Hideo Hattori (1949–) A Japanese historian specializing in medieval Japanese history. He has served as a cultural properties investigator at Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs and as a professor at Kyushu University. His research combines written sources with place names, landscapes, old roads, fieldwork, and oral testimony to reconstruct the lives and social structures of local communities. His "Keikan ni Saguru Chusei" received the Kadokawa Genyoshi Prize. In "Kawara no Mono, Hinin, Hideyoshi," he examines marginalized groups in medieval Japan—including kawara no mono, hinin, and shomonji—and reconstructs the occupations and social roles they performed. The book also investigates Toyotomi Hideyoshi's origins and the disputed paternity of his son Hideyori, offering a detailed picture of social change from medieval to early modern Japan. The book received the Mainichi Publishing Culture Award.
