is a Japanese amateur astronomer who discovered a number of comets.

As a young adult, Ikeya lived near Lake Hamana

Lake Hamana

in Shizuoka Prefecture is Japan's tenth largest lake . It spans the boundaries of the cities of Hamamatsu and Kosai.-Data:The lake has an area of 65.0 km² and holds 0.35 km³ of water. Its circumference is 114 km. At its deepest point, the water is 16.6 m deep...

 and worked for a piano factory. During his employment there, he made his first discovery in 1963 with an optical telescope he built himself within his low budget. Two years later, he discovered the bright comet C/1965 S1 (Ikeya-Seki).

Ikeya discovered the periodic comet 153P/Ikeya-Zhang

153P/Ikeya-Zhang

Comet Ikeya-Zhang is a comet discovered independently by two astronomers from Japan and China in 2002....

 on February 1, 2002 in Mori, Hokkaidō

Mori, Hokkaido

is a town located in Kayabe District, Oshima, Hokkaidō, Japan. The total area of the town is .-Demographics:On March 31, 2009 the town had a population of 18,433 and a population density of 50.1 persons per km²....

. The asteroid

Asteroid

Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...

 4037 Ikeya

4037 Ikeya

4037 Ikeya is a 10 km asteroid named after a Japanese amateur astronomer, Kaoru Ikeya. It was discovered in 1982 by K. Suzuki and T.Urata.-References:* *...

 is also named after Ikeya.

On November 13, 2010, Ikeya discovered the P/2010 V1 (Ikeya-Murakami) comet using an optical telescope, rare in an era with access to digital imaging technologies.