NHK's program "Heroes' Choices," which highlights heroes who made decisions that changed history, will broadcast "A Technology-Based Nation Started as a Hobby: Karakuri Giemon, the King of Inventors in the Late Edo Period" on NHK BS from 9:00 PM on February 2nd. The program will feature the late Edo period inventor Hisashige Tanaka, also known as the "Edison of the East."
Tanaka Hisashige, also known as "Karakuri Giemon," was a genius inventor active from the end of the Edo period through the Meiji era. He rose to fame with his ingenious Karakuri dolls, and developed a succession of groundbreaking products that made everyday life more convenient, including lighting fixtures and mechanical clocks. He eventually succeeded in domestically producing the steam engine and the telegraph, making a major contribution to Japan's modernization.
How was Tanaka Hisashige, the inventor of the late Edo period, so highly praised by Isoda Michifumi, able to achieve one innovation after another? We look into his life, a life that he lived to the fullest, to find clues for realizing a technology-based nation.
