| Family |
1859 - 1925 | Yoichiro Hirase was born the eldest son of a wealthy household in the town of Fukura which is in the Southwestern part of the island of Awaji. In 1887 he moved to Kyoto and began his study of Natural History at Doshisha University in Kyoto and nearby Osaka. In 1898 Yoichiro began his collection and in 1901 he opened up the Hirase Conchological Museum with his assistant Tokubei Kuroda which did not open to the public until 1913. In 1903 he set up a business as a speciman shell dealer and in 1907 he began publishing the periodical, Conchological Magazine. During this time he published a number of books including Kai Chigusa. Yoichiro has be credited to bringing numerous shells to society many of which are named after him. |
Unknown
| Yasuko Kashiu was the wife of Yoichiro Hirase. Kashiu was her maiden name, her nick name was Yasa. The only information I have is that she was a nurse during the Russia-Japanese war and she was a kind and gentle woman who smelled of lavender. |
1884 - 1939 | Shintaro Hirase, was born in 1884 to Yoichiro and Yasuko Hirase. He was the oldest of five children having one brother and three sisters. Shintaro continued the work that his father began. Throughout his life he continued to study mollusks and related objects. He published a couple of books and wrote articles and papers on the subject. Shintaro married and had seven children. |
1900 -1980s? | Keizo Hirase was the youngest son of Yoichiro and Yasuko. Keizo studied the violin in Paris and was also an accomplished painter. He was know for giving violin lessons to all of his friends for free. Though he married a woman named Michiko, he never had any children. |
1894 - 1917 | Aiko Hirase, the oldest of three daughters was Yoichiros favorite daughter. Unfortunately she died at an early age of 23. |
1896 - 1982 | Shizue Hirase was born May 21st. Shizue was my grandmother and I have very little memory of her. She married a man of Swiss decent by the name of Otto Keller (he changed his first name to Arthur). She took his name and became Shizue Keller. She traveled around the world with her new husband and bore three daughters. Margaret, Catherine (Ayako), and Adelaide (Teruko). |
 1897 - Unknown | Fuyuko Hirase, the youngest daughter, married a man by the name of Akio Kasama. He was a decorated diplomat and ambassador to several countries including Iran, Turkey, and Russia. Fuyuko had no children, she survived her husband when his boat was torpedoed during WWII. |
1892 - 1894 | Baby - First born to Yoichiro and Yasuko, unfortunately he died when he was only about 2. I have no further information about him. |