Background
Takuji was born on October 17, 1869, to a family of samurai in Sendai, a city in the Miyagi Prefecture.
岩崎 卓爾
Takuji was born on October 17, 1869, to a family of samurai in Sendai, a city in the Miyagi Prefecture.
He was a meteorologist at the Ishigaki Weather Station, Ishigaki, Okinawa Prefecture. Initially, when weather forecasting was in its infancy, he had been badly criticized by local people when his forecast of a typhoon was incorrect. Nevertheless, his work as a meteorologist was better understood by locals later in his career, which endeared him to people.
Takuji was also known as 糸数原主人袋風荘主人,蝶仙、蝶翁.
He was also called "天文屋の御主前" (tenbunyah no ushumai), meaning master of the weather observatory, or "nahbera no ushumai" (literal: master of sponge cucumber). He discontinued high school and became a trainee at the Central Meteological Station (now the Japan Meteorological Agency).
He also worked at the weather stations of Nemuro and Sapporo. In 1900, he became the second director of the observatory, and had remained in Ishigaki until his death.
While he was stationed at the observatory in Ishigaki, Takuji studied various unrelated fields including society, traditions, and natural sciences related to Ishigaki.
He became the director of Yaeyama Library, which later became the Yaeyama branch of the Okinawa Prefectural Library. He started the first kindergarten on the island, and took part in a venture enterprise of culturing black pearls in Kabira Bay with Mikimoto Kōkichi. One of Takuji"s weaknesses was language.
He only spoke a Sendai dialect, and up until his death, conversation with local people was very difficult.
In 1932, Takuji retired from the Ishigaki Observatory but remained as a part-time worker Then living in Tonoshiro, Ishigaki, he named his house "Fukurokaze Soh".
He died there on May 2, 1937, at the age of 69. In 2001, Takuji was made an honorary citizen of Ishigaki.