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...

Wednesday, April 6, 1921: The Privy Council decided to lighten the burden of Emperor Taisho signing the medal for merit in his own hand. Previously, the title had been written by the third or higher rank calligrapher, but it was changed to the second or higher rank. A medal for merit is a certificate which is given to a recipient of a decoration and sealed with the seal of state, and the emperor himself signs the higher rank. The work load to the emperor increased recently with the increase of the persons with merit, and the Ministry of the Imperial Household regarded it as a problem. He attended the meeting...

Tuesday, April 5, 1921 Prime Minister Hara Takashi held an amusement party with newspaper reporters at his official residence. This was an unprecedented event by Hara, who attaches great importance to the relationship with journalism, which influences public opinion. The event was reported favorably by the newspapers. The event was unprecedented in the history of the Cabinet, and was reported favorably by the newspapers. “I invited more than 400 journalists, mainly from newspapers related to the Diet, and held a party at the Prime Minister’s residence. Hara Takashi is often referred to as a commoner Prime Minister, a conservative politician who promoted the construction of railroads and roads across the...

The official government of the Republic of China (the second Guangdong government) is established on Saturday, April 2, 1921. Sun Yat-sen reorganized the military government that he had organized in Guangzhou in November of the previous year, and became the President at the Emergency Diet, sharpening his stance against the Beijing government. Although Sun Yat-sen claimed to be the only government representing North and South China, other countries did not approve. Sun Yat-sen remained in power as a local government. Wang Zhao Ming makes his first appearance on the political stage as director of education (chairman of education in Guangdong Province). Wang Zhaoming supported Sun Yat-sen as his closest aide,...

Minoru Saito, Governor-General of Korea, reported the plight of Korean farmers living in Manchuria to Prime Minister Hara Takashi on Friday, April 1, 1921. Due to financial difficulties caused by the drought, they were unable to purchase unhulled rice, and in the end, the Governor-General of Korea and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs each contributed 15,000 yen to the relief fund. However, the ambiguity of land rights became an obstacle. At the end of the same year, this led to the establishment of Toa Kangyo Co. (Manchuria Kangyo, Manchuria Agricultural Affairs) was established at the end of the same year. Although it was the time to sow seeds for Koreans...

On Saturday, March 26, 1921, Chinese scholar Shigeta Oyanagi was dispatched by the Imperial Household Agency to study China for one year. The rapid westernization of the Meiji period was reconsidered in the Taisho period, and interest in Chinese studies increased. Koyanagi was an authority on Chinese studies at that time, and after working as a professor at Gakushuin, Kokugakuin, and Keio University, he became a professor at Daito Bunka Gakuin in 1926 and the president in 1940, but he died. Born in Niigata Prefecture, he became acquainted with Chinese studies at the age of six, and received his doctorate from the Chosenkan private school in Yoshida-machi, Nishikanbara-gun, and later...

When he was a teenager, Takashi Hara followed Father Ebrard, a Frenchman, to learn French and was baptized as a Catholic. Later, he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and became a diplomat, but he never shared his faith with others. In his diary of the same day, he wrote about the papal mission and received a report from Kiichiro Hiranuma, the Attorney General, on the status of the investigation and future prospects of the Manchurian Railway scandal, which was shaking the ruling Seiyukai party at the time. On the return of the papal delegation to Japan, Mr. Hiranuma came to pay his respects to the Pope, who had acted...