The Otokichi Research Partners (ORP) Team

Yuzo Igarashi

Yuzo Igarashi Igarashi first learned of Otokichi over 40+ years ago from his mentor Mr. Norie Akiyama - who at the present age of 94, has researched Otokichi for over 65+ years. Mr. Igarashi is a graduate of Waseda University in Tokyo and a retired executive of Denpo Tsushin, Inc. (Dentsu).

In 1997, Mr. Igarashi was assigned by the Japanese Government to research the story of Otokichi.

In 1997, he sought out Tei Gordon (see below), an official of JETRO (under the auspices of Japan’s former Ministry of International Trade - METI) to assist him in his research and together they have been unraveling the life of Otokichi and rewriting Japanese history in the process.

Tei A. Gordon

Tei Gordon is runs a private market-entry company from its headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. He is the former Global Communications Advisor to NTT Communications Corporation. Previously he was a partner in a Silicon Valley and Tokyo-based venture capital firm. He is also a former Assistant Director of Research at JETRO, where he was introduced to Igarashi by former JETRO head - Mr. Noburo Hatakeyama. He has held numerous other positions at Mitsubishi Corporation and venture companies. Mr. Gordon received his Bachelors degrees in Business and Asian Studies from the University of Oregon and his MBA from Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo. He is also a guest lecturer of international technology commercialization at Waseda University.

 

Professor Sachiko Tanaka

UniversityProfessor Emeritus of Sugiyama Jogakuen University.

Sachiko Tanaka is a graduate of the University of Hawaii with a PhD degree in Linquistics (1977). She is a former professor of English linguistics at Sugiyama Jogakuen University (1979-2004) in Nagoya, and has written several books as well as publishing numerous articles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Left to Right

Tei Gordon, Professor Sachiko Tanaka, Yuzo Igarashi at favorite coffee shop in Kichijoji, Tokyo.

 

 

 

Advisors:

 

Nancy Marguerite Anderson

Nancy joined ORP in 2001 and is the great grand-daughter of Alexander Caulfield Anderson, whom lived in the northwest at the same time Otokichi arrived to the area. AC Anderson also married the daughter of James Birnie, the man that bought Otokichi’s ceramics from the Makah.  An accomplished sailor and restauran-tier, Nancy is currently writing a biography on AC’s interesting life in Victoria, as a farmer, politician, Customs master, writer of scientific essays, Dominion Fisheries Commissioner, and Dominion Representative on the Joint Commission on Indian Land in British Columbia. AC left behind a legacy of stories of the fur trade and of the personalities he met during his twenty years’ service with the Hudson’s Bay Company at posts all over the Oregon Territory. It is one of these essays that led Nancy to ORP, and to take up the tale of the plight of the three Japanese sailors.

Norie Akiyama

Akiyama-Sensei has been researching the Otokichi story for 60+ years. He is now 91 years old and quite active in research.

 

Yuzo Igarashi and Dai-Senpai, Norie Akiyama

 

Toshimitsu Takeuchi

Takeuchi-san has worked with ORP for close to 20 years.

 

Terry Bennett

Photography in Japan 1853-1912 is simply amazing. This book is "the real Japan." Terry has done an amazing job of recording the first photographs of Japan in a tremendous hardcover oversized-book. We hope one day he will be able to help find us a picture of Otokichi. If anyone can find it, it is Terry. This book is a must-buy. See below.

 

Photography in Japan 1853-1912 by Terry Bennett
Published by Tuttle
7,563 yen
ISBN 0804836337

 

Research Links:

Hyogo Council, Scout Association of Japan

Otokichi - Wikipedia