Call Number:

Ms. Coll. 1267

Repository:

University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts

Extent:

1 volume

Date:

1922-1923 (inclusive)

Form:

Scrapbooks

Abstract:

The Training Fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy, the Renshū Kantai, operated from 1903-1940. Graduates of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy would spend several months in training deployment throughout the Pacific Ocean and beyond, occasionally venturing as far as the Mediterranean Sea or the East Coast of the United States. This 18-leaf scrapbook contains 155 photographs depicting the 1922-1923 cruise under the command of Vice-Admiral Naomi Taniguchi. No specific collector is identified, but the first leaf features a portrait of one Tōhei Yamamoto 山本藤平.

The Training Fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy, the Renshū Kantai 練習艦隊, operated from 1903-1940, with only a brief hiatus during the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). Graduates of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy (Kaigun Heigakkō 海軍兵学校)—and from 1921 onward, graduates of the Naval Engineering Academy (Kaigun Kikan Gakkō 海軍機関学校) and the Naval Paymasters Academy (Kaigun Keiri Gakkō 海軍経理学校)—would spend several months in training deployment largely throughout the Pacific Ocean and beyond, with their near-annual cruises occasionally venturing as far as the Mediterranean Sea or the East Coast of the United States.

This 18-leaf scrapbook contains 155 photographs collected during the 1922-1923 cruise under the command of Vice-Admiral Naomi Taniguchi. The photographs span locations throughout the cruise in which the three ships, Iwate, Izumo, and Asama circumnavigated the globe. The cruise began in Yokosuka, Japan on June 26, 1922, and the ships traveled across the Pacific Ocean and down along the west coast of North America, up through the Panama Canal and around the east coast of South America, making stops in Brazil and Argentina. The ships crossed the southern Atlantic Ocean and around the southern coast of Africa, through the Indian Ocean and back through East Asia, making stops along the way at Colombo, Sri Lanka, Singapore, and Hong Kong, among others. The ships landed at Yokosuka again on February 12, 1923.

No specific collector of this scrapbook is identified, but the first leaf features a portrait of one Tōhei Yamamoto 山本藤平. Yamamoto was a graduate of the 11th class of the Naval Paymasters Academy and a second lieutenant in training (shōi kōhosei 少尉候補生) on the Iwate. Other information on Yamamoto is scarce, though he appears to have been from Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan.

Fuller accounts of the 1922-1923 cruise are documented in other sources. The first is a commemorative publication printed by Gahōsha in 1923, entitled Taishō jūichi, jūninen renshū kōkai kinen大正十一、十二年練習航海記念 ("Commemoration of the Training Cruise of Taishō 11-12 [1922-1923]"). This "cruise book" provides portraits of the crew and its commanders, photographic records of the crew's ship life and daily activities in and around their ports-of-call, and a complete crewman manifest of the three ships. The second is Taishō Jūichinendo Renshū Kantai kiji 大正十一年度練習艦隊記事 ("An Account of the Taishō 11-12 [1922-1923] Renshū Kantai"), a detailed official and very technical report of the cruise published by the commanders of the Renshū Kantai. Both of these sources list Tōhei Yamamoto's name and affiliations.

Although it is evident that the cruise book Taishō jūichi, jūninen renshū kōkai kinen was issued with a map in the pocket on the inner back cover, this map is wanting in the Penn Libraries' copy. A surrogate for this map was found in a collection of postcards acquired by the Penn Libraries given the English collective title Japanese Imperial Naval Squadron training cruise postcards relating to the 1922-1923 cruise, 1922-1923.

This 18-leaf scrapbook contains 155 photographs collected during the 1922-1923 cruise under the command of Vice-Admiral Naomi Taniguchi. The photographs span locations throughout the cruise in which the three ships, Iwate, Izumo, and Asama circumnavigated the globe. Some images are captioned with text in red, with captions largely in Japanese with some Latin characters.

Title from sticker on spine.