Photo/Illutration Akihiro Yonaiyama, who headed the Japanese Theater of the Deaf, right, with co-founder Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, famed actress and author, in Tokyo in 1987 (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Akihiro Yonaiyama, who served as a lecturer for Japan Broadcasting Corp.’s (NHK) program titled “Minna no shuwa” (Sign language for all), was not allowed to use his honed sign language skills at a school for the deaf when he was a child.

It was the practice at the time.

He was scolded for doing what was considered to be an unbecoming thing and trained to produce specific sounds by watching and copying the movements of a speaker’s mouth.

Yonaiyama could not hear his own voice, however. Feeling in the spirit of rebellion, he stopped trying to speak when he was a fifth-grader.

It was a fateful decision, he says in his book “Puraido” (Pride).

“The deaf are like members of an ethnic minority who use sign language, which is different from Japanese,” he wrote in the book.

He continued urging deaf people to take pride in being deaf by making the beauty of sign language widely known.

This charismatic leader in the community of deaf people died recently. He was 70, and he was a true trailblazer.

He launched a theatrical company called the Japanese Theater of the Deaf in his 20s and co-directed the film “I Love You” in his 40s.

In 2008, he was involved in the opening of Meisei Gakuen, the first school for the deaf in Japan where all classes are taught in sign language.

His career may explain why he wrote this: “There is absolutely no need (for deaf people) to think they cannot do something because of their deafness. I want to see them overcome and break through walls to create a new world.”

He encouraged the younger generations to tackle challenges.

I first met him more than two decades ago. He sported a beard and had a potbelly. His eyes reflected a sharp mind that stared at a society that lacks a sympathetic understanding of the deaf.

At the same time, he was like a large tree that draws people to it because of its massive presence. Many tears must have been shed over the sudden fall of such a mighty tree.

In Japanese sign language, feeling sad is expressed by moving a teardrop indicated via the index finger and the thumb down from the eye, as if tears are running down the cheek.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 12

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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