(1892–1970) was a Japanese

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

and

Esperantist An Esperantist () is a person who speaks, reads or writes Esperanto. According to the Declaration of Boulogne, a document agreed upon at the first World Esperanto Congress in 1905, an Esperantist is someone who speaks Esperanto and uses it for ...

Biography

Taiji Yamaga was born in 1892 to a printing family in

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

. Yamaga moved to

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

, where he studied Esperanto with historian and Esperantist Katsumu Kuroita. At age sixteen, Yamaga served as the secretary of Kuroita's Japan Esperanto Society. In 1911, Yamaga was introduced to anarchist

Sakae Osugi Sakae may refer to: Places in Japan * Sakae, Chiba (Japanese: 栄町; ''sakae-machi''), a town in Chiba Prefecture * Sakae, Niigata (Japanese: 栄町; ''sakae-machi''), a town in Niigata Prefecture * Sakae, Nagano (Japanese: 栄村; ''sakae-mura'') ...

. Yamaga became an assistant to anarchist Osugi. At Osugi's request, Yamaga visited Chinese anarchist Liu Shifu and his comrades in

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

. He stayed at Shifu's headquarter for several weeks. Shifu invited Yamaga to help him publish the journal '' Minsheng''. Yamaga returned to Japan to help with the publication of the ''

Heimin Shimbun was a socialist and anti-war daily newspaper established in Japan in November 1903, as the newspaper of the Heimin-sha group. It was founded by Kōtoku Shūsui and Sakai Toshihiko, as a pacifist response to the approaching Russo-Japanese War. ...

''. In 1922, Yamaga was able secure Osugi a false passport. Beginning in 1939, he lived in

Kaohsiung Kaohsiung, officially Kaohsiung City, is a special municipality located in southern Taiwan. It ranges from the coastal urban center to the rural Yushan Range with an area of . Kaohsiung City has a population of approximately 2.73 million p ...

Taipei , nickname = The City of Azaleas , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Taiwan#Asia#Pacific Ocean#Earth , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country ...

, and

Manila Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...

. He returned to Kyoto in 1946. In 1960, Yamaga attended the tenth international meeting of the

War Resisters' International War Resisters' International (WRI), headquartered in London, is an international anti-war organisation with members and affiliates in over 40 countries. History ''War Resisters' International'' was founded in Bilthoven, Netherlands in 1921 un ...

in India. In 1962, Yamaga began writing an illustrated memoirs entitled The Twilight Journal. The Yamaga Manga. He died on December 6, 1970. He is survived by his wife Mika Shigehara.

References

External links

YAMAGA Taiji
at the Dictionnaire des militants anarchistes

at the L'Ephemeride Anarchiste 1892 births 1970 deaths Japanese anarchists Japanese Esperantists People from Kyoto {{Anarchist-stub

Biography

References

Further reading

External links