Month: December 2018

Calendar: December 31

Year: Day to Day Men: December 31

Half-Filled Tub

On December 31st of 1759, Arthur Guinness signed a nine-thousand year lease on an abandoned property and became a prominent figure within the Dublin brewery scene. 

In September of1755, Arthur Guinness purchased his first brewery, a three-story building located on the confluence of the River Liffey in Leixlip, County Kildare. The river provided power and water for brewing; the hops were brought from Dublin along the Dublin-Galway road. The origin of the yeast used by Guinness is unknown, but is speculated to have come from Kildare. In September of 1756, Guinness leased several more properties to extend his business. 

Leaving his Leixlip brewery in the care of his brother Richard, Guinness moved to Dublin, an area of affordable property due to a recent number of economic upsets and bank collapses. He was particularly interested in acquiring a brewery at St. James Gate that had sat abandoned for nine years. A large site of four acres, 1.6 hectares, it contained a gristmill, two malt houses, a brewhouse and stables. The property’s location near St. James Gate would be served by a terminus of the newly built Grand Canal. 

The current owner of the Dublin property was the Rainsford family. It was originally owned by Sir Mark Rainsford, the Lord Mayor of Dublin and a manufacturer of beer and fine ales. The business was passed on to his son, also named Mark, who leased the business in 1715 to a Captain Paul Espinasse. In 1750, the Rainsford family resumed ownership of the business and the site. On the thirty-first of December in 1759, Arthur Guinness leased the site from Sir Mark Rainsford’s grandson, Mark Rainsford III. Under the agreement, Guinness made a £100 down-payment and agreed to pay an additional £45 annually for nine-thousand years.  

The terms of the lease involving the water usage became a major problem between Arthur Guinness and the Dublin Corporation, the city’s administrator. By 1773, the Corporation claimed his brewery was using more water than that specified by his lease, a claim disputed by Guinness. However in April of 1775, the Corporation discovered that Guinness had made alterations to the pipe system that allowed him to draw more water than he was allowed. Both sides eventually settled the matter in court in 1785; Guinness agreed to lease water from the City of Dublin for an annual charge of £10.

While popular in Dublin, Guinness did not immediately achieve dominance among the regional brewers; his sales were far below those of such brewers as Taylor, Phepoe and Thwaites. Dublin brewers were not as successful as English brewers whose imported porter was the dominant drink in the city. In 1778, Guinness added porter to his ale-heavy brewery and, by 1783, it dominated his business. By 1796, porter production at the St. James Gate Brewery was five times the ale output; ale brewing at the site ended on the 22nd of April in  1799, 

Although he limited his brewery to dark beer, Arthur Guinness experimented with different forms of porter. His concept of a West India Porter, with greater hops and alcohol content, later became the basis for Guinness Foreign Extra Stout. In 1777, the British House of Commons formally changed the tax code regarding domestic Irish porter; this allowed the creation of a market for the importation of Irish porter into England, which led to  beer exportation as a staple of the Irish economy. 

Calendar: December 30

A Year: Day to Day Men: December 30

Scrawls on the Wall

On December 30th in 1809, the city of Boston passed a law which made the wearing of masks at balls illegal. 

The anit-masquerade opinion was already established in England before masked balls spread overseas to the colonies. Opponents in eighteenth-century England crusaded against gatherings that were tarnishing the country’s morals. The epistolary novelist Samuel Richardson, author of the 1740 “Virtue Rewarded”, asserted that public masquerades presented frightening possibilities of disguise, role-playing and sexual freedom for women.  

As masquerade balls became popular in the colonies, several cities began to ban masks. In 1808, a year before Boston’s law, Philadelphia made masquerades and masked balls illegal. The city supported the law by asserting dances were common meeting places for those interested in sex commerce, and masked balls created a sense of anonymity for those participants. 

In 1848, Boston extended its masked ball law by adding the following section: 

“Any person who shall get up and set on foot, or cause to be published, or otherwise aid in getting up and promoting any masked ball, or other public assembly, at which the company wears masks, or other disguises, and to which admission is obtained upon payment of money, or the delivery of any valuable thing, or by any ticket or voucher obtained for money, or any valuable thing, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars; and for repetition of the offense, by imprisonment in the common jail or house of correction, not exceeding one year.”

