A high school’s annual student trips to Japan has led to the donation of a bust of Japanese medical pioneer Tomoe Takagi cast by Taiwanese sculptor Huang Tu-shui (黃土水).
Huang, whose most famous work, Water Buffaloes (水牛群像), in 2009 became the first 20th century artifact to be deemed a national treasure — was the first Taiwanese to study art in Japan.
He inspired painter Cheng Cheng-po (陳澄波) to study in Japan as well, and influenced the works of sculptors Yang Ying-feng (楊英風) and Ju Ming (朱銘).
The bust of Takagi, completed in 1929, was one of the last pieces Huang created before his death in 1930.
In 1919, then-Japanese governor-general of Taiwan Motojiro Akashi asked Takagi to serve as the first president of what later became Taiwan Power Co.
When Takagi’s term ended and he returned to Tokyo in 1929, the organization’s employees commissioned Huang to create a bronze bust of Takagi as a sign of respect.
When National Changhua Senior High School began organizing annual trips to Japan in 2010, students were conducting research on Lai Ho (賴和) — the father of modern Taiwanese literature — and they discovered that Lai had written Takagi’s name in an unpublished manuscript, head librarian Lu Hsing-chung (呂興忠) said.
The manuscript expressed Lai’s admiration for Takagi, who was an expert on infectious diseases and was in 1920 invited by Shinpei Goto, head of civilian affairs in the Japanese colonial-era government, to fight a plague in Taiwan, Lu said.
Takagi also served as president of the Japanese colonial-era Taiwan Sotokufu Medical School, which later became National Taiwan University’s College of Medicine, he said.
Takagi’s students included Lai, Tu Tsung-ming (杜聰明), Lee Cheng-yuan (李鎮源) and other Taiwanese pioneers in the field of medicine, he added.
Lu said that as most of Lai’s writings were “colonial protest literature,” the hint that he might have admired a Japanese official stationed in Taiwan inspired him and his students to conduct further research.
In 2011, Lu and his students visited Takagi’s grandson in Tokyo, where they were surprised to find in his home the bronze bust of Takagi cast by Huang.
After Takagi’s grandson died in 2013, his widow decided to dispose of Takagi’s belongings, including the bust.
Private collectors, art museums and universities in Taiwan and Japan began competing for the bust, with Tainan’s Chimei Museum in 2014 offering NT$35 million (US$1.18 million at the current exchange rate) for it, sources said.
Lu and his students returned to Tokyo in 2014 to visit the widow, who they persuaded to donate the bust, several photographs of Aboriginal communities and other historical materials to the school.
The school has created a museum to house the artifacts and plans to invite the widow to cut the ribbon at the opening ceremony later this year.
Three Taiwanese airlines have prohibited passengers from packing Bluetooth earbuds and their charger cases in checked luggage. EVA Air and Uni Air said that Bluetooth earbuds and charger cases are categorized as portable electronic devices, which should be switched off if they are placed in checked luggage based on international aviation safety regulations. They must not be in standby or sleep mode. However, as charging would continue when earbuds are placed in the charger cases, which would contravene international aviation regulations, their cases must be carried as hand luggage, they said. Tigerair Taiwan said that earbud charger cases are equipped
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
WEATHER Typhoon forming: CWA A tropical depression is expected to form into a typhoon as early as today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, adding that the storm’s path remains uncertain. Before the weekend, it would move toward the Philippines, the agency said. Some time around Monday next week, it might reach a turning point, either veering north toward waters east of Taiwan or continuing westward across the Philippines, the CWA said. Meanwhile, the eye of Typhoon Kalmaegi was 1,310km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, as of 2am yesterday, it said. The storm is forecast to move through central
RSS