Yumi Hotta

Yumi Hotta was born on October 15, 1957, in Japan. She is best known as the creator of the best-selling manga *Hikaru no Go*, which sparked a widespread revival of interest in the traditional board game go during the late 1990s and early 2000s. The idea for the series came to her after a casual game of go with her father-in-law; she initially developed the concept under the working title *Nine Stars*. Hotta wrote the story, collaborating with illustrator Takeshi Obata and go professional Yukari Umezawa (5-dan), who served as the series' supervisor. *Hikaru no Go* earned her the Shogakukan Manga Award in 2000 and the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2003. She later wrote a short series, *Yūto*, about long track speed skating, which ran in *Weekly Shōnen Jump* in 2005. Hotta is married to fellow manga artist Kiyonari Hotta, known for horse-racing manga and for illustrating under her pen name for the *Chunichi Shimbun*. Her work remains a benchmark for sports and game-themed manga, demonstrating how a niche subject can achieve broad cultural impact.