September 12 marks Space Day (Mori astronaut, 1992), Marathon Day (Athens legend), and the memorial of blind Edo scholar Hanawa Hokkyoi.
Blinded at seven, Hokkyoi memorized classics by ear, collecting scattered historical, literary, and legal texts nationwide to preserve them. His compilation Gunsho Ruiju gathers 1,277 works in 666 volumes from antiquity through early Edo — Japan's largest classical series — including Jinnō Shōtōki, Prince Shotoku biography, Murasaki Shikibu Diary, Shōmonki, Urashima legend, imperial funeral records, and more.
Printed from woodblocks in 20×20 grids of 400 characters — the standard manuscript format.
Blocks were managed by Tokyo Imperial University after Meiji but forgotten until miraculously found in 1909 in a Ministry of Education warehouse on land now Palaceside Building / Takebashi.
Designated Important Cultural Property in 1957; now kept at the Onko Gakkai hall in Shibuya (Tangible Cultural Property), founded by Shibusawa and others to honor Hokkyoi.