One of my favorite and exciting explorations turned out to have one of the most tragic background stories – please let me introduce you to the Hanakura Hospital.
When I explore an original find, I tend to do as little research as possible ahead of time to make it a truly original exploration – so when I walked up to the Hanakura Hospital, I knew nothing about it. Not even if it was really abandoned or what its name was. In my head (and my notes), I actually called it Saigo Hospital for years, because in sight of it was the “house” where Saigo Takamori, often called the “last true samurai”, was nursed back to health after a suicide attempt in November 1858.
Anyway, it wasn’t until I did some research for this article that I found out the Saigo Hospital’s real name and why it was abandoned.
In early August of 1993, Kagoshima was plagued by torrential rain for days, reaching its peak on August 6th at 99.8 mm per hour (for a total of more than 400 mm per day and 1000 mm for the week). Just before midnight a mudslide hit the Hanakura Hospital, killing 9 inpatients and 6 local neighbours who were seeking shelter in the massive concrete structure. Several other patients, nurses, and doctors were seriously injured, some permanently. The hospital was immediately shut down due to severe structural damage, the patients moved to other facilities. In 1994 the Hanakura Hospital reopened in a temporary facility, and in 1996 it moved into a brand-new building in Yoshino, in safe distance to the hazardous cliffs. The original structure, now known as the Old Hanakura Hospital, was preserved as a disaster memorial – mainly because access for heavy machinery was difficult and engineering experts were worried that removing the massive building could destabilize the slope and trigger more landslides.
When I arrived at the Hanakura Hospital, I didn’t know any of that background story – but I also don’t see any memorial signs. Would it have prevented me from exploring the place? Probably not. People die at hospitals all the time… and it wasn’t my first catastrophe struck abandoned hospital either – some of you might remember the *Sankei Hospital* in Hokkaido; which was actually properly fenced off and marked as a memorial site, but nobody died during the disaster as it happened much, much, much, much slower. Yet it feels a bit ghoulish in hindsight. Not nearly as bad as the Fukushima disaster zone tourists, but still worse than the average hospital exploration. And they clearly cleaned up the damage done by the mudslide – the building just looked and felt like a regular abandoned hospital. With a gorgeous view. That photo of the hospital with Sakurajima in the background. Stunning. I actually put it on the cover of a photo book I put together years ago for… no particular reason.
Anyway, at first I took only a few outdoor shots since the main building was clearly boarded up and covered in security stickers, so I had no hope of finding a way in. And to be honest, I didn’t, at least not into the main building that was heavily hit by the mudslide – but somebody ripped off the wooden panels covering a window of the upper building. The way there through some kind of trench was hard to find (thanks to overgrowth at its entrance) and the view was blocked by a small residential building, so I saw my opening the very last second, when I already mentally prepared for leaving with just a handful of exterior photos. That upper part actually looked much older than the dominating lower building, probably due to the hospital’s history. It was established as the Sakimoto Hospital Hanakura Branch in 1942 as a general hospital with a focus on treating tuberculosis – a widespread health crisis in post-war Japan, mostly solved by the end of the century (which led to the abandonment of the *Tuberculosis Hospital for Children* in Osaka). In 1962, the hospital introduced a psychiatric ward due to changing public medical demands – followed by no major incidents, except for being restructured and renamed Hanakura Hospital in 1989, until the events of August 6th 1993, known in Japanese as 8.6水害 and 平成5年8月豪雨; 8.6 Flooding / August 1993 Heavy Rain.
The actual exploration of the Hanakura Hospital was quite memorable, despite not being spectacular. It was more of a vibe thing than a blow me away photo op situation. Solo, original find, unknown backstory, sunny day, hospital, beautiful setting, virtually unknown to the internet and other urban explorers. The pictures might not live up to the story and my memories, but they don’t have to – this location was the complete package, at least to me.
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