Publisher opens ‘forest of patients’ stories’ in Osaka

From The Asahi

February 14 2024

OSAKA – A private library of more than 1,000 medical memoirs recently opened to the public here.

The library is called “Tobyoki no Mori” (the forest of patients’ stories).

Its owner is Kazuhiro Kanai, the 67-year-old president of Seikosha, a publishing house that mostly produces memoirs about battles with illness and disability.

His goal is to collect books that are useful for disease patients and make them available to the public.

“Some people may not want others to know about the diseases they have,” Kanai explained. “But I want to allow people to read medical memoirs at their own pace, in a quiet place and in secret.”

Although the library is operated by Seikosha, its book stock is not limited to Seikosha’s publications.

The library is made up of about 1,100 books that Kanai collected over two decades as reference material for his publishing company.

It includes books by entertainers about their battles with cancer, memoirs of everyday people with intractable diseases such as Parkinson’s and books by people living with disabilities.

When Kanai first relocated his company to its current spot in November 2021, he created a section in his office for these books, but he later moved the collection to a vacant apartment in the same building.

He decided to dedicate the entire 30-square-meter apartment to his library in December.

Currently, the library has only about one visitor a day on average, but visitors often stay for about an hour to take their time reading, Kanai said.

One visitor, Tamaki Komoto, said she is a member of a Parkinson’s disease patients’ association.

“Many books here are also useful for people caring for sick loved ones,” said Komoto, 63. “I hope this will become a place where patients and their families can connect.”

Kanai’s own experience led him to work on the publication of patients’ stories.

His wife, Mieko, died at 65 in February last year after struggling with multiple illnesses.

Kanai developed many connections with patient groups, patient family members’ associations and medical workers while accompanying Mieko to the hospital.

“Until 20 or 30 years ago, people in the publishing industry weren’t interested in printing patients’ stories, saying they weren’t profitable,” he said. “But I realized there are people who need these books, so I took it upon myself.”

ACCESS

The library can be found in an apartment building in the Uchi-Hiranomachi 1-chome district of Osaka’s Chuo Ward, a five-minute walk from Osaka Metro and Keihan Electric Railway’s Tenmabashi Station.

It is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays.

Although visitors are not allowed to take books home, they can make photocopies after they have registered with the library.

First-time visitors are advised to contact Seikosha (06-6777-3410) in advance to get recommendations for the memoirs that will be the most helpful, Kanai said.

Kanai added that he is considering allowing small groups of patients and family members to hold meetings at the library in the future.