Hiraga Gennai

In this Japanese name, the surname is Hiraga.
Hiraga Gennai
平賀 源内
Hiraga Gennai
1845 A Portrait of Kyūkei Hiraga (1729–80) by Momuō Kimura
Bornc.1729
Sanuki, Sanuki Province, Japan[1]: 461 
Other namesKyūkei (鳩渓), Fūrai Sanjin (風来山人), Tenjiku rōnin (天竺浪人) and Fukuchi Kigai (福内鬼外)
EducationStudent of Rangaku[2]: 65 
Occupation(s)Physician, author, painter and inventor
Portrait of Hiraga Gennai by Nakamaru Seijuro

Hiraga Gennai (平賀 源内, born c.1729; died 1779 or 1780) was a Japanese polymath and rōnin of the Edo period. He was a pharmacologist, student of Rangaku, physician, author, painter and inventor well known for his Erekiteru (electrostatic generator), Kandankei (thermometer)[1]: 462  and Kakanpu (asbestos cloth)[2]: 67 . Gennai composed several works of literature, including the fictional satires Fūryū Shidōken den (1763),[1]: 486-512  the Nenashigusa (1763),[1]: 463-486 [3]: 115-124  and the Nenashigusa kohen (1768), and the satirical essays On Farting[3]: 393–9  and A Lousy Journey of Love.[3]: 62-4  He also authored two guidebooks on the male prostitutes of Japan, the Kiku no en (1764) and the San no asa (1768).[4]: 75  His birth name was Shiraishi Kunitomo,[citation needed] but he later used numerous pen names, including Kyūkei (鳩渓), Fūrai Sanjin (風来山人) (his principal literary pen name), Tenjiku rōnin (天竺浪人) and Fukuchi Kigai (福内鬼外). He is best known by the name Hiraga Gennai.

  1. ^ a b c d Shirane, Haruo, ed. (2002). Early Modern Japanese Literature: An Anthology, 1600-1900. New York, NY: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-10991-8.
  2. ^ a b Roberts, Lissa (27 May 2009). "Orienting natural knowledge: the complex career of Hiraga Gennai". Endeavour. 33 (2): 65–69. doi:10.1016/j.endeavour.2009.04.009. ISSN 0160-9327. PMID 19477523.
  3. ^ a b c Jones, Sumie; Watanabe, Kenji (2013). An Edo Anthology: Literature from Japan's Mega-City, 1750-1850. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai'i Press. doi:10.1515/9780824837761. ISBN 978-0-8248-3629-0.
  4. ^ Leupp, Gary P. (1995). Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-20900-1.