Kaoru Kurimoto is the pen name of Sumiyo Imaoka, an award-winning Japanese novelist. Imaoka also used the pen name Azusa Nakajima (中島梓 Nakajima Azusa) to write criticism. She is best known for her record-breaking 118-volume Guin Saga series, which has been translated into English, German, French, Italian and Russian.

Kurimoto was known for being prolific, and in the thirty years since her debut, she wrote nearly 400 books. This includes four years where she wrote more than twenty books; she still regularly produced more than ten books a year near the end of her life. She wrote in several genres, including science fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery, yaoi and Japanese-style historical romance.

She passed away on May 26th, 2009 of pancreatic cancer at age 56.