1921 (Taisho 10) Sunday, May 15 Crown Prince Hirohito visits British Prime Minister Lloyd George during his visit to the UK. In the same year, I visited Chequers, which had just become the prime minister’s villa. Crown Prince Hirohito was the first to take the road to the entranceway. At that time, there was talk in Britain that the Anglo-Japanese Alliance should be scrapped, but on the surface the two countries were very friendly allies. Crown Prince Hirohito’s visit to the British prime minister’s villa Chequers was filmed by a film crew prepared by Prime Minister Lloyd George. It is a valuable material to show the appearance of Imperial Prince...

1921 (Taisho 10) Monday, May 9: Crown Prince Hirohito arrived in London. The group left Yokohama for Europe on March 3 at the Osetsukan Katori port and finally arrived in London in more than two months. During the voyage, he enjoyed judo, bridge, poker, and other sports with fellow sailors Hachiro Saionji and Yoshinori Futara. Prince Hirohito, who had not acquired enough Western manners by that time, received a special lesson in manners on board the ship from his companions, Kaninnomiya and Sutemi CHINDA. On the same day I arrived in London for a state dinner at Buckingham Palace, I met for the first time with King George V, and...

1921 (Taisho 10) Friday, May 6: Toshitsune KAWAKAMI assumed the post of the first Polish Minister in Warsaw. Poland was an emerging country that gained independence the year before. Kawakami was born as the first son of Sentaro KAWAKAMI, a feudal retainer of the Murakami Domain with a stipend of 150 koku, in Iino, Uehommachi, Niigata Village. He studied at hanko “Kajukan” and graduated from the Department of Russian language at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies in 1884 (Meiji 17). He joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a trade official, and while he was stationed in Vladivostok, he commanded Japanese residents in Russia to escape when the Russo-Japanese War...

1921 (Taisho 10) Saturday, April 23 The first general meeting of the League of Nations Association will be held at Tsukiji Seiyoken. Iesato TOKUGAWA President, Eiichi SHIBUSAWA Chairman, Juichi SOEDA and Yoshiro SAKATANI Vice Chairmen, Junnosuke INOUE as accounting director and other prominent members. 70 people attended, including Foreign Minister Yasuya Uchida, a guest of honor. There were voices calling for the Association to make proposals on specific issues such as disarmament, the withdrawal of troops from Shandong, the anti-Japanese movement in the United States, and the Yap Island issue, which were the diplomatic issues of Japan at that time. However, Eichi SHIBUSAWA and others avoided leaving these issues to...

1921 (Taisho 10) Thursday, April 21 It is reported that the health of Aritomo Yamagata is better than in recent years, he drinks wine with his own hands and has a good appetite. “From the ordinary to the clear mind is more clear.” he said. However, Yamagata, who was devastated by the certain serious incident of the Imperial Court, confined himself at Kokian in Odawara and gave up his annual visit to Murinan in Kyoto. He fell ill from autumn of the same year and died on February 1 of the following year. According to the latest research by Dr. Yukio Ito, Yamagata, who is at the top of the...

1921 (Taisho 10) Thursday, April 21 Japan’s first women’s socialist organization “Sekirankai (Red Wave)” was established. “We are resolute in declaring war against all our oppression, our lack, our ignorance and our slavery.” he declared. The foundation was established with Kikuei Yamakawa (30) and Noe Ito (26) as advisors, and was led by Fusako Kuzumi (30), the wife of anarchists Myo Nakano and Kori, and Shizue Akizuki, who belonged to the May Society; a painter of the proletarian art movement Haruko Hashiura (22) and a younger sister Yasuo Hashiura, who belonged to the Proletarian Art Movement; and Magara Sakai (18), a daughter of socialist Toshihiko Sakai. It made a spectacular...

1921 (Taisho 10) On Wednesday, April 20, Kichinosuke Saigo (11 year-old), the grandson of Takamori Saigo, succeeded the title of Marquis. His father Torataro SAIGO died of the Spanish Flu in 1919 (Taisho 8), and his older brother Takateru SAIGO, who succeeded the peerage, died suddenly the following year, which made his third son Kichinosuke succeed the peerage. After the war, he became a member of the House of Councilors from Kagoshima Prefecture, and became the Minister of Justice in the second Cabinet of Eisaku Sato in 1968 (Showa 43). However in 1971 (Showa 46), the so-called Saigo Incident was discovered, in which Kichinosuke SAIGO issued too many promissory notes...

Tuesday, April 19, 1921: The Ministry of the Imperial Household announced Emperor Taisho’s condition for the third time. The Emperor is still unable to speak. Vice-Minister of the Imperial Household Teizaburo Sekiya frankly announced that he had difficulty in speaking, especially in situations where he was under mental and physical strain, and that he needed assistance to climb and descend stairs. At the same time, it was announced that Emperor Taisho was going to Tamozawa Goyotei in Nikko for summer and rest from early June. According to a report by Kinnosuke Miura, professor of the Faculty of Medicine, the University of Tokyo, in March 1920 the previous year, since around...

Saturday, April 9, 1921: An Igo match between Saburo OKUSHIGE (59 years old), the chairman of the House of Representatives, and Seibei SAKAKIDA (57 years old), a member of the House of Representatives and a member of the Rikken Seiyukai Party, is reported in the Tokyo Nichinichi Newspaper. After the Diet session ended, Oku and Sakakida played three days and three nights of a game of go in Hakone, but Sakakida won all the matches. Sakakida once fainted after playing go 26 hours in a row. From the latter part of the Taisho period to the early part of the Showa period, igo spread and became popular nationwide. The number...