On the first of April in 1963, Boston’s anti-masquerade law was repealed. It should be noted that Boston, with its Puritan roots, had a history that emphasized proper behavior and refraining from frivolity. In 1659, the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which contained Boston, enacted a law called “Penalty for Keeping Christmas”. The idea was that such festivals, superstitiously kept in other countries, were a great dishonor of God and offense of others. People who were found celebrating Christmas by failing to work, feasting, or any other way, had to pay five shillings for every offense, about fifty dollars today. This law was in effect for twenty-two years.

Calendar: December 29

Year: Day to Day Men: December 29

Pin-Striped Shirt

December 29th of 1721 marks the birth date of Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, the Marquise de Pompadour. She became a prominent member of the French court and the official chief mistress of King Louis XV from 1745 to 1751. 

Jeanne Antoinette Poisson was born in Paris to François Poisson and his wife Madeleine de La Motte; although it is suspected that he was not her biological father. After a scandal of unpaid debts forced François Poisson to flee France in 1725, Charles Le Normant de Tournehem, one of the men suspected of being Jeanne’s father, became her legal guardian. She attended an Ursuline convent in Poissy from 1726 to 1730 where she received quality education. Tournehem then arranged for private education at home where she was taught the arts including painting and theater. 

At the age of nineteen, Jeanne Poisson married Charles Guillaume Le Normant d’Étiolles, Tounehem’s nephew and his sole heir. This inheritance include the estate at Étiolles, a wedding gift from Tournehem, that was situated on the edge of the King’s hunting grounds. As a married woman, Jeanne Poisson frequented the celebrated salons in Paris and met such notables as writer Voltaire, historian Charles de Montesquieu, and author Bernard de Fontenelle. 

Due to her involvement with the Parisian salons, King Louis XV heard Jeanne Poisson’s name mentioned at Court. Wanting to be noticed by the King, Poisson arranged for a meeting during the King’s hunting trip to the forest of Sénart in 1744; the result of which was the King sending a gift of venison to her. With the death of Maria Anne de Mailly, Madame de Châteauroux, the position of King’s mistress became vacant in early December of 1744. In the next year, Jeanne Poisson received a formal royal invitation to attend the February 25th masked ball at the Palace of Versailles, a celebration for the marriage of Dauphin Louis of France to Infanta Maria Teresa of Spain. 

It was at this celebration that King Louis XV declared his affection for Jeanne Poisson. By March of 1745, she was the King’s mistress, installed at Versailles in an apartment directly above the King. The marriage between Poisson and her husband Charles d”Étiolles was officially annulled on the 7th of May. The King purchased the title of Marquisate of Pompadour, along with its estate and coat of arms, and gave them to Poisson thus making her a Marquise of the court. Forging a good relationship with the Queen Maria Leszczyńska, Poisson became favored by the Queen above the King’s other mistresses and quickly mastered the highly mannered etiquette of the court.

As the court favorite, Jeanne Poisson, now the Marquise de Pompadour, effectively assumed the role of prime minister and became responsible for favors and dismissals, as well as advancements for court members. She  welded influence in negotiations towards the Treaty of Versailles and supported Cardinal de Choiseul-Beaupré in his plans for the Pacte de Famille and the suppression of the Jesuits. The Marquise made herself invaluable to the King by becoming the only person he trusted to tell him the truth. She would entertain him with elegant private parties and operas, events sometimes attended by Queen Leszczyńska, as well as hunting trips in his private reserve.

In 1750, Marquise de Pompadour’s ceased sexual relationships with the King partly due to her poor health, three miscarriages, and poor libido. In order to continue her importance in the court as a favorite, she took on the role of “friend of the King” and presented a portrait of herself entitled “Amitie (Friendship)” that was sculpted by Jean Baptiste Pigalle. After the sale of her château, the Marquise de Pompadour took over the Château de Saint-Ouen near Paris. While there, she played a central role in Paris’s art scene by sponsoring sculptors and painters, as well as, constructing the Sèvres porcelain factory which became one of the most famous in Europe. The Marquise de Pompadour lived at Saint-Ouen until her death at the age of forty-two in April of 1764.

Ron Monsma

“Still Life with Green Cup”, Date Unknown, Pastel on Paper

Ron Monsma received his BA in Fine Arts at Indiana University South Bend and has been an instructor of drawing and painting at Indiana University since 1997. His work has been recognized with numerous awards and is represented in many private and corporate collections across the United States. 

