Akinari Ueda (1734–1809) was a Japanese writer of yomihon fiction, poet, and scholar of kokugaku during the late Edo period. Born in Osaka, he initially inherited a merchant household but turned to medicine after a fire destroyed the family property, supporting himself as a physician while studying Japanese classics and Chinese fiction. He was also known for his scholarly dispute with Motoori Norinaga. His representative work, "Ugetsu Monogatari," comprises nine supernatural tales adapted from Japanese and Chinese sources, including a man who returns from death to keep a promise, a wife who waits for a husband who never returns, and a young man pursued by a serpent spirit.
