12/06/2026
Here's a brief biography of Takamizu Mori AKA T. Mori as weitten by his eldest brother Takashige Mori:
According to the family history in my possession, one Isaburo Mori was the head of the Mori family at the beginning of the Meiji Era. He was a dyer to Lord Tachibana, Daimyo of Yanagawa in Kyushu. He had six sons and two daughters. His oldest son Kotaro succeeded him. His fourth son Tsunekichi worked for some years as accounts clerk to Lord Tachibana. However, it seems that Kotaro went to Nagasaki to live as the record says that he was buried in a temple there. This Kotaro had three sons and two daughters, the eldest being Keitaro born in Yanagawa but grew up in Nagasaki. Nagasaki, then, as now, is the most famous city in Japan, making tortoise-shell ornaments and Keitaro entered this business. He married a farmer's daughter named Haru and had his workshop in Miyazaki, one of the small villages comprising the town of Miwa in Nagasaki Prefecture. He had two sons and one daughter, the eldest being the writer Takashige, the other son being Takamizu (b.29.11.07 d.25.11.86) and a daughter Tsutae. There was a younger boy who died when he was still an infant.
Keitaro did not seem to have succeeded in his business as he emigrated to Malaya calling his family to join him some months later. His first job in Malaya was to look after a rubber estate in Tanjong Malim and later, another one in Rasah. However, the problem of educating his children arose and the family moved to Kuala Lumpur where his wife baked biscuits for sale and he peddled these in kerosene tins together with some tortoiseshell ornments, which was how he first met the Obata family at Brickfields.
Both Takashige and Takamizu received their education at the Methodist Boys' School, Kuala Lumpur and Tsutae at the Pudu English School. Keitaro died at the age of 61 having contracted malaria in the countryside where he went to take a census of Japanese nationals at the request of the Japanese Government. After finishing school Takashige joined the Malayan Railways and Takamizu entered the teaching professionas a junior teacher at his alma mater.
Takashige married Fukuko and had four children, three boys and one girl. He returned to Japan in 1933 and became a teacher. The eldest of his son is Shigeki who graduated from the Osaka Prefectural University and then finished a post graduate course at Kyoto Universdity. He is now an official of the Shiga Prefectural Government. He has two children, a senior high school girl,Shigeko and a junior high school boy, Hideo. Nobushige, the second son, works for Hitachi Unyu, one of the companies in the Hitachi group. He graduated from senior high school and went on to do two years at an electrical engineering school. He is unmarried. The third son son Shigeo, graduated from Ritsumeikan University and is an official of the Kyoto municipality. He has one son Yukio, three years old The daughter Akiko is a designer and is unmarried.
Takamizu, the second son of Keitaro married Chiyoka Obata and has two sons and four daughters. All of them have given up Japanese nationality and are now Malaysians.
Tsutae, the daughter of Keitaro, married Matsuda, a Malayan Railway clerk. However, he died young and his wife remarried a cousin, also named Matsuda. She had five sons and one daughter, in all, and they live in Japan. Tsutae fell ill at the internment camp in Deoli, India and was repatriated to Japan in a hospital ship. She died soon after reaching Japan.
Takashige who taught English mostly in a senior high school in Osaka was given a testimonial by the Governor of Osaka Prefecture for meritorious service to education.
Takamizu held the post of principal of the Methodist Boys' School, Kuala Lumpur, for many years and was awarded the Fourth Class of the Sacred Treasure by the Japanese Emperor in 1979 for services rendered to the Japanese community in Malaysia.
Prepared by Takashige Mori 7th April, 1980.
Update on Takamizu Mori by Eric Tan (son in law) Feb. 2010.
Born in Nagasaki, Mr. Mori migrated to Malaya at the age of three i.e. 1911 with his parents, elder brother and a sister.
"We were told that this was a land that flowed with milk and honey, and we arrived here full of hope and optimism," he said. But it was a tough struggle for existence that his father, a tortoise shell ornament craftsman and his mother faced in an attempt to eke out a living and to put their children through school. His mother made sempeh (love letters) and his father peddled these in kerosene tins on a bicycletogether with some tortoiseshell ornaments. His childhood was difficult and he walked barefooted from his home in Pudu along the railway line to school at MBS, K.L. sometimes with only two cents in his pocket.
After passing his Senior Cambridge Examinations, he joined the MBS as a student teacher. In 1928, he became the first Malayan to win the Selangor Government scholarship as one of the first in a batch of 48 students to enter Raffles College in Singapore where he was he was awarded an RC diploma. Following his graduation, he returned to MBS as a teacher. He was a very keen sportsman and represented Selangor several times at rugby and hockey. He also played football and cricket.
At the outbreak of World War II he, his wife and children were interned as prisoners of war at a camp in Deoli, Rajasthan, India by the British. After the war he was due to be repatriated to Japan in 1947 but all his friends including Tengku Abdul Rahman, in a group exceeding 250 petitioned the British Military Administrator to allow him to stay on in the country for all his educational and sports efforts. This permission was given in 1948.
He eventually took on Malaysian citizenship. While his contribution and dedication to Malaysia in the field of sports and education are well known, not many are aware of the sterling service he gave the Japanese Government and Japanese community after the war gratis. Through his close relationship with Tengku Abdul Rahman, he was able to help rebuild the diplomatic relations between the two countries and for a while, before the Japanese Embassy was reorganized after the war, his home became an informal embassy with no end of Japanese visitors. He was also instrumental in helping Japanese companies like Ajinomoto and Matsush*ta to set up shop through his personal, business and governmental connections. Aside from that he also helped to establish the Japanese School and the Japan Club. And, for a short while he and his wife took care of the Japanese Otera (temple) and cemetery at Bellamy Road, his mother often leading prayers for the deceased as 'chief' priestess. For these services, he was awarded the order of The Fourth Class of the Treasure by Emperor Hirohito in 1979 in a brief ceremony with his Majesty at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.
Mr. Takamizu Mori passed away on 25.11.1986 at the age of 79.
P.S. Mr T. Mori inspired the establishment of the T. Mori Education Trust, currently helmed by alumni Tan Sri Tay Ah Lek and Datuk Wong Chee Kooi ( https://www.facebook.com/mbsstmori/ )
