(Voice actor) Mr.Akira Daniel Duncan

There have been several figures who achieved many different feats. Leonardo da Vinci is one example. While leaving behind great paintings as an artist, he also demonstrated his talents as a scientist in various fields such as physics, geology, astronomy, and engineering. In Japan, such a man would be Gennai Hiraga. As a scientist, he taught himself to restore elekiter, a generator, and created electricity for the first time in Japan. He also demonstrated his talent in literature, as his works were performed in Kabuki and Joruri. Hideatsu Egawa, who emerged around the end of the Tokugawa regime, was also a multi-talented genius. Hideatsu Egawa was born into the Egawa family, which served as the local governor of Izu (now a part of Shizuoka prefecture) Nirayama from generation to generation. While the Tokugawa shogun controlled the land, a local governor is an official who ruled the land behalf on the shogun. Many ships passed through Izu and it was a strategic stop of maritime traffic. So, the Tokugawa regime directly ruled it instead of making it a territory of another feudal lord. Hideatsu payed attention to politics as well, recommending smallpox vaccination to his people. The people of Izu Nirayama respected Hideatsu. He also studied Western knowledge and introduced Western-style tactics. He even studied artillery and raised his awareness of national defense. In the 1800s, foreign ships appeared on Japan’s shore repeatedly. Hideatsu, as he was governing Izu which faced the sea, submitted his theory on national defense. This caught the higher-ups’ attention of the Tokugawa regime and he started to act as the brain of the regime. He accomplished groundbreaking projects even in the Tokugawa regime, such as learning Western-style artillery in Nagasaki and giving instructions in Izu, and making a reverberator to protect the cannon barrel. Hideatsu was frustrated at the Tokugawa regime, which was not making preparations even while being cautious of the West, and in 1853, the incident that he had feared happened. Perry came to Japan from the US leading a fleet of ships. The purpose was commercial exchange, but unlike before, he was pressurizing. A mistake would lead to war. And if a war broke out, the American fleet would easily penetrate the Edo bay, and Japan was expected to lose. The Tokugawa regime hastily ordered to build a battery site to protect the Edo bay. Furthermore, it was an impossible task to build it within a year, when Perry would come back. But Hideatsu got through this difficult situation with a rush job. Hideatsu’s other achievements and talents are introduced in the story. Take a look at the story of the superhero of Edo, Hideatsu Egawa.