Japanese short story writer, prose writer and poet, who also wrote under the pseudonyms Wayaku Tarou, Senshi Kijin, and Ueda Muchou.

Akinari is best known for his stories of the supernatural collected in Ugetsu Monogatari (1776; Tales of Moonlight and Rain) and Harusame Monogatari (1907; Tales of the Spring Rain). Today these works are considered the finest example of the yomihon genre produced during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Writing at a time when Edo (Tokyo) was replacing Osaka-Kyoto as the center of culture and literary activity, Akinari is considered the last great writer of the Osaka-Kyoto literary circle.