諫早市立諫早圖書館, Public library in Isahaya, Japan
Isahaya City Library is a multi-floor building with distinct reading areas and a collection of around 70,000 books organized by subject. The layout allows visitors to move easily between levels while exploring different kinds of materials and resources.
The library traces its origin to the private Isahaya Bunko, opened in December 1904 by Noguchi Neisai inside the Isahaya town office in Ogitodo. In 1918 it became the Kitakami-gun Isahaya Library, passed to the town in 1923, and took the name Isahaya City Library in 1940. It moved repeatedly before a new building opened in July 2001, and in 2005 it received its present name.
The library keeps the Isahaya family documents, donated by the Isahaya family in 2002 and designated a municipal tangible cultural property in 2007; a project to decipher the Isahaya Diary began in 2007. In 2021 a monument to screenwriter Moriichi Ichikawa, a native of Isahaya, was unveiled on the grounds, its stone inscribed in the handwriting of actor Koji Yakusho, also from Isahaya.
The library offers free internet access and computer facilities, with extended opening hours throughout the day. Visitors can easily find a reading or working space, and the building is straightforward to navigate.
Two monuments stand in the library grounds: a stele honouring Noguchi Neisai, founder of the 1904 private Isahaya Bunko, unveiled on 25 October 2008, and one for honorary director and screenwriter Ichikawa Shin'ichi, unveiled on 27 November 2021, its stone inscribed in the handwriting of Isahaya-born actor Yakusho Koji.
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