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)...

1921 (Taisho 10) On Thursday, August 11, Masana Maeda, who had led the Meiji government’s policy of encouraging new industries, passed away. He was 71 years old. Masana MAEDA was born in 1850. His father was a doctor of the Satsuma Domain, Zen-an MAEDA. I was born as his second son. He studied Western studies under Shohei Yagi, who was a scholar of the Satsuma Domain at the age of 9. Shohei Yagi is an interesting person who was born in Tenpo 3 (1832), so he is 18 years older than Masana Maeda. So when Masana Maeda joined Yagi, his master Yagi was 31 years old. By the order of...

1921 (Taisho 10) On Monday, August 8, an explosion occurred at the army arsenal on Mt. Hiji in Hiroshima City. There were 7 deaths and 21 serious injuries. Four huge explosions spread fear in Hiroshima. The 5th Division (Commander: Lieutenant General Yamada Rikutsui) was dispatched to Vladivostok for the Siberia Expedition and returned to Hiroshima in August 1920, but its ammunition was not strictly controlled, for example, a safety needle was disconnected on the way back. A report addressed to the Chief of Naval Operations (Shōichi Kanno), “Explosion Cause of Hiroshima Hijiyama Artillery” It is presumed to be a defect in handling. The explosion was caused by the dropping of...

1921 (Taisho 10) On Friday, July 22, Kiyonari Kurasawa, a scholar of Japanese classical history (Koku-Gaku), died at the age of 88. His other names were Kurasawa Yoshiyuki. If you have read “Yoake-mae (Before the Dawn)” by Toson Shimazaki, you may be more impressed by the name “Yoshiyuki.” Kiyonari or Yoshiyuki Kurazawa was born at Ono, Shinshu in 1832, in present-day Tatsuno-machi, Kamiina-gun, Nagano Prefecture. He devoted himself to Atsutane HIRATA and became a scholar of Japanese classical literature in his hometown of Shinshu. He went to Edo in 1854 and met famous Toko Fujita who was a scholar of Mito Domain. Exactly 10 years after Kurasawa’s encounter with Fujita...

1921 (Taisho 10) Saturday, July 16 The graduation ceremony of the Naval Academy was held. Recently, there has been a discussion in Japan about changing the September entrance/new term system in accordance with world standards, but from the Meiji period to the Taisho period, September entrance and July graduation were also common in Japan. The reason for the April enrollment system was that Tokyo Imperial University and other imperial universities changed the system to April enrollment, exactly 100 years ago in 1921 (1921). The Naval Academy was also changed to enter in April and graduate in March. The Naval Academy was a four-year school, but starting this year, new students...

1921 (Taisho 10) Friday, July 8 It will be a phantom day with the world’s highest temperature. It was reported that the world’s highest temperature of 58.8 degrees Celsius was recorded in Basra, Iraq on this day. This record was strangely believed only in Japan for a long time. Even after World War II, it was mentioned in the “Dictionary of Meteorological Conditions” published by Tokyodo Publishing in 1954, and in the “Meteorological Year” in 1967. Some people over a certain age may have learned this Basra record in class. However, in reality, the world record of 56.7 degrees Celsius set in Death Valley, California in the United States on...

Saturday, June 25, 1921: ‘Asakusa no Kai’ (Association of Asakusa) was inaugurated. It is a unique meeting where those who are related to entertainment in Asakusa, especially active movies and those who are related to education in the Ministry of Education meet. “Helen Keller,” a foreign movie released in February of the same year, was the first film recommended by the Ministry of Education. Led by Yoshihisa Norisugi, the social director of the Education Ministry’s Bureau of Education, an attempt to utilize movies for youth education is being promoted. In an interview with “Shakai to Kyoka,” a magazine that launched the same year, Yamane Mikito, a film director, said, “If...

1921 (Taisho 10) Thursday, June 23 A memorial service for Indian lecturer Hariharnath Toral Atal at Tokyo School of Foreign Languages will be held at Tokyo Imperial University. On June 14, around 2 PM, Atal was in agony after taking a powerful drug in an 8-mat room on the second floor of his house. The maid found him in agony and immediately gave him medical treatment, but his death was confirmed at 4 PM. Atal came to Japan 5 years ago, in 1916, from Varanasi city of United Province in India, now called Uttar Pradesh, which was then part of the British territory. He has always complained about British rule...

1921 (Taisho 10) Monday, June 13 Babe Ruth of the Yankees defeated the Tigers with the performance of winning pitcher, home run, and outfield defense. The three-sword record will be recreated 98 years later, on September 4, 2019, by Cincinnati Reds pitcher Michael Lorenzen in a game against the Philadelphia Phillies. In addition, 100 years later, the re-enactment of the record set by Babe Ruth on the same day as “the starting pitching of the most homerun player” will be the game between Otani Shohei and the Rangers on April 26 this year. Two months have passed since the opening of the Major League this year, and one month is...