Hinako Sugiura was a Japanese manga artist and researcher of Edo-period lifestyles and customs. Born Junko Suzuki on November 30, 1958, in Tokyo's Minato ward, she grew up in a family of kimono merchants that was steeped in tradition. After studying design and developing a strong interest in feudal Japan, she briefly attended Nihon University but left to pursue research under the direction of author Shisei Inagaki, a specialist in the Edo period who taught her rigorous background survey methods. She also worked as an assistant to prominent feminist manga artist Murasaki Yamada.

Sugiura made her professional debut in 1980 with the manga Tsugen Muro no Ume, published in the alternative manga magazine Garo. Her distinctive drawing style drew heavily on ukiyo-e techniques, which she used to depict the lives and customs of the Edo period with notable historical accuracy. Her work helped establish her as a representative of second-generation female manga artists, and her style became known as literary manga or文艺漫画 for its artistic sensibility.

Among her most significant original works is Sarusuberi, serialized in Weekly Manga Sunday from 1983 to 1987 and later compiled into three volumes. The manga is set in 1814 and portrays the life of Katsushika O-Ei, the daughter of the renowned ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai, as she works in her father's studio. Structured as a series of loosely connected short stories with occasional supernatural elements, the work was not intended as a precise biography but rather as a personal immersion into the world of eccentric artists. Sugiura chose the title Sarusuberi, the Japanese name for the crape myrtle tree, as a metaphor for Hokusai's seemingly inexhaustible creativity. The manga has gained cult status for its vivid characterizations.

Sarusuberi was adapted into an anime film titled Miss Hokusai, directed by Keiichi Hara and produced by Production I.G, which was released in Japan on May 9, 2015. The film received international distribution and positive critical reception, winning the Jury Award at the 39th Annecy International Animated Film Festival and the Gold Audience Award for best animated feature at the Fantasia International Film Festival.

Other notable manga works by Sugiura include Gassō, which won the Japan Cartoonists Association Award in 1984, and Fūryū Edo Suzume, which received the Bungei Shunjū Manga Award in 1988. She also created Hyaku Monogatari, a collection of ghost stories in the tradition of Edo-period怪谈, and Higashi no Eden, among others.

In 1993, Sugiura announced her retirement from manga to dedicate herself fully to research on Edo-period lifestyles and customs. She wrote numerous books on the subject, served as an academic advisor at the Edo Tokyo Museum, and appeared frequently in Japanese media as an expert on the period. She was particularly known for her commentary on the popular NHK program Comedy: O-Edo de Gozaru, and she was typically seen in public wearing traditional kimono.

Hinako Sugiura died of throat cancer on July 22, 2005, at the age of 46. Editor Matsuda Tetsuo once described her by saying she seemed less like a researcher of Edo than like someone who had actually come from that era. Her work has been adapted not only into film but also for the kabuki stage, and she is recognized for bringing the culture and daily life of historical Japan to a wide audience through both her manga and her scholarly activities.