Yesterday we visited the museum build on the birthplace of one of Joetsu ‘s favorite sons, His
Yesterday we visited the museum build on the birthplace of one of Joetsu ‘s favorite sons, Hisoka Maejima. At the age of 8months, his father passed away, and he became an orphan, and was eventually adopted by the Maejima family. He loved nothing more than to study, and went to Tokyo to learn about The Netherlands (one of the first countries to have trade relations with Japan) as well as medicine and English. He was a”Westernizer” when that was still rare. He is known as the “father of the Japanese postal system” and was also a railroad man (building the railway from Joetsu to Niigata city), a newspaper man (founding what is now the Yomiuri Shimbun) and also an original founder of Waseda University. The Memorial Hall in his name features (thankfully) an audio explanation of his life and letters and awards from his past. And lots of postage stamps! I include here pictures of a statue of Maejima, some of his “Inkan” (personal seals), and 3 “shakuhachi” bamboo flutes that he was proficient in. As a side note, Maejima is respected by learners of Japanese because he once campaigned for the end of kanji (Chinese characters) in favor of the phonetic hiragana and katakana. Fortunately or unfortunately, a writing system using all three scripts is now the standard. I include the Wikipedia link here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maejima_Hisoka. #joetsu #maejimahisoka #localhistory #japanpost #waseda #stamps (at 前島記念館) https://www.instagram.com/p/BuaE5JHDR2G/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1hveezv5qvu24 -- source link
#joetsu#maejimahisoka#localhistory#japanpost#waseda#stamps