Calendar: December 28

A Year: Day to Day Men: 28th of December

Wearing White Attire

December 28, 1612 was the date of the first observation of the planet Neptune. Galileo observed and recorded it as a nearby “fixed star”.

Galileo was observing the four large moons of Jupiter — now named for him — in the years 1612 and 1613. Over several nights, he also recorded in his notebook the position of a nearby star that is not in any modern catalogues, University of Melbourne’s physicist David Jamieson explains.

“It has been known for several decades that this unknown star was actually the planet Neptune,” Jamieson said. “Computer simulations show the precision of his observations revealing that Neptune would have looked just like a faint star almost exactly where Galileo observed it.” But unlike stars, planets orbit the sun. So planets move through our sky different than the relatively fixed background of stars.

On the night of Jan. 28, 1613, Galileo wrote in his notebook that the star we now know is the planet Neptune appeared to have moved relative to an actual nearby star. There was also a mysterious unlabeled black dot in his earlier observations of Jan. 6, 1613, which is in the right position to be Neptune.

If the mysterious black dot on Jan. 6 was actually recorded on Jan. 28, Professor Jamieson proposed this would prove that Galileo believed he may have discovered a new planet. “I believe this dot could reveal he went back in his notes to record where he saw Neptune earlier when it was even closer to Jupiter but had not previously attracted his attention because of its unremarkable star-like appearance”.

Calendar: December 27

Year: Day to Day Men; December 27

Moss Green on a Field of Blue

The 27th of December in 1904 marks the theatrical premier of James Matthew Barrie’s play “Peter Pan”, also known as “The Little Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up”. The play was produced by Charles Frohman and opened at the Duke of York’s Theater in London. The lead character of Peter Pan was played by thirty-seven year old Nina Boucicault due to regulations regarding child actors. Gerald du Maurier doubled as Mr. Darling and Captain Hook. 

Peter Pan first appeared in J. M. Barrie’s 1902 novel “The Little White Bird”. This original story focused on the fictional idea that all babies where at one point birds. The inspiration for the iconic scenes of Peter Pan flying can be drawn from that idea. Peter Pan actually appeared as a minor character in a few chapters of “The Little White Bird”. 

The London play was met with positive reviews by both critics and viewers. In 1905, Frohman brought “Peter Pan” to New York where it premiered at Broadway’s Empire Theater. Maude Adams played Peter, a role she reprised in 1912 and 1915 theatrical runs. The Broadway role of Peter Pan was showcased by Marilyn Miller in 1924 and Eva Le Galliennne in 1928.

In 1906, Barrie published a second novel, entitled “Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens”, that expanded the character of Peter Pan through a series of adventures. Barrie continued to re-examine the character through multiple revisions of the play and, in 1911, wrote a third novel entitled “Peter and Wendy”. The story line for the novel was inspired by the revisions Barrie had made to the play. 

“Peter Pan” made its first adaption as a musical in 1950 with music and lyrics by Leonard Bernstein. The play starred Jean Arthur as Peter Pan and horror icon Boris Karloff as Captain Hook. However, after its initial run, this adaption virtually vanished until 2018 when Bard College did a contemporary take on the show.

The best known “Peter Pan” musical is the 1954 adaption with Mary Martin as Peter Pan and Cyril Ritchard as Captain Hook. This play, directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins, won Tony Awards for the lead actors. Broadway revivals starred Sandy Duncan in 1979 and ex-gymnast Cathy Rigby throughout the 1990s. In 2014, a live NBC telecast of the stage show starred Allison Williams as Peter and Christopher Walken as Captain Hook.

Calendar: December 26

A Year: Day to Day Men: 26th of December

Double Stars

The day of December 26th was a great day for film buffs. the date marked the premiers of two major films in the genres of comedy and horror.

On December 26, 1940, the romantic comedy film, “The Philadelphia Story” directed by George Cukor, based on the Broadway play of the same name, premiered in New York City. The film starred Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, and James Stewart; it also featured Ruth Hussey in her Academy Award-nominated role of photographer Elizabeth Imbrie.

