“Mr. Tomoshige Ikukara, aviator, who certified as an aviator by the Aero Club of America, authorized to issue such certificate by the Féderation Aeronatique Internationale, returned [to Japan] from San Francisco last Friday, in order to participate in the aviation meet of the Osaka Asahi. He brings an aeroplane from San Francisco, by which he says he rose to a height of 3,000 feet.”

– The Japan Times, October 25, 1913

Pioneer aviator Ikuhara Tomoshige, November 1913, over Naruo race-course at Hyogo near Kobe, piloting the Curtiss Pusher Model D biplane he had brought with him from the United States the month before, after receiving his pilot’s license. The pair of shorter wings between the two main wings of the aircraft are ailerons [French for “little wing”], a control device that supplemented, and which would eventually replace, wing-warping as the means to roll-control (i.e. “bank”) an aircraft while turning. Ailerons were a distinction at the time of Curtiss-designed aircraft.

“Mr. Ikuhara Tomoshige, the Japanese aviator, made a flight in a biplane on Saturday morning from Naruo race-course to Kobe and back.

“The flight was undertaken under the auspices of the Osaka Asahi, which has engaged Mr. Ikuhara to give exhibitions for three days, commencing Saturday.

“… Mr. Ikuhara was seen in Kobe about 10 o’clock, approaching rapidly … and appeared to fly right over the sailing-ship anchored just outside the harbour. He was soon right over the ships in the harbour, and a number of the steamers and launches sounded their whistles in greeting. There must have been a universal stoppage of work for the time-being, and a great number of people rushed down to the Bund to obtain a better view of the aviator.

“… The exhibition pleased everybody, and Mr. Ikuhara will be remembered in Kobe as the first aviator to fly, if not over the town itself (for that feat has not yet been accomplished) at least over the harbour.”

– The Japan Weekly Chronicle, November 6, 1913