Photo/Illutration Wakana Kawamata with a stuffed animal collected by Masataro Sakurai, the founder of the touch-and-see museum in Morioka, Iwate Prefecture, in December 2019 (Masakazu Higashino)

MORIOKA--Masataro Sakurai never forgot the scolding he got for touching a snake specimen during a high school trip to a museum.

The humiliation the blind teenager endured for merely wanting to experience the exhibits drove him as an adult to create his own tactile-oriented museum here so others with visual impairments could enjoy exhibits hassle-free.

"How can people with impaired vision learn anything about the exhibits if they can't touch them?" wondered Sakurai, who went on to teach at the Iwate prefectural school for visually impaired children.

In 1981, he converted his house into a museum specially geared toward people with impaired vision.

The museum's motto is  "touching is believing."

Visitors to the Shikakushogaisha no Tameno Tedemiru Hakubutsukan (the touch-and-see museum for the visually impaired) can touch some pretty wild objects, not the least of which is a whale's skeleton.

Sakurai went to the extreme length of burying one of the mammals in the yard of his house, which was then dug up after its flesh had rotted off.

A shark is also on display for visitors to touch, letting them feel the roughness of its skin.

Currently, the museum's 170-square meter floor space is packed with 3,000 specimens, some of which are stuffed, and models he began amassing after he started teaching and paid for out of his pocket.

The museum's models include replicas of World Heritage sites including an Egyptian pyramid and a Japanese "kofun" burial mound, which visitors can touch to compare their scale.

Visitors without visual impairments may also appreciate the unique hands-on approach to learning what the museum offers.

By touching a statue of Tutankhamen or an asteroid probe, visitors can perceive fine details in their designs not readily apparent to the eye.

It takes most visitors about three hours to work their way through the items in the museum, touching each one as they go.

More than 400 people from Japan and abroad come to see Sakurai's collection every year, which requires advance reservations for admission.

In 2010, his health deteriorating, Sakurai decided he had no choice but to close the museum. 

Masato Kawamata, 68, a teacher who had worked with Sakurai, went to the museum to try and dissuade him, accompanied by his eldest daughter, Wakana.

Wakana, 38, had simply intended to have a last look at the museum before its closure. However, she was so impressed with Sakurai's enthusiasm for it that she decided to take over the business.

Though Sakurai warned her that running the place would be tough, she refused to change her mind.

Wakana quit her job and moved from Kanagawa Prefecture to Morioka. She then transferred the museum's exhibits to the second floor of her father's house and began serving as the museum's director in July 2011.

There she worked with Sakurai until his death in 2016.

From him, she said she learned the importance of explaining items on display in a logical order for visually impaired visitors.

Sakurai stressed, for example, that animals should be presented in their order of evolution.

Small creatures are introduced with enlarged models, and larger animals are done with miniature versions. Then, visitors touch the actual specimens to learn how they swim and move.

Grasping Sakurai's strategy was "kind of a cross-cultural interaction for me," Wakana said, "since I don't have impaired vision." 

Wakana said she is glad she chose to preserve the museum as visitors tell her it gave them a learning experience they never would have had otherwise and that going through it felt like traveling around the world.

The museum is a five-minute walk from the Higashi-Aniwa 1-chome bus stop, which is accessible by taking an Iwatekenkotsu Co. bus from JR Morioka Station. Opening hours are irregular, with reservations required. Admission is free.

For more details, visit the museum's blog (available in Japanese only) at (http://tedemil-hakubutukan.asablo.jp/blog).