Yutaka Hara (原 ゆたか, Hara Yutaka) is a Japanese writer and illustrator of children's literature. He was born in Kumamoto in 1953, and is the winner of the 1974 KFS Contest Kodansha Children's Literature Award (KFSコンテスト・講談社児童図書部門賞受賞). He is the author of several series of children's illustrated books including the very popular Kaiketsu Zorori (Incredible Zorori), Chiisana Mori (Small Forest), Meimon furaido chiken shougakkou (the famous fried chicken primary school]) and Touyuuki (Journey to the East: the title is a homage to the famous Chinese novel Journey to the West). Source: Wikipedia (en)