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Kaijin Akashi
 Kaijin Akashi (Japanese: 明石 海人) was the pen name of Shōtarō Noda (野田勝太郎, 5 July 1901 – 9 June 1939), a Japanese poet whose writing was inspired by his diagnosis of leprosy and confinement to a leper colony.[1] Early lifeAkashi was born in Numazu, Shizuoka prefecture on 5 July 1901. He was the third son of a farmer. At the age of twenty, he graduated from Shizuoka Normal School with a license to teach elementary school. He worked as a teacher until 1926.[2][3] In 1924, he married Asako Furugōri, also an elementary school teacher.[3] They had two daughters, born in February 1925 and late 1926.[2][3] Leprosy and poetryAkashi began to show symptoms of leprosy in early 1926, and was diagnosed that same spring.[2][3] He retired from teaching after his diagnosis and was soon subjected to the mandatory quarantine regime in practice in Japan at that time.[3] In the following year, he was hospitalized in Akashi Rakusei hospital (明石楽生病院),[3] which stood in what is now Nishi-ku, Kobe.[4] When this facility closed in 1932, he was moved to the leper colony Nagashima Aiseien Sanatorium.[3] While at Nagashima Aiseien, Akashi learned to write traditional Japanese poetry, primarily tanka. His poems were published in the sanatorium's magazine, Aisei;[3] and he became one of the best-known of a group of leprosy patients who wrote poetry and prose about their condition, a genre referred to as "leprosy literature" until the 1940s.[5][6] Akashi's health deteriorated as a result of his condition, and in autumn of 1936, he went blind.[2] On 11 November 1938, he underwent a tracheotomy as a result of difficulty in breathing.[2] On 9 June 1939, he died at the sanatorium of intestinal tuberculosis.[2] He published his most successful work, Hakubyō, in 1939, shortly before his death.[7][8] It sold over 250,000 copies[note 1] and drew significant attention to the plight of leprosy patients in Japan.[8][9] Hakubyō was a bittersweet work, exploring Akashi's grief over his condition and the loneliness that stemmed from his lengthy mandated isolation, as well as his eventual view that his condition was a gift enabling him to experience beauty and insight beyond the physical world.[8] LegacyAkashi's work continues to be read and studied by contemporary scholars.[3] Inspired by Akashi's poetry, Japanese photographer Atsushi Fujiwara photographed the decaying remains of Nagashima Aiseien for his 2015 book Poet Island.[10] Four monuments honoring Akashi were erected in his home town of Numazu in 2001.[3] Books of verse by Akashi
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