The foundation of modern research on shells in Japan, laid by a high-school principal

Tetsuaki Kira’s shell collection

This is a collection of sea and freshwater shells built by the late Tetsuaki Kira, who authored Shells of the Western Pacific in Color, Japan’s first full-fledged modern work on the subject. The collection was donated to the museum in 1967 in light of its comprehensive inclusion of all sorts of shell and its importance as the foundation for such pictorial books. Kira had long served as a teacher and principal of an elementary school in the city of Osaka, and was also the chief priest of the Ryubiji Temple in the Shijonawate district of Osaka. He nevertheless continued his specimen collection and research outside academia. His work could be termed a fine example of research open to the citizenry of Osaka from an early period.