Hiraga Gennai

Hiraga Gennai

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): 462  and Kakanpu (asbestos cloth): 67 . Gennai composed several works of literature, including the fictional satires Fūryū Shidōken den (1763),: 486-512  the Nenashigusa (1763),: 463-486 : 115-124  and the Nenashigusa kohen (1768), and the satirical essays On Farting: 393–9  and A Lousy Journey of Love.: 62-4  He also authored two guidebooks on the male prostitutes of Japan, the Kiku no en (1764) and the San no asa (1768).: 75  His birth name was Shiraishi Kunitomo, 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). Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Hiraga Gennai has received more than 111,776 page views. His biography is available in 17 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 15 in 2019). Hiraga Gennai is the 419th most popular physician (down from 392nd in 2019), the 899th most popular biography from Japan (down from 876th in 2019) and the 9th most popular Japanese Physician.