Seiichi Miyake

Seiichi Miyake was born on 5 February 1926 in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture. ==Inventing tactile bricks==

In 1965, Seiichi Miyake used his own money to create tactile bricks, which have patterns of raised shapes on their surfaces that can be detected by touch. He invented the blocks to help a friend who was starting to have visual impairment. These patterns indicate different safety or hazard conditions, such as raised dots or blisters for "caution", or long parallel strips for "safe to move ahead". They were also used to identify the boundary between footpath and the road. Two years later, on 18 March 1967, Okayama City (western Japan) was the first place to install this invention for visually impaired people. By 1985, it was mandated for broader use in Japan. ==Honours==

In 2010, the Okayama Prefectural Association for the Visually Impaired registered March 18 as the Day of the Tenji Block with the Japan Anniversary Association. A monument for the Tenji Block birthplace was unveiled at the Harojima intersection in Naka Ward with a theme song, "Shiawase no kiiroi michi" (Yellow road of happiness). On 18 March 2019, Google Doodle honoured him by creating a short animation of a person with a probing cane being moved over tactile bricks. ==See also==