1903

Meiji 36 (明治三十六年)

Timeline of 1903

• 1903/4/6 The second group of Okinawan immigrants to Hawaii arrives in Honolulu.
• 1903/4/20 The Fifth Domestic Exposition in Osaka opens.
  • The exhibition will be the last Domestic Exposition to be held. It includes a "Pavilion of Mankind" (Jinruikan) organized by anthropologist Tsuboi Shôgorô, in which Ainu, Taiwanese aborigines, Koreans, and others are put on display. The Okinawans refuse to go on display.
• 1903/5 Ichikawa Danjûrô IX appears on stage for the last time.

Other Events of 1903

• The Denkikan, the first theatre in Japan to be built explicitly for the purpose of showing films, opens in Asakusa's Asakusa Rokku entertainment district, on Chinsekai Street.
• The Early Institutional Life of Japan: A Study in the Reform of 645 A.D., by Kan'ichi Asakawa, is published.
• Japan is officially recognized by the international community as an independent sovereign state under international law, as the result of a decision by the Permanent Court of Arbitration.
• Iha Fuyû enters the Linguistics Dept of Tokyo University, where he specializes in studying the Okinawan language and the Omoro sôshi.
• Land reforms in Okinawa prefecture end the paying of taxes in kind, implementing a modern strictly monetary system of taxation.
• James Murdoch's History of Japan is published.
• The Ideals of the East, by Okakura Kakuzô, is published.
• Prominent Americans interested in Japan and prominent Japanese in America is published.
• Russia promises to withdraw its troops from Manchuria, in the wake of the Boxer Rebellion, but does not do so.
• Construction is completed on the Trans-Siberian Railway (begun 1891).
• Yokoyama Taikan visits India.

Births and Deaths

• 1903/1/22 Tachikawa Chikara dies (b. 1835).
• 1903/4/28 Saigô Tanomo dies (b.1830).
• 1903/6/17 Ishii Yûjirô of the Shinsengumi dies (b. 1846).
• 1903/8/27 Oine, daughter of Philipp Franz von Siebold, dies (b. 1827).
• 1903/9/13 Ichikawa Danjûrô IX dies (b. 1838).
• Print artist Munakata Shikô is born (d. 1975).
• Filmmaker Ozu Yasujirô is born (d. 1963).
• Composer Taki Rentarô dies of tuberculosis at age 23.
• Yagi Gennojô dies (b. 1814).

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