Who was 谷鈴太郎 of 備作交誼会? Tani Suzutarō

This postcard was sent by Tani Suzutarō (谷鈴太郎), who lived at 神戸区阪本村五百二番地 on March 6, 1888 . It responds to an invitation to a kōgikai (交誼会), or friendship meeting, held on the 10th. Tani expresses appreciation for the invitation but explains that he was unable to attend due to official duties.

He also notes a likely clerical error: the age of a boy has been recorded incorrectly. He requests a correction, and also asks that his member number be updated in the March membership list.

Tani identifies the organization as the Bisaku Kōgikai (備作交誼会). “Bisaku” is an old and now-obsolete regional term that combined characters from Bizen (備前) and Mimasaka (美作), two former provinces that became part of Okayama Prefecture. While the exact use of “Bisaku” is rare even in Meiji-era records, the term appears here as a local or cultural reference—possibly indicating a gathering of people from that area now living elsewhere, such as Kobe.

The card reflects a network of individuals maintaining both personal and regional ties through polite, handwritten correspondence, even across distance and changing geographic terms.

Although we found records of several individuals from Takahashi, Okayama with the surname Tani—such as 谷三十郎 (Tani Sanjurō), 谷万太郎 (Tani Mantarō), 谷周平 (Tani Shūhei), and 谷資敬 (Tani Suketaka)—we do not know whether any of them are related to our 谷鈴太郎 (Tani Suzutarō).