The film is considered one of the best examples of a comedy of remarriage, a genre popular in the 1930s and 1940s, in which a couple divorce, flirt with outsiders and then remarry—a useful story-telling ploy at a time when the depiction of extramarital affairs was blocked by the Production Code.

The film was Hepburn’s first big hit following several flops, which had led to her being included on a 1938 list that Manhattan movie theater owner Harry Brandt compiled of actors considered to be “box office poison”. She acquired the film rights to the play, which she had also starred in, with the help of Howard Hughes, in order to control it as a vehicle for her screen comeback. After MGM purchased the film rights they were skeptical about Hepburn’s box office appeal, so Louis B Mayer took an unusual precaution by casting two A-list male stars (Grant and Stewart) to support Hepburn. Nominated for six Academy Awards, the film won two; James Stewart for Best Actor and Donald Ogden Stewart for Best Adapted Screenplay.

On December 26, 1973, “The Exorcist” was released theatrically in the United States by Warner Brothers. The film was initially booked in only twenty-six theaters across the U.S., although it soon became a major commercial success. The film earned ten Academy Award nominations, winning Best Sound Mixing and Best Adapted Screenplay. It became one of the highest-grossing films in history, grossing over $441 million worldwide in the aftermath of various re-releases, and was the first horror film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.

The film was adapted by William Peter Blatty from his 1971 novel of the same name and starred  Ellen Burstyn, Linda Blair, Max von Sydow and Jason Miller. The book, inspired by the 1949 exoticism of Roland Doe, deals with the demonic possession of a 12-year-old girl and her mother’s attempts to win back her child through an exorcism conducted by two priests. The film experienced a troubled production; even in the beginning, several prestigious film directors including Stanley Kubrick and Arthur Penn turned it down. Incidents, such as the toddler son of one of the main actors being hit by a motorbike and hospitalized, attracted claims that the set was cursed. The complex special effects used as well as the nature of the film locations also presented severe challenges.

Calendar: December 25

Year: Day to Day Men: December 25

Christmas Morning’s Present

The 25th of December in 1921 marks the last major Potlatch led by the Kwakwaka’wakw Chief Daniel Cranmer in British Columbia, Canada.

A potlatch is a gift-giving ceremonial feast by Indigenous peoples of the Pacific northwest coast of Canada and the United States. Among such cultures as the Heiltsuk, Haida, Tlingit, Kwakwaka’wakw and Coast Salish, it is traditionally their primary governmental institution, legislative body and economic system. The potlatch demonstrated a leader’s wealth and position through the giving away or destruction of wealth or valuable items.

The Potlatch focused on the reaffirmation of family, clan and international ties as well as the human connection to the spiritual world. It was also strict system of resource management, a time when coastal peoples negotiated and affirmed rights to and use of specific resources and territories. The recitation of oral histories and the honoring of the supernatural forces were an integral part of the ceremony; music, dances, singing, storytelling and speeches were also involved. 

The Kwakwaka’wakw are one of the indigenous peoples residing on the Pacific Northwest Coast. Their traditional territory encompassed northern Vancouver Island, the nearby smaller islands including the Discovery Islands, and the adjacent British Columbia mainland. The Kwakwaka’wakw are organized politically into thirteen First Nation bands, a basic unit of government with a council chaired by either an elected or hereditary chief.

Born April of 1885 in Knight Inlet, Chief Daniel Cranmer carried the Nimpkish (‘Namgis) hereditary name Pal’nakwala Wakas. He was at the center of one of the most significant Nimpkish cultural events of the early 20th century. Cranmer held a notable potlatch on Village Island (ʼMimkwa̱mlis) from December 21st to the 25th in 1921. It is significant as it was one of the largest public First Nations’ potlatches in defiance of the Indian Act legislation, Section 149, that prohibited an ill-defined collection of aboriginal ceremonies under the general description of potlatch.

Indian Agent W.M. Halliday presided over the trial held at the Albert Bay Day School, which for the duration of the trial also served as the jail. In April of 1922, the arrests and trial resulted in fifty-eight verdicts of which there were nine dismissals and 49 convictions. Twenty-six of those convicted were brought by boat to Vancouver and then to the Oakalla Prison in Bumaby; twenty-two of the convicted were sentenced to two months imprisonment and four received six months imprisonment. 

