The motoring geisha, a symbol of a modernising Japan

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Japanese cars are everywhere today, but Edwardian cars made in the land of the rising sun are as rare as they come. Takuri and Kunisue seem to have been the country’s only manufacturers circa 1910, followed by DAT in 1914, which would later become Datsun, and Mitsubishi in 1917.

This photograph is believed to have been taken in Japan and date back to 1910. It shows ‘Three Hangyoku (young Geisha) in an early touring car’. From the pictures we could find of Takuri and Kunisue models, we think it's safe to conclude that this has to be a foreign motor.

Last year we published a picture in the same vein, showing ‘the Geishas in the Colibri’ with similarly dressed girls in a German-built Colibri car. Reader David Grimstead added in a comment, “The Colibri design was well suited to Japanese conditions according to comments made in January, 1910, when Mr. M. Spencer Smith of the Rising Sun Petroleum Company of Yokohama was photographed with his De Dion loaded with a dozen Geishas in Northern Japan: 'The importation of cars is rapidly increasing in Japan; the types suitable are of medium power and short wheel-base, the unsatisfactory state of the roads and the denseness of the population rendering high powered engines practically useless.'"

We found the picture mentioned, showing Spencer Smith’s 1908 De Dion-Bouton 12/14hp, which was praised by its owner: “I have driven it for some thousands of miles over the country districts of Japan. And I consider that for its power it is the most wonderful car I have ever been in. I have never yet been stopped on the road except for one or two trivial adjustments in spite of the fact that I have driven it over roads which in England would not be considered possible for the passage of a donkey cart.”

David Grimstead continued in his comment at the time, “A Japanese automobile press was active by 1912 when a photograph of two more Geishas driving a large limousine appeared in European papers. Geishas in cars must have been tempting symbols of a modernising Japan.”

Well, here’s another example we reckon. So over to you again, dear reader: what’s that big touring car?

Words: Jeroen Booij; picture: archive

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