Kyushu-University Medical Museum came into existence thanks to the donations received from members of the Kyushu-University School of Medicine Students' Union, and it has been due to the close cooperation and joint management with this alumni association that the ceremony of its opening was to become celebrated on April the 4th, 2015. The museum showcases a multitude of rare and valuable historical documents, artifacts and other source materials regarding the history of the Faculty of Medical Sciences since the times of its foundation.

The museum is located in the reconstructed Anatomical Theatre, which had been built in March 1903, the date of the University's foundation. In the wooden, amphitheatrical shaped auditorium the newly enrolled students got a first impression of what medical science is about, a location which has been of symbolic importance. Whereas in 1976 the building in the course of the general maintenance of the University-Hopital's campus landscape due to the initiative and support of the School of Medicine Students' Union at first had been decomposed and displaced right next to the former Main Auditorium, thereby saved from destruction, finally both were torn off to make room for a new University-Hopital in 1997. It not only has been a building which enabled to catch the spirit of the times of the Medical Faculty's foundation, but also was one of the oldest among the wooden western-style buildings that had been preserved in Fukuoka Prefecture.

Following the famous haiku-poet Matsuo Basho's guiding idea of fueki ('immutability'), i.e. that in order to maintain its character, science must constantly renew itself while maintaining to everlasting fundamental principles, the Medical Museum provides a place where thoughts and ideas are to be developed, cultivated, shared and explored. On the basis of this principle, the museum collects and preserves significant historical materials related to the Faculty of Medical Sciences, conducts research activities, and, by presenting the results of these efforts, it not only provides support for medical education and research, but also makes the history of medicine and medical care accessible to a broader public, thereby carrying on its mission to foster a deeper understanding towards these two subjects.

（Responsible for the wording：The Medical Museum of Kyushu University）

This 6,033m² garden was donated by the School of Medicine Alumni Association as one of the projects to commemorate the School of Medicine’s 75th anniversary.

Inspired by the great tradition of Japanese gardens, it uses undulating curves, sculpted shrubberies and meandering footpaths to replicate the landscape of Kyushu in miniature. Modeled on the five peaks of Kyushu’s three great mountains—Kuju, Sobo and Aso—the whole of Kyushu was scoured to find the evergreen and deciduous trees that were planted on the artificial hills, while bluestone from the Itsuki valley represents the island’s cliffs and gorges.

The undulating hedge on Omori Street is a mixed planting of 37 varieties of Kurume azalea, while the flat hedge in front of the outpatient building features Nagasaki Kumano azalea in a single color.

Part of the stone wall enclosing the artificial hills is made from stones that were originally used in the construction of Fukuoka Castle’s inner moat, which were unearthed throughout the city when Fukuoka’s subway system was being constructed. Towering over the northwest of the garden is the timeless masterpiece by Carl Milles , The Hand of God.

Kyushu University Faculty of Medicine Alumni

On the south side of the 75th Anniversary Memorial Garden, beside the statue of Dr. Harutoyo Omori, is a stream called the Stream of Devotion. It was created by the Shiseikai (literally, “the Association of the Devoted”), the association for alumni of Kyushu University’s affiliated medical department to mark the 30th anniversary of the department’s opening.

The department opened in June 1939 and produced 835 alumni until its closure in 1952, with the graduation of the ninth group of students. Long after the department’s closure, at the 25th anniversary meeting, a plan was devised to create a pond as a place of solace for patients, to mark the 30th anniversary of the department’s opening. However, this coincided with plans to build a new hospital, so work on it never began; instead, it found form as the Stream of Devotion when the 75th Anniversary Memorial Garden was developed.

The monument to the Stream of Devotion bears an inscription in the hand of Dr. Kenji Takeya, the 26th Dean of the School of Medicine. Serving as the monument’s plinth is the foundation of the otolaryngology classroom, which was built on the land now occupied by the 75th Anniversary Memorial Garden in 1915 and was knocked down in 1976.

Kyushu University Faculty of Medicine Alumni

"The Hand of God" by Carl Milles stands towering in the northwest part of the garden for the 75th anniversary of the school of medicine. It was donated with the enthusiasm of volunteers in the Alumni Association of the School of Medicine and scholars from the second Department of Surgery, as the most suitable symbolic sculpture for completion of the garden.
Carl Milles was one of the greatest sculptors of this century from Sweden, who was strongly influenced by Impressionists such as Rodin early in his career, after which he adopted the expressionist style of the Middle Ages and ancient Greece to create his own style, immigrating to the U.S. and leaving many powerful and fantastic masterpieces. In particular, this "The Hand of God" is a masterpiece from his later years that is said to be a world treasure. He suffered an eye disease later in life and returned to Sweden for fear of blindness, where he created this sculpture in 1954, one year before he died. It is Milles himself who has an earnest desire to seek the light of heaven at the hand of God.

Kiyoshi Inokuchi
(Professor Emeritus in the Department of Surgery and Science (previously the Second Department of Surgery))

The Tree of Hippocrates is the giant plane tree on the Greek island of Kos under which the ancient physician Hippocrates is said to have conducted his classes on medicine around 400 BC.
Hiroshi Kambara is a doctor and historian from Niigata Prefecture, and he and his wife traveled all the way to Kos Island and collected seeds from the Tree of Hippocrates. On returning to Japan, Dr. Kambara planted eight seedlings. Tamikazu Amako, the 3rd Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery of Kyushu University, was given one of the seedlings by Dr. Kambara and planted it on the Kyushu University campus as his way of wishing for our continuous development; this act is commemorated in the "Monument of the Permanent Planting of the Tree of Hippocrates" at Kyushu University.
 

November 14, 1973　Donor　Tamikazu Amako Tree of Hippocrates　ー From the planting monumentー

 

In 1983, the Kyushu University School of Health Science celebrated the 35th anniversary of the year in which it was renamed the Kyushu University School of Nursing under the Act on Public Health Nurses, Midwives, and Nurses promulgated in 1948. Nursing education at Kyushu University began in 1903, at the same time that the School of Medicine was founded. After subsequent changes of name and elevation to the status of junior college, nursing education today is provided by the School of Medicine’s Department of Health Sciences.
To mark the 35th anniversary, 985 alumni from this period created a garden in front of the entrance to the School of Health Science and, under a red bayberry tree, erected a monument inscribed with the sixth stanza of the Nightingale Pledge, as an expression of their hope for the further development of nursing education. (The brushwork on the inscription is in the hand of Sister Yoko Okamoto of the Kyushu University School of Health Science.)

*Named in honor of Florence Nightingale, in recognition of her achievements, the Nightingale Pledge is a statement of the outlook and attitude required by nurses in their vocation.
 

In 1587, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who was encamped at Hakozaki Shrine after completing his sub-jugation of Kyushu, composed waka poems with the military commanders of Hakata and held tea ceremonies with masters of the tea ceremony and merchants. Sen no Rikyu, who was famous tea master, is said to have slung an iron kettle from a pine tree in this area and gathered pine needles strewn across the white sands to boil the water.。

Reprinted from the monument

Reprinted from the monument

Born in Leshan, Sichuan Province, Guo Moruo entered the Faculty of Medicine, Kyshu Imperial University, in 1918, graduating in 1923, Famed for his poetry anthology "Goddess (Nushen)" and his role in modern Chinese literature. Guo was celebrated for his studies of history, ancient philosophy and Chinese characters, and was also famous as a Marxist revolutionary, He was, with the founding of the People's Republic of China, appointed to the position of deputy prime minister and head of the Chinese Academy of Science. This monument is in commemoration of the 90th anniversary of his entry in to this university.

March 2008
Reprinted from the monument