Japanese Bicycle History Research Club

June 2, 2007 2:08 PM

Japanese Bicycle History Research Club With a nice gallery of photos, illustrations, and ukiyo-e of vintage bicycles in Japan.
posted by carter (5 comments total)

Neato!
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 3:43 PM on June 2, 2007

Thanks for the post: some great images here in the galleries. Not to mention some wonderful Engrish. A sampling:

It is a doubt, to insert this in the category of a bicycle.

This photograph be a thing of around 1908.

As for this tricycle Sangen Suzuki made. It pays attention to 3 small back-up wheels. Function of this three back-up wheels does not understand.

This bicycle is made of America.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:40 PM on June 2, 2007

I'm fascinated by "Harukiti Nakamura、Bicycle world trip adventurer 1908". Who was this guy, what did he do, and is he related to Hello Kitty?
posted by zamboni at 5:29 PM on June 2, 2007 [1 favorite]

I love quirky little sites like this. These are the posts that make MetaFilter great.

I just wish MS Mincho didn't have such butt-ugly latin characters. That's hardly the fault of the site though.
posted by Rhomboid at 3:42 AM on June 3, 2007

More about Harukichi Nakamura in Japanese.

Selected highlights: He taught himself how to fight instead of going to school, tramped penniless through Korea when he was twelve (!), lived in Hawai'i for a while, came back and worked as a translator, and then decided to go around the world on a bicycle. He departed in 1901 and spent a year and a half riding through China, SE Asia, India, the Middle East, Europe, and America. He kept the (literal) wolves at bay with handmade explosives and fought off panthers with his bare hands. Then he came back to Japan and went into business as some kind of spiritualist.

He does not seem to have worn a helmet, though, which was just irresponsible.

(P.S. "kiti" is just a different romanization of "kichi". Probably no relation to Hello Kitty.)
posted by No-sword at 7:41 AM on June 3, 2007 [1 favorite]