ABSTRACT
Koizumi gunji was a man of unfailing courtesy. His two most conspicuous traits were absolute probity and iron determination. He was an elegant man not only in appearance, but also in his behaviour. Koizumi was born on 8 July 1885, the second son of Koizumi Shukichi, a tenant farmer, and his wife Katsu. He had an elder brother, Chiyokichi and a younger sister, Iku. The farm, which formed part of the small village of Komatsuka Oaza, was about twenty miles north of Tokyo, in Ibaraki Prefecture. He attended two schools, a primary school from the age of six to ten, followed by a higher school from ten to fifteen. The newly-qualified teacher at the latter school, Eizuka Wataro, taught single-handed all the subjects in the equally new National Curriculum, which included trigonometry, geometry, algebra, chemistry, physics, and drawing, to four distinct classes, numbering sixty pupils, in one room. While still at school Koizumi had, at his own volition, started to learn English from a neighbour who had spent some time in America.
