Shigemi Shiukichi

Shiukichi Shigemi (1865–1928) is known for A Japanese Boy, first published in 1889. The book was presented as an autobiographical account and introduced readers to his early life in Imabari, a seaport town on Shikoku, describing ordinary family routines, schooldays, games, food, and celebrations with unusual immediacy for English-language readers of the time.

Reliable sources available here suggest he was born in Imabari on November 21, 1865, the son of a businessman. After his father's business failed, he was sent to work for a time, but later returned to school. He converted to Christianity as a young man, studied at Doshisha English Academy in Kyoto, and later went on to study medicine at Yale.

While at Yale, Shigemi wrote A Japanese Boy partly to help fund his studies. The book also had a broader purpose: to show American readers what the life of a Japanese child looked like from the inside, in his own words. That mix of personal memory and cross-cultural explanation is what still makes his work appealing today.