Editing Hirohito (section)

====Visit of colonial Taiwan====
Over 12 days in April 1923, Hirohito visited Taiwan, which had been a [[Taiwan under Japanese rule|Japanese colony]] since 1895.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.tjnp.gov.tw/Eng/News_Content.aspx?n=5624&sms=10345&s=266408 |title="Travelling in Tainan with Japanese Crown Prince Hirohito" Learn about the culture and history of Taijiang and take a salt industry tour |date=7 October 2022}}</ref> This was a voyage his father, the then Crown Prince [[Yoshihito]] had planned in 1911 but never completed.<ref name="takaoclub_hirohito">{{cite web |url=https://www.takaoclub.com/hirohito/hirohito.htm |title=The Takao Club: Crown Prince Hirohito's 1923 Visit to Takao}}</ref>

It was widely reported in Taiwanese newspapers that famous high-end restaurants served typical Chinese luxury dishes for the Prince, such as swallow's nest and shark fin, as Taiwanese cuisine. This was the first time an Emperor or a Crown Prince has ever eaten local cuisine on a colony, or had foreign dishes other than Western cuisine abroad, thus exceptional preparations were required: The eight chefs and other cooking staff were purified for a week (through fasting and ritual bathing) before the cooking of the feast could begin. This tasting of “Taiwanese cuisine” of the Prince Regent {{Attribution needed|date=January 2025|reason=normative opinion|text=should be understood}} as part of an integration ceremony of incorporating the colony into the empire, which can be seen as the context and purpose of Hirohito's Taiwanese visit.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Iwama |first=Kazuhiro |date=20 January 2021 |title=How Taiwanese, Korean and Manchurian Cuisines Were Designed: A Comparative Study on Colonial Cuisines of the Japanese Empire |url=https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/almadaniyya/1/0/1_1/_pdf/-char/en |journal=Al-Madaniyya: Keio Bulletin of Middle Eastern AndAsian Urban History |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=1–20 |doi=10.50881/almadaniyya.1.0_1 |issn=2436-0678 |access-date=24 April 2024 |via=J-stage}}</ref>[[File:1923年騎兵於臺灣總督府前迎接日本皇太子裕仁_Cavalry_welcome_then_Japanese_Crown_Prince_Hirohito_visited_Taipei,_TAIWAN.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Cavalry welcome Prince Hirohito in Taipei, in front of the Office of the Governor-General]]

Having visited several sites outside of Taipei, Hirohito returned to the capital on the 24th and on 25 April, just one day before his departure, he visited the Beitou hotspring district of Taipei and its oldest facility. The original structure had been built in 1913 in the style of a traditional Japanese bathhouse. However, in anticipation of Hirohito's visit an additional residential wing was added to the earlier building, this time in the style of an Edwardian country house. The new building was subsequently opened to the public and was deemed the largest public bathhouse in the Japanese Empire.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://youtube.com/shorts/xmld_Jw6XoY?si=HskD6o7_NWoGEFJM |title=Fine (Japanese) Meiji Era Brick&Wood Architecture in Taipei's Hot-spring Valley |website=[[YouTube]]}}</ref><ref name="takaoclub_hirohito"/>
Crown Prince Hirohito was a student of science, and he had heard that Beitou Creek was one of only two hot springs in the world that contained a rare radioactive mineral. So, he decided to walk into the creek to investigate.

Naturally, concerned for a royal family member's safety, his entourage scurried around, seeking flat rocks to use as stepping stones. After that, these stones were carefully mounted and given the official name: “His Imperial Highness Crown Prince of Japan's Stepping Stones for River Crossing,” with a stele alongside to tell the story.<ref>{{cite web |last=Chung |first=Wen-Ping |date=16 March 2018 |title=Long Nice Hot Spring and Japanese Crown Prince Hirohito |url=https://www.travel.taipei/en/pictorial/article/14084 |access-date=21 May 2024 |website=Undiscovered Taipei}}</ref>

Crown Prince Hirohito handed his Imperial Notice to Governor-General [[Den Kenjiro]] and departed from [[Keelung]] on 26 April 1923.<ref name="takaoclub_hirohito"/>