Hiraga Gennai

Life & Legacy

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, author, painter and inventor well known for his Erekiteru (electrostatic generator), Kandankei (thermometer) and Kakanpu (asbestos cloth). Gennai composed several works of literature, including the fictional satires Fūryū Shidōken den (1763), the Nenashigusa (1763), and the Nenashigusa kohen (1768), and the satirical essays On Farting and A Lousy Journey of Love. He also authored two guidebooks on the male prostitutes of Japan, the Kiku no en (1764) and the San no asa (1768). 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). He is best known by the name Hiraga Gennai.