Umehara Takeshi (梅原 猛) was born in Miyagi Prefecture in Tōhoku in 1925 and graduated from the philosophical faculty of Kyoto University in 1948 He taught philosophy at Ritsumeikan University and was subsequently appointed rector of the Kyoto Municipal University of Fine Arts. Noted for his prolific essays on Japanese culture, in which he endeavoured to refound the discipline of Japanese studies along more Japanocentric lines, notably in his programmatic book, in collaboration with Ueyama Shunpei, Nihongaku kotohajime(日本学事始) 1972. Aside from his voluminous academic essays on numerous aspects of Japanese culture he has also composed theatrical works on figures as varied as Yamato Takeru and Gilgamesh.