2021年

Birthday

Tuesday, May 3 1921: Chikako Asaka was born.

1921 (Taisho 10) Tuesday, May 3 Chikako, the fifth daughter of Count Takatsuku Todo, the 13th head of the Todo family and first son of Takakiyo Todo, the last lord of the Tsu domain of Ise, was born. When Chikako was 16 years old and a student at the Girls’ School, she got engaged to Prince Takahiko, the eldest son of Prince Yasuhiko Asakanomiya. She married in 1938 (Showa 13) and had 1 son and 2 daughters, but the Asakanomiya family renounced their membership from the Imperial Family in 1947 (Showa 22) after the war and called herself Chikako Asaka thereafter. 1950 (Showa 25) Tuberculosis developed, and 2 years later,...
Economy

Monday, May 2 1921: Gui-Sui station (now Hohhot Station) opened

1921 (Taisho 10) Monday, May 2 China’s Jing-Sui railway opened. Gui-Sui station (now Hohhot Station) opened, and Beijing – Zhangjiakou – Datong – along with 653.6 km of Gui-Sui were connected by railway. In January 1923, 2 years later, the line will extend another 165 km from Gui-Sui to the terminal point of Baotou, and a loan of 3 million yen from Japan was used to construct this section. Before the New Shikoku Loan Program, which was established by the open door policy of the United States, Japan adopted the form of loans from Toa Kogyo, a private company. However, this loan has developed into an intense diplomatic problem. This...
Economy

Sunday, May 1 1921: Eno-Den Railway acquired

1921 (Taisho 10) Sunday, May 1 Tokyo Dento, known to have been founded by Eichi SHIBUSAWA, purchased Yokohama Denki on the same day. As a result, the Enoshima Electric Railway Department (so-called Enoden), which had been managed by Yokohama Electric, came under the umbrella of Tokyo Dento. The number of passengers transported by Enoden, which became the Enoshima Line under the jurisdiction of the Katase Sub-Branch Office of the Yokohama Branch Office of Tokyo Dento, is rapidly increasing at this time, reflecting an increase in the local population. The number of passengers transported by 1921 (Taisho 10) increased to 1,613,000, and by 1925 (Taisho 14) after the Great Kanto Earthquake...
Birthday

Sunday, May 1 1921: baseball player, Hitokoto Taju was born.

1921 (Taisho 10) On Sunday, May 1, Hitokoto Taju, a professional baseball player, was born in Rokuai-mura, Shizuoka Prefecture, now Shimada City, Shizuoka Prefecture. He entered the local baseball powerhouse, Shimada Shogyo, and participated in 7 Koshien tournaments: 1937 (Showa 12) spring and summer; 1938 (Showa 13) spring as an outfielder; and 1939 (Showa 14) spring as an ace for 4 consecutive seasons. In the summer tournament, we lost in the final two years in a row to Wakayama Prefecture’s Kaisou Junior High School with the aces of Shima Seiichi and Sanada Juzo. 1941 (Showa 16) Entered Senshu University. In the five major leagues, he recorded no hits and no...
Economy

Saturday, April 30 1921: Dainippon Beer Hakata Plant

1921 (Taisho 10) Saturday, April 30 Completion of construction of Dainippon Beer Co., Ltd.’s Hakata Plant (Current Asahi Breweries Hakata Factory). With three brands of Ebisu, Sapporo, and Asahi, Dainippon Breweries was the biggest at the time. There were speculations that the contracted price of 55 sen with Kirin and Kabuto would be lowered by 20% due to a decrease in demand caused by the postwar recession. The president is “Beer king of Japan” Kyohei MAGOSHI. 1906 (Meiji 39) Three companies of Nippon Beer (President Kyohei Magoshi), Sapporo Beer (President Shibusawa Eiichi), and Osaka Beer (President Torii Komakichi) were merged to establish Dainippon Beer Co., Ltd., and Magoshi assumed the...
Social

Thursday, April 28 1921: Kitahara Hakushu married for the third time.

1921 (Taisho 10) Thursday, April 28 Poet and children’s lyricist Kitahara Hakushu gets married for the third time. I divorced my ex-wife Ayako Eguchi last May. His third wife, Kikuko (Maiden Name: Sato), was a brilliant woman who had graduated from Oita Girls’ High School and became the last wife of Hakushu who had been said to be “big baby”. When Hakushu and Kikuko first met, Hakushu was 35 and Kikuko was 31. For 21 and a half years, Kikuko brought peace to the family and devoted herself to supporting her husband who lost his eyesight in 1937 (Showa 12). Kikuko’s newlywed life was hard, and she spent days entertaining...
Birthday

Thursday, April 28 1921: Kyohei FUJITA, a glass craftsman, was born

1921 (Taisho 10) Thursday, April 28: Kyohei FUJITA, a glass craftsman, was born in Okubo-machi, Toyotama-gun, Tokyo Prefecture. He studied chasing at Tokyo Fine Arts School (The present Faculty of Art, Tokyo University of the Arts), but he switched to glass craft in the middle. He aimed to express the traditional beauty of Japan with glass materials, and studied European glass techniques such as Venetian Glass. He established his own field of glass art with his own decorative glass art called “modern Rinpa school” which is a mixture of colored glass and gold leaf, and he was called “Kazaribako”. He received the Onshi Prize of the Japan Art Academy for...
Social

Wednesday, April 27 1921, anecdotist KANDA the second died

1921 (Taisho 10) On Wednesday, April 27, anecdotist Hakuzan KANDA the second died at the age of 77. He was born in 1843 (Tenpo 14) and his real name was Kinjiro TAMAGAWA. He became a disciple of Hakuzan KANDA the first at the age of 15 and succeeded to Hakuzan at the age of 1870 (Meiji 3) and 28. He was good at Suikoden. 1904 (Meiji 37): He transferred the professional name to Kanda Matsuyama (Hakuzan KANDA the Third) before he died, and changed his name to the first Shori KANDA. These professional names have been handed down to the present day. The third Kanda Shori, who succeeded to the...
Social

Monday, April 25 1921: Toyama Prefectural Railway opened

1921 (Taisho 10) Monday, April 25: Toyama Prefectural Railway opened. Initially, the operation kilometers between Minami-Toyama Station and Kamidaki Station were 6.6 km, and in August the distance was extended to Iwakuraji Station, which was 12.4 km. In the Taisho period, there were railroads operated by prefectures not only in Toyama but all over Japan. In 1943 (Showa 18), this section was merged into the Kamidaki Line of the Toyama Chiho Railway. Tsukioka Station, located in this section, was the climax of the 2011 movie (Heisei 23) ‘Railways – For Adults Who Cannot Communicate Love’, directed by Masatoshi Kurakata and starring Tomokazu Miura.
Birthday

Sunday, April 24 1921: professional golfer Kobari Haruyoshi was born.

1921 (Taisho 10) Sunday, April 24: The birth of the professional golfer Kobari Haruyoshi. Throughout his life he lived in his hometown and was called “The God of Nasu”. After graduating from elementary school, he took an exam for the Japanese National Railways, but failed due to color blindness. 1936 (Showa 11) I applied for a caddie position at the Nasu Golf Club and became a caddie and trainee. 1940 (Showa 15) Although he was the first professional player in Tochigi Prefecture, he was drafted into the army after only 2 matches. Since he could not distinguish the colors, he became a radio operator without a battalion. He went to...