Professor Hirotaro Narabayashi (1922-2001) was the founder of stereotactic neurosurgery in Japan and one of the early great world pioneers in this field. He constructed his first stereotactic apparatus in 1949 and performed his first pallidotomy in 1951, unaware of the similar work of others outside postwar Japan. His neurological clinic, which opened in Tokyo in 1957, became an international center for stereotaxy for more than 40 years. This article describes his early career, with personal anecdotes and reminiscences from his interesting life.