Great teacher Like a Grandfather

川崎冨作先生の訃報に触れ、大きな悲しみと共に、その偉大な功績とお人柄に、改めて深く尊敬の意を表します。

川崎病と関わることができたお陰で、今も私は小児科医として多くの方達と共に診療研究を続けられています。

その中で、川崎先生と親しくされていた3人の先生に、指導していただきました。川崎先生への感謝と共に、先生方との思い出を記させていただきます。

Every time I met Dr. Tomisaku Kawasaki, it was a heart-warming moment for me like being with a grandfather, probably because my three mentors are also respecting Dr. Kawasaki.

I was studying many books or journals of Kawasaki Disease (KD) in 1986 when my career was the 2nd year as a pediatrician, and there was so-called the last pandemic of KD in Japan. Prof. Kensuke Harada lead me to practice and to study Kawasaki disease as a pediatric cardiologist. He invited Professor Masato (Mike) Takahashi for JSKD Meeting in 1995. Mike kindly accept me to study abroad in Children Hospital Los Angeles. Professor Tsutomu (Ben) Saji also previously studied in CHLA with Mike and encouraged me to participate in advanced medicine in the United States. In the 10th IKDS in Kyoto, we planned the birthday ceremony to cerebrate Dr. Kawasaki aged 88 called Beiju (米寿), and Dr. Takahashi aged 77 called Kijyu (喜寿), which are celebrated with dressing each of them in gold and purple ‘Chanchanko’ (Japanese traditional color vest), respectively.

Last September, Mike and I could have the opportunity to visit Dr. Kawasaki in the meantime when he was hospitalized and conditions were recovering. When we are going to leave his room after we talked, Dr. Kawasaki said ’Danke schön!’ with a powerful voice. It is my precious memory.

The passings of Dr. Harada in 2009 and Dr. Saji in 2017 were too early and sad for me and my colleagues, but they might encounter Dr. Kawasaki and might have been surprised now in Heaven.

As I recently have some opportunities to lecture about the manifestations of KD, I would like to keep telling the monumental findings of Dr. Tomisaku Kawasaki accurately to young students or doctors as long as possible.