A postcard autographed by physicist Albert Einstein when he visited Japan in 1922 after winning the Nobel Prize was discovered at a museum in Shiga Prefecture.
Eizaburo Nishibori Memorial Explorer Museum in Higashiomi, Shiga Prefecture, commemorating Nishibori, who headed Japan's primary Antarctica wintering party, found the postcard in Nishibori's belongings which were donated to the museum by his relatives last fall. The museum plans to exhibit it next year.
According to museum staff, Einstein probably presented the postcard, which has the physicist's photo printed on it, to Nishibori when he accompanied Einstein to Kyoto and Nara as a translator. The Nishibori family had also offered to pay for the cost of Einstein's stay in Kyoto, they said.
The postcard has Einstein's autograph dated Dec. 12, 1922, the day he visited Nijo Castle in Kyoto.
Tsutomu Kaneko, professor emeritus of Osaka Prefecture University who examined the postcard, said Einstein must have been handing out such postcards to people he met during his lecture tour and sightseeing visit in Japan.
Einstein wrote about the visit in his diary, saying he thought the Kyoto Imperial Palace was the most beautiful building he had ever seen, Kaneko said.