Twenty-three of those convicted received suspended sentences after agreeing to turn over their ceremonial regalia to Indian Agent Halliday and promising to abandon potlatches. The confiscated ceremonial regalia came to be commonly known as the “Potlatch Collection”. These artifacts were dispersed to public cultural institutions in the United States, England, and Canada as well as private collectors. Efforts to repatriate the collection began in the late 1950s

The government of Canada had criminalized potlatches from 1885 to 1951. However, potlatches persisted underground despite the risk of governmental reprisals which included mandatory jail sentences of a least two months. Since the ceremony was decriminalized in 1951, the potlatch has made a resurgence in some communities. In many of the Indigenous nations, the potlatch is still the basis of Indigenous governance; most notable is the Haida Nation whose democracy is firmly rooted in potlatch law. 

Note: The word “potlatch” is derived from the Chinook Wawa, a language which originated as a pidgin trade language in the Pacific Northwest. A mixture of the Chinook, French, English and other language systems, Chinook Wawa spread during the nineteenth-century through British Columbia, Alaska, Northern California, Idaho and Montana. Potlatch, meaning to give away or a gift, originated from the Nuu-chah-nulth word ‘paɬaˑč’, meaning to make a ceremonial gift in a potlatch.

A history of the Potlatch Collection can be found at the U’mista Cultural Center site located at: https://www.umista.ca/pages/collection-history

Calendar: December 24

A Year: Day to Day Men: 24th of December

Namor the Sub-Mariner: Homo Mermanus

On December 24, 1851, a fire burns 35,000 volumes at the United States Library of Congress.

As Americans celebrated Christmas Eve, 1851, a fire ripped through the US Library of Congress in Washington, DC, destroying 35,000 volumes. A faulty chimney flue set off the blaze, which took two-thirds of the collection, including most of Thomas Jefferson’s personal library that had been sold to the institution in 1815.

Initially established in 1800 when President John Adams approved legislation that appropriated $5,000 to purchase “such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress” — the first books, ordered from London, arrived in 1801. They were stored in the U.S. Capitol. Twelve years later, the British army invaded the city of Washington and burned the Capitol, including the 3,000-volume Library of Congress. Jefferson responded to that loss by selling his personal library of 6,487 volumes — the largest and finest in the country — to Congress to “recommence” the library.

After the fire of 1851, architect of the Capitol Thomas U. Walter presented a plan to repair and enlarge the Library room using fireproof materials throughout. The elegantly restored Library room was opened on August 23, 1853. Called by the press the “largest iron room in the world,” it was encircled by galleries and filled the west central front of the Capitol. A month before the opening, Pres. Franklin Pierce inspected the new Library in the company of British scientist Sir Charles Lyell, who pronounced it “the most beautiful room in the world.”

The current collection consists of more than 164 million total items: more than 38 million books and other printed materials, 3.6 million recordings, 14 million photographs, 5.5 million maps, 8.1 million pieces of sheet music and 70 million manuscripts. It also has 5,711 incunabula (early printed books before 1501) and 122,810,430 items in the nonclassified (special) collections. Although the Library is open to the public, only high-ranking government officials and Library employees may check out books and materials (except through interlibrary loan, which is available to the public.

Calendar: December 23

Year: Day to Day Men: December 23

The Blue Leather Armchair

December 23rd of 1912 marks the release of director Mack Sennett’s comedy short “Hoffmeyer’s Legacy”, notable for being the first Keystone Cops comedy.  There are no known existing copies of this film; it is now considered a lost work. 

Mack Sennett was a Canadian-American producer, director, actor and studio head. Born in Danville, Quebec in 1880, he started his career in films with the Biograph Company of New York City, which during the height of the silent era was the most prominent and respected film studio in the United States. In 1912, Sennett, with backing from the owners of the New York Motion Picture Company, opened Keystone Studios in California. This studio possessed the first fully-enclosed film stage and studio ever constructed.

At Keystone Studios in 1912, Sennett created the slapstick antics of the Keystone Kops. The idea for the Keystone Kops came from Hank Mann, a Russian-American comedian who became one of the first Keystone Kops. Mann played the police chief Tehiezel in the group’s first film, “Hoffmeyer’s Legacy”. The popularity of the Keystone Kops began with the 1913 comedy short “The Bangville Police” which had comedian Ford Sterling in the role of chief. 

