GENERAL & GEISHA

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 June 1922, Page 6

GENERAL & GEISHA

QUAINT JAPANESE ROMANCE. The romance of Komesoko, a geisha, and the Japanese General Takayanagi, who was relieved of his command dining the war in Siberia in 1919 for giving her cigarettes bearing the Imperial Crest, has once more come into prominence. General Takayanagi has been reinstated to full rank with orders to go again to Siberia on active service, while Koinesoko, who was divorced by her husband after the cigarette incident, states that she has received a message from the general saying that he vill not forsake her. She is about to leave her home at Osaka for Vladivostok in the hope of meeting him. Komesoko, who claims royal descent, has explained how she met the gen'eral, a point which has always been shrouded in mystery. “It was in May, 1919,’’ Komesoko states, “that I first met him in Vladivostok. I had been sold to the proprietor of a restaurant there after I had been kidnapped when little more than a child. “The general came to the restaurant one night and I sang and danced for him. He seemed pleased with my performance, gave me much advice, and persuaded me to leave Vladivostok and return home. I refused at first, but afterwards consented. He saw me to the ship which was to take me to Japan, and as a parting gift he gave me a few cigarettes bearing the Imperial crest. “At that time I never realised that the gift would cause so much sorrow, and I openly smoked them on board. Several officers saw me smoking them, and when we reached Yokohama they re ported the matter to the military authorities. “I married shortly afterwards, but my ■ usband divorced me when General Takayanagi was compulsorily retired for giving me the cigarettes, an act considered to be an insult to the Emperor.” Komesoko became a geisha again at Osaka, but on -receipt of a message from the general expressing regret she is about to leave for the Japanese headquarters at Vladivostok.