Shussei Nobori, and a tragic ending

[bestmsdt]

Thank you for that, Akira. That's a possibility I wasn't aware of. The banners in your pictures do seem very, very similar to the one for Kitamura-san.

I guess the Shussei Nobori and funeral banner were put away and stored together. Maybe they eventually came onto the market due to something like a house clearance in Japan, with the Kitamura family no longer around.

Best regards,
Tony

[Akira Komiya]

Yes, I think that was very likely the case.
It must have been kept as a family treasure until the family became extinct.

[ghp95134]

...Maybe they eventually came onto the market due to something like a house clearance in Japan, with the Kitamura family no longer around.

I know a family whose grandfather (Radm) died and they paid a trash collector to pick up everything. The trash man came back the next day and said, "Who was your deceased? I found letters to him from Admiral Yamamoto!"

The family did keep photos and his medals. He and Yamamoto were in England the same time attending some sort of naval conference in 1930.


11 June 1930 in the presence of the Crown Prince

[Akira Komiya]

That is a great and also sad story.
There has been an ever increasing trend of the younger generation moving to big cities, especially, Tokyo since the 60s or so, leaving their ancestral houses derelict. This trend is accelerating as many of the large corporations which were historically headquartered in cities other than Tokyo are moving their headquarters to Tokyo, necessitating those who want to get a well paying job to also move to Tokyo.
I believe most of the military items sold on auction here today come from such house clearances.
Incidentally, I believe the person in the photo is not the Crown Prince (Crown Prince Akihito, the current Emperor Emeritus Akihito, was not born until 1933) but Prince Takamatsunomiya (高松宮宣仁親王）Emperor Hirohito's second younger brother, who was himself a Naval Officer.
高松宮宣仁親王 - Wikipedia

[Akira Komiya]

According to his biology, Prince Takamatsu (Prince Nobuhito) and his wife Kikuko, a granddaughter of the last Shogun, Yoshinobu Tokugawa (I say a granddaughter, as Yoshinobu had 11 daughters and 10 sons all born of concubines), travelled to Europe and the United States during 1930 so the photo must have been taken during their visit to Great Britain.

[ghp95134]

Thanks for the correction, Akira-san. Memory lapse -- I have the details somewhere in my files and I'm sure I identified the prince correctly in my files. Anyway, he does bear a striking resemblance to the then Crown Prince -- the ears! (And I do not mean Prince Charles!!)

Thanks,
-- Guy