Notable members of the Keystone Kops were comedic character actor Edgar Kennedy; Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, one of the most popular silent stars of the 1910s; William Frawley known for his later role as Fred Mertz in “I Love Lucy”; and Alfred St. John known for his scruffy character role in both the 1940 “Billy the Kid” and 1941 “Lone Rider” series. The casting of the Keystone police changed from one film to the next; many of the members were per diem actors who remain uncredited. 

Mack Sennett continued producing films with the Keystone Kops through the 1920s but, with the arrival of sound films, the group became less popular. In 1935, Warner Brothers director Ralph Staub staged a revival of the group with his short film “Keystone Hotel” which featured the Kops’ frantic movements. Homages to the group appeared in the 1939 “Hollywood Cavalcade” which had Buster Keaton in a Keystone chase scene, and the 1955 “Abbot and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops” which include stuntmen dressed as the Kops in a lengthy chase scene. The “Abbot and Costello” film had cameo appearances by two of the original Kops, Hank Mann and Heinie Conklin, as well as a cameo by Mack Sennett. The master of comedy, Mel Brooks included a Keystone Kops-styled chase scene in his 1976 comedy “Silent Movie”. 

Calendar: December 22

Year: Day to Day Men: December 22

Filtered Light

On the 22nd of December in 1885, Itō Hirobumi, a samurai, became the first Prime Minister of Japan during the Meiji era. The Meiji era, which extended from October of 1868 to July of 1912, was the first half of the Empire of Japan. It was a period of movement from an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization to a modern, industrialized nation state influenced by Western scientific, technological, political, legal and aesthetic ideas. 

Itō Hirobumi was the son of a modest samurai family in the Chōshū domain of western Japan. He grew up at a time of convulsive political conditions during the decline of the Tokugawa shogunate which had governed Japan since 1603. Itō was sent to England in 1863 by the leaders of Chōshū to study naval science. He played a minor role in the events leading to the 1868 Meiji Restoration, a movement which overthrew the shogunate and reestablished the formal authority of the Emperor. 

Itō’s role in the Meiji Restoration brought him into contact with Kido Takayoshi who became one of the great leaders of early Meiji Japan and an important mentor to Itō. His connections with Kido and Ōkubo Toshimichi, one of the leaders of the Restoration, enabled him to perform government assignments to the United States and the Iwakura Mission to Europe as well as study matters such as taxation, treaty revision, and budgetary systems. 

When Ōkubo was assassinated in 1878, Itō Hirobumi succeeded him as Minister of Home Affairs. This advancement brought him into conflict with the ambitious statesman Ōkuma Shigenobu. Itō forced Ōkuma out of the government in 1881 and persuaded the government to adopt a constitution. The Emperor proclaimed the constitution in 1889 and, in the next year, the National Diet was established. The National Diet is the legislature of Japan consisting of the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors, both elected and responsible for nominating the Prime Minister.

At this time, Itō was the most important person in the Meiji government. Serious about establishing a constitutional government, he and other officials had spent one and a half years in Europe studying under constitutional scholars. This writing of basic rights and the establishment of the Diet was a very progressive act given Japan’s samurai background and its tense domestic and foreign problems.

Itō Hirobumi remained a prominent figure in the 1890s and achieved two important successes. The first was an agreement with Great Britain that did away with extraterritoriality thus subjecting British nationals in Japan to Japanese law. The second was Japan’s 1895 victory over China in the First Sino-Japanese War, primarily a conflict over influence in Korea. The war demonstrated the failure of China’s Qing dynasty’s attempts to modernize its military and shifted the regional dominance from China to Japan.

In 1905, following the Russo-Japanese War, Itō was sent to Korea to negotiate a treaty that turned Korea into a Japanese protectorate. He returned to Korea as resident general in 1906 and pursued a gradual policy of economic and bureaucratic reform. Itō sought to suppress Korean nationalism and even engineered King Kojong’s abdication; however, he could not prevent the move favored by Japanese leaders to annex Korean. In October of 1909, Itō Hirobumi was assassinated in the city of Harbin, North China, by An Chung-gŭn, a member of the Korean Independence movement.

Itō Hirobumi was the one Japanese leader who advocated a moderate and sympathetic approach to Japan’s Korean policy; his assassination ultimately became a factor to Japan’s annexation of Korea in 1910.