The Making of a Young Diplomat: Thrust into the Caldron of Japan–US Diplomacy

Abstract

Hanihara Masanao was born in the ninth year of Meiji (1876) in the county of Kahi (now the Yamanashi Prefecture) southwest of Tokyo. The Hanihara family is descended from the Samurai class. Its lineage extends back at least several hundred years; numerous ancestral name tablets stand in the family shrine to this day. One of the oldest of them bears an inscription describing the heroic death of a family member in the famous battle of Komaki Nagakute in 1584. The Hanihara ancestors served as Takeda Shingen’s generals. The estates in Yamanashi, where Masanao was born, boasted an imposing gate, which was said to have been presented by Lord Takeda. The Hanihara residence, even to the present generation, always displays a collection of magnificent bows, reflecting the clan’s prowess in Kyuu Doo (Traditional Japanese archery).