Greeting Message

I am Seiichi Maruyama from Hills Aesthetic and Cosmetic Clinic, Maruyama Seiichi Cosmetic Surgery Medical Corporation.

Dr. Satoru Nagata, who was my teacher and a world authority on microtia surgeries, passed away in January, 2022 and Nagata Microtia and Reconstructive Plastic Surgery Clinic closed in March, 2022.
I sincerely apologize for concerns and inconveniences this caused you including patients who wanted but could not receive surgery by Dr. Nagata, patients who had only the 1st-stage surgery completed, and patients with both the 1st- and the 2nd-stage surgeries completed, as well as their families.

I take over Nagata Method and now perform microtia surgeries with Dr. Yasuyo Nakashima at Narita Tomisato Tokushukai Hospital in Tomisato city, Chiba prefecture.
I had many valuable experiences over 20 years of working with Dr. Nagata, such as the establishment of Nagata Microtia and Reconstructive Plastic Surgery Clinic, various microtia surgeries, academic exchanges with overseas doctors, and attending conferences and meetings abroad.
Here from countless memories, I would like to talk about my first-time meeting with Dr. Nagata, which was more than 20 years ago.

At the time, I was engaged in plastic surgery practice at the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery of Osaka Medical College and gave a presentation on the treatment of microtia at a conference in Kobe. I had the allotted time of 5 minutes for the presentation, but within the first 2 minutes of the presentation, I found a doctor who sat in the front row shaking his leg impatiently and was about to stand up as if he tried to attack me. As soon as my presentation was over, or even before it was over, he already stood up, and instead of "opinions" or "questions" about my presentation on the microtia treatment, he started an "attack", which lasted longer time than my presentation. I still remember vividly that the chair tried to stop him in the middle of his attack by saying, "Doctor, would you stop for now…”
I am a competitive person who hates to lose. Since I was embarrassed by his attack in front of a large audience, I looked for him there to try to give him my complaint. As soon as I found him smoking in the lobby, I rushed toward him. This is how I first met Dr. Nagata.

Instead of complaining, I was lectured a lot by him in the lobby, which made me decide to visit him to observe his surgeries. I took days off and visited him at Akiba Hospital in Saitama prefecture, where I saw the reconstructed auricles with no compromise and even with dignity I felt.

Twenty years have passed since then, and now he is gone. Still, Dr. Nagata’s technique is far superior to the others, I think. Microtia surgery with Nagata Method is one of the most difficult surgeries in the field of plastic surgery, since the form of auricle is complicated to reconstruct accurately, where the artistic sense is required. For this reason, Dr. Nagata did not take on apprentices for a long time.
I do not want such skills and methods to ever go out of use and thus I have conducted microtia surgeries at a new location in Tomisato city, Chiba prefecture using the skills as a board-certified specialist of plastic and reconstructive surgery and of aesthetic plastic surgery.

I also see patients who underwent surgery by Dr. Nagata for postoperative checkups. Many patients told me, "I couldn't ask Dr. Nagata what I wanted to ask, because he would get angry. Dr. Maruyama is completely different.”
This is true. This is not wrong.
I can still clearly recall Dr. Nagata shaking his leg impatiently and telling his outpatients in a loud voice, "I want to go home now! I'm leaving! What? What? What?” Dr. Nagata was a doctor of the Showa era and with the artisan spirit. He may have been a difficult doctor for patients and their families to approach and ask questions. However, his skills were undoubtedly the best in the world.

I can’t help but imagine that Dr. Nagata is still with me on my shoulder or on my back, shaking his leg impatiently and scolding me, “Maru-chan! That's not going to make you the best in the world! Hey, are you listening to me?”

“Dr. Nagata, May you rest in peace.”

Seiichi Maruyama

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