Very Rare 1922 Yajima Kajiko (矢嶋楫子) & Helen Keller Postcard – Unpublished For Sale

Exceptionally Rare 1922 Yajima Kajiko (矢嶋楫子) & Helen Keller Postcard – Unpublished
Offered here is an extraordinarily rare, unpublished photographic postcard from circa 1921–1922, showing Yajima Kajiko (矢嶋楫子), a pioneering Japanese educator, Christian activist, and temperance leader, together with Helen Keller, the celebrated American author and advocate for disability rights. The image was likely taken during Yajima’s final visit to the United States, when she was 89 years old.
Printed on Japanese postcard stock, the card includes an original waka-style poem written by Yajima herself, reflecting on her experience in the U.S. and her deep disappointment in the barriers she witnessed—legal, racial, and cultural—despite widespread talk of brotherhood and unity.
Original Poem (as printed on the postcard):世界皆 兄弟也と 今そしる関戸ささす 隔なきには
八十八 十一[ヶ?]月 楫子
Translation (approximate):“They sneer ‘All the world are brothers’—yet these barrier gates stand where no true divide exists.”
— Kajiko, at age 88 years and 11 months
This striking poetic commentary came during a tense period in U.S.–Japan relations, just before the 1924 Immigration Act that banned Japanese immigration to America. Yajima had traveled across the country observing the widening gap between American ideals and treatment of non-Western visitors and immigrants. Her meeting with Keller—who would later visit Japan in 1937—represents a profound moment of mutual admiration between two women advocating for social change on opposite sides of the Pacific.
This postcard has never been published or reproduced in any archive or reference work to our knowledge and may be the only surviving example. It offers not only a visual record of a rare meeting between two historic figures but also Yajima’s pointed literary response to the rising exclusionary sentiment of the era.
Great opportunity for collectors of rare postcards, women’s history, and Japanese-American relations.
The last photo is for reference only. It was taken around the same time, showing Yajima with her secretary, and was photographed in the same studio as the image with Helen Keller.
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