Yamagata Toyotaro-piloted Itoh “Emi 14” biplane (powered by a 150-h.p. Gorham engine) that won first place in the Tokyo-Osaka-Tokyo air race, April 1920. The airplane was also successful at another air race later that summer before suffering structural failure and crashing during aerobatics a few weeks after, killing Yamagata.

See also:
2nd Air Mail Flying Contest, Osaka-Kurume, 1920.

Tokio-Osaka and Back

“On April 21st [1920] two aviators out of the three entrants started on the Tokio-Osaka and back flight inaugurated by the Imperial Aerial Society. The first prize was 10,000 yen and the second 8,000 yen, half of each prize being a gift of the Emperor.

“Mr. Yamagata, on an Itoh biplane (150-h.p. Gorham), accomplished the flight of 630 miles non-stop in 6 hr. 39 min., thereby winning the first prize. Mr. Jinuma, on a Nakajima biplane (210-h.p. Sturtevant), after flying about 20 min. lost control and fell in the neighborhood of Oyama mountain [west of Atsugi, Kanagawa] and was found by some priests of a mountain shrine. Mr. Okuri (Okuri biplane, 180-h.p. Hispano-Suiza) did not start.”

– The Airplane, June 16, 1920