Kozueko Morimoto is a Japanese manga artist best known as the creator of the long-running series Gokusen. She was born on February 27 in Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyushu and is a graduate of Saga University's Faculty of Education. Her professional debut as a manga author came in 1985 with the publication of the short work Daki Yosete Propose in the magazine YOU Zokan Vivid YOU, which was published by Shueisha.

Morimoto is most widely recognized for creating the manga Gokusen, which she wrote and illustrated from 2000 to 2007 in the josei (women's) magazine You. The story follows Kumiko Yamaguchi, a young teacher at a troubled boys' high school who secretly happens to be the heiress to a powerful yakuza crime family. The series was a commercial success and became a significant media franchise. Gokusen was adapted into a thirteen-episode anime television series produced by the studio Madhouse, which aired on Nippon Television in 2004. Beyond animation, the property also spawned multiple live-action Japanese television dramas and a theatrical film.

Beyond Gokusen, several other of Morimoto's manga works have been adapted for the screen, demonstrating her consistent popularity as a source material creator. Her manga Ashi-Girl was serialized in the magazine Cocohana from November 2011 to December 2021 and was adapted into a twelve-episode live-action television drama that aired on NHK in 2017. The story centers on a modern high school girl who time-travels to Japan's Sengoku period. Morimoto launched a sequel to this work, titled Tama no Koshi Ire: Ashi-Girl Season 2, which began serialization in February 2023. Her manga Koudai-ke no Hitobito, which ran in 2012, was made into a live-action film released in 2016, with Morimoto credited for the original story. Additionally, her series Deka Wanko, which began in 2008, was adapted into a television drama in 2011.

Morimoto has also published a variety of other manga, including the medical story Kenshui Nanako in the 1990s and the one-shot Hissatsu Doubutsubu in the shonen magazine Weekly Shonen Jump in 2007. Her body of work, which often blends comedy with elements of drama and action, has established her as a notable and prolific author in the josei manga category, with a career spanning several decades and a significant number of her titles receiving major live-action and animated adaptations.