Toshimitsu Fukiharuwas born in Fukuoka, Japan, and graduated with a doctorate from the Department of Forest and Biomaterials Science of the Faculty of Agriculture at Kyoto University. He serves as senior researcher at the Chiba Open-air Museum Boso-no-Mura and is a part-time lecturer in the Faculty of Integrated Human Studies at Kyoto University. Toshimitsu Fukiharu specializes in the natural history of mushrooms and researches ammonia fungi, which uniquely grow in places where animal excrement and carcasses have decomposed. His published works include Kinoko no shita ni wa shitai ga nemuru?!-Kinshi ga orinasu fushigi na sekai (Underneath Mushrooms Are Carcasses?!-The Magical World Woven); Mitsukete tanoshimu kinoko no wandÄrando (Discover and Enjoy the Wonderland of Mushrooms); Shogakukan no zukan NEO: Shokubutsu (The Shogakukan NEO Picture Book of Plants); and Kangaeru kinoko: Maka fushigi wÄrudo (The Many Faces of the Mysterious Mushroom).