baháʼís moved across asia from the turn of the century. baháʼís were in shanghai in 1902, philippines by 1944, taiwan and canton in 1923, and macau in 1953. however, for the japanese contact with the religion came from the west. kanichi yamamoto was living in honolulu, hawaii in 1902 where a baháʼí, elizabeth muther, introduced him to the religion. yamamoto wrote a letter to ʻabdu'l-bahá and enters the history books as the first japanese baháʼí — the second and third being saichiro fujita and kenzo torikai. the first baháʼís to visit japan were mason remey and howard c. struve on december 27, 1909 who addressed an audience at a tokyo ymca. d. t. suzuki's wife, beatrice, had multiple contacts with the baháʼís both in america and in japan and was for a time considered a baháʼí. bernard leach lived in japan from 1909-1920 working on the mingei arts and converted to the religion in 1940. leach received awards for his continued work in japanese folk arts in the 1960s and 70s. a few other baháʼís traveled through japan in 1911 and 1914. but in 1914 two baháʼís, george jacob augur and agnes alexander, and their families, pioneered to japan. alexander would live some 31 years off and on in japan until 1967 when she left for the last time and much of her work would be through esperantists and connections with the blind community of japan. meetings for the public were set up and talks and interviews were given including to esperantist audiences. the first baháʼí convert on japanese soil was kikutaro fukuta in 1915, followed by the blind russian youth vasily eroshenko who later drifted to communism. also in 1915, martha root arrived for the first time in japan and tokujiro torii converted to the religion. torrii later served as president of the japanese blind association and received an imperial citation, the medal of the third order, for his work on behalf of the blind.