Matsunaga Yasuzaemon Memorial hall (まつながやすざえもんきねんかん)

Area
Iki
Category
History&Culture
  • 2382views

This memorial hall was built to commemorate the achievements of Matsunaga Yasuzaemon, a businessman from Iki who played a prominent role in expanding and promoting electric power in Japan from the early 19th to the mid-20th centuries. He was known as Japan’s King of Electric Power and Godfather of Electricity.
The building is constructed on the site of his childhood home and houses his cherished and much-used belongings as well as works of calligraphy that were gifted to him by various distinguished individuals around the country.

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Information

Address 811-5214 長崎県壱岐市石田町印通寺浦360-3
TEL 0920-44-6688
Hours of Operation 9:00~16:30
Closed Every Wednesday
*Closed from December 29 to January 3
Price Adults: 100 yen / Junior high school students and younger: 50 yen
Parking Parking lot available
Access 2 minutes by car from Indoji Port
15 minutes by car from Gonoura Port and Ashibe Port
Website Tripadvisor

Matsunaga Yasuzaemon

Matsunaga Yasuzaemon was a prominent industrialist who worked for the expansion of electricity in Japan throughout its Meiji, Taishō, and Shōwa periods, a career that spanned decades from the late 19th century to well past the mid-20th century. He built the foundation of Japan’s industrial economic development and influenced many fields, including the economic and political worlds, and he came to be called Japan’s King of Electric Power and Godfather of Electricity. After he passed away at the age of 96, this memorial hall was built at this site of his childhood home with the cooperation of electric companies, municipals, and many other related organizations and individuals to pass on his legacy.
The building is a testament to his accomplishments and houses items such as his cherished and much-used belongings, documents, and works of calligraphy gifted to him by various distinguished individuals around the country. Particularly impressive is a framed work of his famous words, which can be translated into English as “If it won't be done now, when will it? If I don’t do it, who will?” – written with his own hand at the age of 93.
Yasuzaemon is also well-known as Japanese tea ceremony master Jian, who represents the postwar Shōwa period. Within the premises is a carriage of a train built by the Fukuhaku Denki Kidō Company, which he helped established in 1909 and became part of what is now the Nishi-Nippon Railroad Company, more commonly known as Nishitetsu.

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