In 1898, Biwazaki Sanatorium (Leprosy Hospital) was established by Father Jean Marie Corre, a French priest.
He was greatly moved at the sights of leprosy patients and other poor people around the Honmyoji temple in Kumamoto.
First, he built a church in Tetori, central Kumamoto, and then rented a house near Honmyoji temple.
[1] Jean Marie Corre came to Nagasaki and was sent to Kumamoto in 1889, as the head of the southern Kyushu Section of "Missions Etrangères de Paris" (M.E.P.)
In 1897, Corre obtained land at Nakaomaru near Honmyoji Temple and started to treat leprosy patients in two houses with 2 sisters and 2 missionaries, but he was exhausted and he requested the help of Marie de la Passion of " Franciscan Missionaries of Mary" (F.M.M.)
The opening ceremony was attended by the head of Nagasaki church area, Corre, plus a representative of M.E.P., Kumamoto Prefecture governor, the financial section head of the prefecture, representatives of the Army and Police, and physicians.