Ueda Akinari or Ueda Shūsei (上田 秋成, July 25, 1734, in Osaka – August 8, 1809, in Kyoto) was a Japanese author, scholar and waka poet, and a prominent literary figure in 18th century Japan. He was an early writer in the yomihon genre and his two masterpieces, Ugetsu Monogatari ("Tales of Rain and the Moon") and Harusame Monogatari ("Tales of Spring Rain"), are central to the canon of Japanese literature.