Now that grades are in, I can resume my quest to find the best facial hair ever sported by Japanese Diet members.
The front-runner is as clear as his handlebar is wide: Nagaoka Gaishi (長岡外史, Yamaguchi Prefecture, 1924-1928). 1/
The front-runner is as clear as his handlebar is wide: Nagaoka Gaishi (長岡外史, Yamaguchi Prefecture, 1924-1928). 1/
Another strong contender is Itagaki Taisuke 板垣退助, leading figure in the People& #39;s Freedom and Right& #39;s Movement and head of the Liberal Party, who had a regal mane to boot. So much so it was enshrined on the 100 yen banknote 2/
Thickest beard goes to Iwasaki Manjirō (岩崎万次郎, Tochigi Pref., 1890-1893), who is by all appearances a mountain of a man. 4/
Leader in the neckbeard category is Arai Shōgo (新井章吾, Tochigi Pref., 1890-1906). Worth noting that Tochigi Pref is outperforming others. I left Tanaka Shōzō, the pioneering environmental activist, off the list but he repped Tochigi with a mighty beard of his own. 5/
Interestingly, the Japanese-language wikipedia entry for "beard" (髭) features this photo of Itō Hirobumi (the preeminent Meiji oligarch) at the very top of the page, suggesting it& #39;s a canonical beard in the Japanese imagination. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%AB%AD ">https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%... 9/
My search was haphazard at best and skewed toward the Meiji period. Who am I missing? 10/