10 Facts About Tanaka Hisashige

Tanaka Hisashige'sashige Tanaka was a Japanese rangaku scholar, engineer and inventor during the Bakumatsu and early Meiji period in Japan.

Tanaka Hisashige was born in Kurume, Chikugo province as the eldest son of a tortoise shell craftsman.

Tanaka Hisashige declined to take over the family business, surrendering his position to his younger brother and devoted his full attention to karakuri dolls.

Tanaka Hisashige then moved on to Kyoto, where he studied rangaku, or western learning, and astronomy.

Tanaka Hisashige invented a pneumatic fire pump, and in 1851, he built a myriad year clock which is designated as an Important Cultural Property by the Japanese government.

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Tanaka Hisashige later was a student at the Nagasaki Naval Training Center.

On its closure and the withdrawal of its Dutch advisors, Tanaka Hisashige moved back to Saga and worked at the Seirenkata, where he built models of steam warships, a steam locomotive and experimented with making a telegraph and a glass factory.

Tanaka Hisashige was involved in the construction of a reverberatory furnace in Saga for the production of Armstrong guns.

Tanaka Hisashige rented the second floor of a temple in what is Roppongi as a workshop that evolved into his first company—Tanaka Seisakusho, the first manufacturer of telegraph equipment in Japan.

Tanaka Hisashige changed its name after Tanaka's death to Shibaura Engineering Works in 1904.