Saturday, December 3 1921: Yoji Suhara, the president of Mitsubishi Pencil, was born.
1921 (Taisho 10) Saturday, December 3 Yoji Suhara, the future president of Mitsubishi Pencil, was born in Shinagawa Ward, Tokyo. My father was Saburo Suhara, a factory manager at Yamato Pencil (later Mitsubishi Pencil). The pencil industry in Japan started in the early Meiji period. Two people exhibited pencils made in Japan at the First National Industrial Exhibition in 1877 (Meiji 10). One is Uhachiro Koike from Tokyo and the other is Gengo Hiwatari from Sendai. Sendai has a remarkable story. In 1855, a black ship arrived at Ishinomaki Port in the Sendai Domain with 15 people on board, including US Navy serviceman John M Brook. They gave him pencils,...