T  C     C T O H  TA  T P omiji iran
–D  : T  was held by the Hirano family on Sunday, the st of December , at noon, at theHirano family graveyard, Yanaka Graveyards, Nippori, Tokyo.
Many people from various industries: typefounding, typography, printing, shipbuilding, navigation, public works and others joined the ceremony, and this demonstrates that Tomiji
Hirano’s achievements have expanded to a broad range. Also,a monument that had originally been built in Nagasaki inpraise of Hirano’s achievements was recently moved to thegraveyard. e monument was introduced for the first time tothose who were present at the ceremony.

Tomiji Hirano (–) was born in
Nagasaki. In   , at the age of sixteen,
he started working as an apprentice engineer at Nagasaki Ironworks, and he wastrained by Shozo Motogi who later succeeded in developing modern Japanese typefounding techniquesin the s. In the next year, he became a member ofthe crew of the steamships Victoria ( tons, built in             
Sydney in ) and Charles ( tons, built in Bombayin ) that were owned by the Tokugawa Shogunate.
In , at the age of twenty-three, Hirano was hiredby the Tosa Domain as a First Engineer for some ships.
In , he returned to the Nagasaki Ironworks factory
and worked as First Engineer for the warship Choyo. In, he was appointed to General Manager of Kosuge
Ship Repair Dock run by the ironworks. In , hewas appointed to Administrator of Nagasaki Prefecture,
and General Manager of Nagasaki Ironworks and ofthe Kosuge Ship Repair Dock.
In , Shozo Motogi pleaded for Tomiji Hirano
to take over the business of Motogi’s typefoundry, andHirano accepted the offer. In , he opened a newtypefounding factory in Kanda, Tokyo. In , hemoved the factory to Tsukiji, Tokyo. In , at theage of thirty-one, he temporarily worked for the Ministry of Interior to produce printing machines. Heformed Ishikawajima Hirano Shipyard at the placeof former Ishikawajima Shipyard of the navy (theshipyard is the predecessor of today’s IshikawajimaHarima Heavy Industries). In , he asked Shigeru
Magata of his typefoundry to recut a Mincho typeface owned by the foundry, and Magata visited Shanghai to investigate the possibility. Hirano borrowed
the rights to run Yokohama Ironworks and renamed
it to Ishikawaguchi Ironworks. His shipyard started
launching many ships and boats. In , at the age ofthirty-eight, he had some members of his typefoundry             (Naonosuke Matsuno, etc.) visit China to begin sales oftype, and they formed a firm named Shubun-kan withprinting facilities in China. In , he formed Hirano
Civil Engineering and received an order for building
a railroad from Onda (Shibuya) to Megurogawa inTokyo. In , at the age of forty, he integrated and reorganized his printing and typefounding factories andformed Tokyo Tsukiji Typefoundry. He started working
on building the cannonship Chokai for the navy. In thenext year, he formed Tokyo Hirano Kisen [steamships]
Associates. In , when he was very busy with many
projects (railway construction for Japan Railway, waterworks building for Yokohama city, etc.), he suffereda stroke, and was paralyzed on his right side. In ,at the age of forty-two, he succeeded in building theAzumabashi iron bridge over the Sumidagawa River inTokyo. Four companies including Tokyo Hirano Kisen
Associates were merged and Tokyo Gulf Kisen Company was formed (it is the predecessor of today’s TokaiKisen). In , at the age of forty-seven, he started amining enterprise, but he abandoned it due to disagreements with investors.
In , he had a stroke again, while he was speaking about an issue of iron pipes used for waterworks inTokyo, and he passed away. He was buried at Yanaka
Graveyards. In , the government conferred a noble
title on the late Tomiji Hirano.

                                 