List of Famous people born in Shiga Prefecture, Japan

Saichō was a Japanese Buddhist monk credited with founding the Tendai school of Buddhism based on the Chinese Tiantai school he was exposed to during his trip to Tang China beginning in 804. He founded the temple and headquarters of Tendai at Enryaku-ji on Mount Hiei near Kyoto. He is also said to have been the first to bring tea to Japan. After his death, he was awarded the posthumous title of Dengyō Daishi (伝教大師).

Sayako Kuramoto is a Japanese actress and former gravure idol, formerly known as Saya Kazuki .

Tsuyoshi Kosaka is a Japanese mixed martial artist and professional wrestler who most recently competed in the Heavyweight division of RIZIN. A professional competitor MMA competitor since 1994, he has also competed for the UFC, PRIDE Fighting Championships, RINGS, Pancrase, and DEEP. Kohsaka is the former King of Pancrase Super Heavyweight Champion. His "TK guard" position, a precursor to modern butterfly guard, is famous for its efficiency; former UFC champions Frank Shamrock and Maurice Smith have both credited him with having vastly improved their work from that particular position.

Kanami Tashiro is a Japanese female volleyball player who plays for CSM București in Romania. She is also part of the Japan women's national volleyball team and played at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Shimon Sakaguchi is an immunologist and a Distinguished Professor of Osaka University. He is best known for the discovery of regulatory T cells and to describe their role in the immune system. This discovery is used in the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases.

Masanori Morita is a Japanese manga artist who is responsible for creating the manga series Rokudenashi Blues and Rookies. Rokudenashi Blues was made into a live action movie. At the beginning of Masanori's career he was an assistant of Tetsuo Hara on Hokuto no Ken.

Daiko Nagato is a Japanese musical producer, musical arranger, writer and composer. He's more known as a founder of music company Being Inc., which provided million seller hits during the 1990s and with his music company provided more than 80 theme songs for anime television series Detective Conan. He was the charge recording producer for the following artist such as Boøwy, Loudness, TUBE, B'z, ZARD, WANDS, Maki Ohguro, DEEN, T-BOLAN, Mai Kuraki, Garnet Crow and Rina Aiuchi.

Nobuyuki Okumura is a professional Japanese baseball player. He plays infielder for the Tokyo Yakult Swallows.

Mitsuhiko Imamori is a self-taught Japanese photographer. His work often involves insects but he is a naturalist at heart.

Hisanori Kitajima is a Japanese long-distance runner.