A step to establish the first school for the deaf in Tokyo in 1870's

In February, 1873, when the ban to spread Christianity in the Japanese community was lifted for the first time, missionaries came to visit Japan one after another. Most were doctors, who gave priority to treatment of sick persons, and then did missionnary work.

One of the missionary doctors was Dr. Henry Faluds, who visited Japan from Scotland in March, 1874.

He founded a missionary hospital called the Tsukiji Hospital in the foreigner settlement located at Tsukiji, Tokyo in 1875.

Dr. Faluds observed a great number of blind persons in Japan, and considered the possibility to promote health awareness.

A group of Japanese prominent men (Masao Furukawa, Sen Tsuda, Masanao Nakamura, and Ginko Kishida), Dr. Burchardt, a missionary of the German-American Lutheran Church, and Dr. Faulds held a meeting on education of the blind at Dr. Faulds' house on May 22, 1875, which resulted in the organization of a philanthropic society called Rakuzenkai.