2018 Volume 6 Issue 2 Pages 107-109
Ryoichi ISHII (1867–1937) was the founder of Takinogawa Gakuen, the first school for the intellectually disabled in Japan. He started his teaching career at Rikkyo Women’s School while also managing Tokyo Kyuikuin, a boarding primary school for orphans. The following year, however, a great earthquake hit the Gifu and Aichi regions, and Ryoichi established a boarding school for girls orphaned by the earthquake. One of the girls he rescued was intellectually disabled. To learn about the best ways to educate this girl, he traveled to the U.S. for research in 1896. On returning, he reformed the Kojogakuin into Takinogawa Gakuen, a boarding school for intellectually disabled children of both sexes, funded almost entirely through donations. After moving twice into bigger and better locations, Takinogawa Gakuen evolved into a comprehensive organization serving students of all ages and with any severity of disability. In 1934, he became the first chairman of what is now the Japanese Association on Intellectual Disability. One of his personal mottos was “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” from the Holy Bible.
