese writer known for her off-beat fiction, poetry, and literary criticism. She has won numerous Japanese literary awards, including the Akutagawa Prize, the Tanizaki Prize, the Yomiuri Prize, and the Izumi Kyōka Prize for Literature. Her work has been adapted for film, and has been translated into more than 15 languages.
Hiromu Arakawa is a Japanese manga artist. She is best known for the manga series Fullmetal Alchemist (2001–2010), which became a hit both domestically and internationally, and was adapted into two anime television series. She is also known for Silver Spoon (2011–2019) and the manga adaptation of The Heroic Legend of Arslan novels.