You may not have heard of the name Hokiichi Hanawa. I had not, either, until I walked by the museum about a year ago. Hokiichi Hanawa was a famous blind scholar back in the Edo period. (Born in 1746) Despite his inability to see, or rather because of his inability to see, he was able to memorize thousands of books. Back then, books were so valuable and extremely costly as they were hard to make many copies and often those valuable books were lost due to fire, etc. (Fire was very common back then, too.)
He is also known as Helen Keller’s role model. When she visited Japan in 1937, she paid a visit to Hokkiichi’s memorial house. Those are her words: “When I was a child, my mother told me that Mr.Hanawa was your role model. To visit this place and touch his statue was the significant event during this trip to Japan. The worn desk and the statue facing down earned more respect of him. I believe that his name would pass down from generation to generation like a stream of water.”
In order to inherit the ancient works and books to future generations, he made a compilation book called “Gunsho-Ruiju.” He collected as much old documents as he could possibly gather and selected which ones should be included in the compilation. Selected stories were, then, carved in woods, so they can be printed and mass produced. It took him 40 years to complete this project and the compilation consists of 670 volumes. In this museum, you can see the carved woods used for printing. All 670 volumes are kept in this place. It costs 100 yen to enter the room and it’s worth every penny. This is a highly valuable asset for the humankind right here. Not really a place you find in guidebooks and they do not have much information in English, but I highly recommend a visit.
| Name | Hokiichi Hanawa Museum |
| Address | 2 Choume 9-1 Higashi Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0011 See on Google Map |
| Phone | 03-3400-3226 |
| Business Hours | Mon-Fri 9AM-5PM (Contact the for weekends) |
| Remarks: | Onkogakkai / Wikipedia / |
Yebistic! Japan 