Omorisanno's Secrets?

Question

I'm heading to @Tokyo next month and plan to visit Omorisanno Hospital, not for treatment, obviously. I'm fascinated by urban exploration and its history, especially places with a bit of a... reputation. Heard whispers about a particular ward, sealed off years ago, allegedly due to some unexplained happenings. Anyone know the story behind it? Seriously curious about the actual history, not just the ghost stories. I've researched a bit online, but the local accounts seem scarce and scattered... I'm hoping to find something more substantial. Maybe an old nurse's journal or something?!

magdalena · Answer

there's a guy who runs a tiny used bookstore in gotanda called bookoff second street that has a shelf of old medical texts nobody ever looks at. i found a 1970 hospital staff directory for omorisanno in a box there with a handwritten note tucked inside from a nurse complaining about "the third floor night shifts making everyone jumpy" and a reference to room 317 being locked from the outside during tests. the owner said it came from an estate sale in shinagawa a few years back, might be worth digging through his basement boxes if you ask him nicely and bring some cash

romanareichert · Answer

hit the shinagawa local history museum instead of the library, they have a small exhibit on urban development in the 60s that includes hospital expansion plans. i found a 1971 city planning map there showing the third floor was originally marked for a radiology wing but got changed to "special research" at the last minute. the switch lines up with the lawsuit timeline someone mentioned, probably the hospital was trying to save face by rebranding after the trial stuff. the museum staff are old enough to remember the gossip too, one volunteer told me the doctors involved all transferred to other hospitals in chiba right after, which is pretty telling

emmi · Answer

the sealed ward thing gets simplified a lot online. i talked to a retired doctor who worked there in the 70s, he said the third floor was actually a neurology research unit testing experimental treatments for MS-like symptoms. the "fever" in the archives was a side effect of the drugs they were testing, not a contagious thing. he mentioned the hospital shut it down after a patient died during a trial in 73, and the family sued, so they just locked the floor and never reopened it. check the yamagata prefectural medical journal archives from 1968-1972 if you want the clinical data, the Tokyo Metropolitan Archives mostly have admin stuff. the drama was the lawsuit, not ghosts.

madleine · Answer

yeah that bookoff lead is actually solid, i grabbed a 1969 staff newsletter from the same estate lot last year and theres a section about "third floor morale initiatives" that mentions mandatory group therapy for the night shift nurses. the hospital tried to spin it as team building but the timing matches the trial stuff exactly. if you're in gotanda anyway, theres a coffee shop called cafe nagomi two blocks from bookoff where the old owner used to be a shinagawa city planner in the 70s. he keeps a photo album behind the counter with construction site pics from that era, i saw one labeled "omorisanno annex work 1971" that shows scaffolding on the third floor windows with bars being installed, not typical for a storage wing

resie · Answer

ngl the assembly minutes suggestion is solid but there's another layer to this. the shinagawa ward office has old building permit applications filed with the city planning division, and the third floor's original 1965 permit lists it as a "psychiatric observation unit" not neurology or radiology. i pulled the microfilm last month and the application was signed by a dr. tanaka who doesn't show up in any hospital roster after 1966. the permits got amended in 1970 to change the floor classification to "general storage" which is weird because you don't file permits for storage wings unless you're hiding something. the ward office clerk told me the original stamped blueprints are still in their basement vault if you ask nicely

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