Climb to the top of a quiet slope next to the Kokugakuin University campus and you arrive at the “Onko Gakkai (Hanawa Hokiichi Historical Archive).” Hanawa Hokiichi carries a strong, pure image as “the great blind scholar,” but he was more than just a scholar—he was also a figure who single-handedly bore the light and shadow of the history surrounding the “Todoza,” the Edo-period organization of blind officials. As depicted in the Taiga drama “Berabou ~Tsutaju Eiga no Yume Banashi~,” the Todoza of that time was rife with forceful moneylending and corruption by people such as the disgraced Toriyama Kengyo. It was Hokiichi on whom the shogunate placed great hopes, both as the one to cleanse this corrupt organization and as a symbol of raising the social standing of blind people through “scholarship.” The culmination of his scholarship, the “Gunsho Ruiju,” spans 666 volumes in total, with about 40 million characters. It took more than forty years. He died just 2 years after its completion—truly a great undertaking on which he staked his life. Hokiichi is said to have never forgotten anything he heard even once. Seeing with your own eyes the 17,224 woodblocks still lined up neatly in the storehouse today, you are overwhelmed by the fact that every single character was stored in his head. Standing in a space where shelves of woodblocks stretch on endlessly from floor to ceiling, you are enveloped in a strange feeling, as if stepping inside “Hanawa Hokiichi's brain.” The woodblocks preserved here are still used today to print by hand whenever orders come in. The words that were in Hokiichi's mind continue, even now after two hundred years, to be quietly passed on from this place to the present day. Thinking about that, I truly felt glad that I made it up that slope.

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This is an archive inside the Onko Gakkai Hall. Or rather, the Onko Gakkai Hall was built in order to preserve the materials here. It stores the woodblocks (17,244 of them) of the “Gunsho Ruiju” compiled by Hanawa Hokiichi and also opens them to the public. Admission was a very fair 100 yen. Apparently the name “Onko” itself is based on Hanawa Hokiichi's guiding spirit, onko chishin (from the Analects: reviewing the old to learn the new).

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While waiting for the Yamatane Museum of Art to open, I found this place while strolling around the area. Hanawa Hokiichi, Gunsho Ruiju I remember seeing those in a textbook... That was about the level of feeling I had when I dropped by. There's an Onko Gakkai sign at the entrance. A car was parked between the gate and the entrance—maybe a staff member's? But the entrance was open, and when I asked if I could look around, they gladly said yes. Admission was 100 yen, and a staff member guided me through the archive area and even gave me explanations. It's a common thing that at touristy museums you're often handled by staff who can only give simple explanations, but here it's different. The explanations were polite and easy to understand, and you could tell the person was speaking with solid knowledge. The materials you can see are the woodblocks of the Gunsho Ruiju. But they're truly wonderful Having survived the Great Kanto Earthquake and the Great Tokyo Air Raid, they're surviving historical materials, yet even now, when an order comes in, they print them one sheet at a time and bind them into books Historical materials still in active use— the first time I've ever seen such a thing. It was a moving encounter. A spot well worth seeing. I visited on a national holiday, but normally it seems to be closed then. Be careful when you visit!

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An archive I happened to find on the way from the Yamatane Museum of Art to the Kokugakuin University Museum. (It's right next to the university, but a little off the route.) I didn't know there was an archive for Hokiichi in a place like this, but I was surprised when I visited. It's a building made solely to manage the woodblocks of the first edition of the “Gunsho Ruiju,” an Important Cultural Property. The office of the organization that manages it is also attached, and a famous staff member gives very kind and thorough explanations. It's essentially a dozo (earthen storehouse), but inside, the shelves are packed with neatly lined-up woodblocks. Amazingly, these woodblocks made of cherry wood are still in active use, and even now, when an order comes in, they ask printers to print them and bind them into Japanese-style stitched books. At first glance it's just black boards lined up in a stack room, but standing inside the unlit storehouse, it felt as if a fearsome human obsession were quietly burning, and I was overwhelmed. (His superhuman feat—totally blind, yet versed in every single thing in the world and having enormous records taken down by dictation—surely puts even Bakin to shame.) Through these achievements he rose all the way to the rank of Sokengyo, but it's also an interesting story that he apparently had no talent for acupuncture and moxibustion, which kengyo were generally good at. Of course, touching is strictly prohibited, but I don't think you often get the experience of being surrounded by so many Important Cultural Properties. Apparently they've never been lent out to exhibitions, so these are precious materials you can only see by coming here. As merchandise(?), some bound portions are on sale. This is amazing too. There's also a small bronze statue of Hokiichi enshrined here, and apparently Helen Keller touched the statue at this very spot when she visited Japan. That's a drama in itself. The archive building itself was completed in Showa 2, and it's a modern structure with an outstanding atmosphere, as if it came straight out of Edogawa Ranpo or Yokomizo Seishi. (Registered Tangible Cultural Property) Also, there's apparently a project currently underway to turn Hokiichi's life into a film. If you're interested, definitely check it out. For an admission fee of 100 yen, you get a precious experience. The staff member (the person in the newspaper article photo) is a great talker, so please go with a little extra time to spare. It's amazing that this is being protected privately, but since it's a national treasure, I feel like it deserves some government support too. This is a bit of a digression, but personally I can't shake the feeling that the man himself wanted his name, written 保己一, to be read “Hoki no Ichi”—what do you think?

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The blind kokugaku (National Learning) scholar Hanawa Hokiichi compiled all 666 volumes of the Gunsho Ruiju using woodblock printing, before movable type existed in Japan (1793–1819). It is a collection containing numerous historical works and literary texts from ancient times through the Edo period, and it is still used today in research on history, kokugaku, Japanese literature, and more. All 17,244 mountain cherry woodblocks made for the Gunsho Ruiju have miraculously survived and are stored here. Preservation of woodblocks on this scale is unparalleled anywhere in the world, and they are designated an Important Cultural Property. The building, which escaped the ravages of war, was completed in 1927. It will soon be 100 years old. It's fun to visit it together with the Shirane Memorial Shibuya Local History Museum & Literature Museum and the Kokugakuin University Museum, each a few minutes' walk from here, as a set of three.

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