1921 (Taisho 10) On Saturday, September 17, the 14th head of the Sakai family in the Shonai Clan of Dewa Province, Tadamichi SAKAI, passed away. He was 66 years old. He is the younger brother of the famous Tadazumi Sakai and Tadamichi Sakai brothers at the end of the Edo period. The Shonai Domain was based in today’s Tsuruoka City and was ruled by the Sakai clan, a fudai daimyo (a daimyo in hereditary vassal to the Tokugawa family), throughout the Edo period. Fudai daimyo are usually transferred frequently, or transferred to another province, in order to separate them from the resident landlord aspect, but the Sakai family of Shonai...

1921 (Taisho 10) Saturday, September 10: The Japan Football Association (JFA) was established. The origin of soccer is said to be the football festival held in England in the middle ages. In the 19 century, the rules were improved and it is said that the first rules for football were established at Cambridge University in 1848. 15 years later, the Football Association was founded in London in 1863. The football association in England is the oldest football association in the world and is called The FA. In 1871, the first FA Cup was held and the Wonders Football Club in London won. Football has grown in popularity internationally, and in...

1921 ( Taisho 10 ) Friday, September 9 Actress Virginia Rappe has died of peritonitis from a ruptured bladder. She was 26 years old. The death will be one of the most famous in the history of Hollywood scandals. Virginia Rappe was an actress who was active in silent movies. I was born in Chicago, Illinois on July 7, 1895. Her father was absent and raised by a single mother, but after her mother died at the age of 11, she was raised by his grandmother. She started working as an art model at the age of 14, moved to California in 1916 at the age of 21, and made...

1921 (Taisho 10) Thursday, September 1 Otsuka Takesaburo established Otsuka Pharmaceutical Industrial Department (currently Otsuka Pharmaceutical Factory) in Naruto City, Tokushima Prefecture. The company employs 10 people and produces magnesium carbonate from salt field residue. After the war, his eldest son Masashi Otsuka took over Otsuka Pharmaceutical in 1947 (Showa 22) and greatly developed the company. 1953 (Showa 28) Oronine Ointment, 1965 (Showa 40) Oronamine C, 1980 (Showa 55) POCARI SWEAT and other hit products were launched in succession. Sales of POCARI SWEAT released in 1980 (Showa 55) initially stagnated, but in 1986 (Showa 61) Chisato Moritaka and Shigesato Itoi’s comical commercial made the POCARI SWEAT a buzz, and with...

1921 (Taisho 10) Friday, August 26 Seibu Railway opened between Yodobashi and Ogikubo. Seibu Tramway is a tram owned by Seibu Railway, a private railway company. From Ogikubo station, streetcars will run on Ome Kaido towards Shinjuku. Yodobashi is the upper bridge across Kandagawa River which is located on the border between Shinjuku Ward and Nakano Ward along Oume Kaido Road. Until 1947 (Showa 22), the area where the present Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building is located was an administrative district called “Yodobashi Ward”, and is now also used as an old name for the area around the west exit of Shinjuku Station. For example, the name remains in Yodobashi Camera,...

1921 (Taisho 10) Monday, August 22: Nagoya City annexed 16 towns and villages in the vicinity and became a major city. The city area has doubled and is twice the size of Tokyo at that time. The population was 600,000, 1/3 of that of Tokyo. However, five towns and villages of Shimonoisshiki, Kawanaka, Hagino, Shonai and Tenpaku were not merged this time. During World War I, heavy industry developed and urban planning progressed. Nagoya’s city planning is famous for its wide roads. The Taisho period is well known as the period in which railways were developed throughout Japan. According to a thesis “Road Development in Nagoya in the Meiji and...

1921 (Taisho 10) On Sunday, August 21, it was reported that Junior Lieutenant Shu Otawara (35), the second son of Kazukiyo Otawara (viscount), the last lord of the Otawara Domain in former Tochigi Prefecture (the 14th), was arrested at Ueno Station. Shu was arrested by a plain-clothes detective on alert for the eighth crime he committed in Ueno Station. A scandal about a noble family attracted public attention. Shimotsuke Province is famous as the birthplace of NASU no Yoichi. The Nasu clan had seven powerful vassals called Nasu Shichiki. One of them is Mr. Otawara. In the 16 century, Japan’s Sengoku period, when the Nasu clan joined Hideyoshi Toyotomi’s attack...

1921 (Taisho 10) Saturday, August 20 Yanagihara Byakuren published “Byakuren Jissen Kashu” (Collection of Selected Poems by Byakuren), in which she selected her poems. Byakuren’s real name is Akiko. She is the second daughter of Count Sakimitsu Yanagiwara, a venerable court noble. She was born in Tokyo as Yanagihara Akiko on October 15, 1885. Her father named Akiko after the gorgeous appearance of National Dance hall, Rokumeikan. Yanagihara Naruko is one of her aunt. Naruko is mother of Emperor Taisho so Byakuren and Emperor Taisho were cousins. Akiko entered Kazoku Jogakko (now Gakushuin Girls’ Junior High School) at the age of 13, but at the age of 15 she married...

1921 (Taisho 10) On Thursday, August 18, actresses and staff members of Kokkatsu (Kokusai Katsuei), a film production company, held an unusual speech in which they criticized the company. Kokusai Katsuei was a new film company established 1 and a half years ago in December 1919. It was established by the so-called “bubble gentlemen” who raised money during the boom of World War I and the war boom. The president is Kisaburo KOBAYASHI who used to work at Nikkatsu. With two studios in Sugamo and Tsunohazu, we will be able to mass-produce as many as 120 films in 2 years’ time. However, due to the management turmoil and the economic...

1921 (Taisho 10) On Sunday, August 14, the annual summer festival known as the “Fukagawa Hachiman Matsuri” was held at Tomioka Hachimangu Shrine in Fukagawa, downtown Tokyo. In one of the three major festivals of Edo, Gohoren (imperial carriage) performs togyo once every three years. Gohoren is an Omikoshi (portable shrine), which has a golden phoenix on top of the house. The Gohoren at Tomioka Hachiman-gu Shrine was a gilded mikoshi that was said to have been dedicated by a wealthy merchant Bunzaemon KINOKUNIYA in the Genroku era. Furthermore, there were 3 of them, but they were unfortunately destroyed by fire in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 (Taisho 12)...