Prince Youturkey, real name Yeikichi Kanazawa, was a famous high-wire artist performing primarily with the Barnum and Bailey Circus. Through the circus he met his wife, the equestrian and aerialist Mary Lugar (occasionally known professionally as Princess Youturkey). Kanazawa was born in or around 1873, in Osaka Japan.¹¹⁸ Though many newspaper accounts of Circus claim he had royal blood,¹¹⁹ this was likely a claim made in order to promote the circus and further exoticize the performer. He immigrated to the United States in 1898 or 1899, and his earliest performance in the American circus followed shortly thereafter. He married Mary Lugar, around the year 1910. His most famous act was called the “Slide for Life,” in which Prince Youturkey climbed a 60 ft high-wire pole and slid down the wire to the ground. Youturkey’s performance often took place outside of the big tent, enticing audiences to come inside and see the rest of the show.

At the beginning of the 20th century, immigration from East Asian countries including China and Japan was hotly contested. In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act explicitly banned the immigration of the Chinese to the United States, and set the precedent for excluding other groups of Asian descent. Although Congress had decreed that all persons of African ancestry were eligible for citizenship in 1873, Asian immigrants remained ineligible until 1952. In 1908, the United States established a “Gentleman’s Agreement” ending the immigration of Japanese laborers to the United States. One notable exception to this agreement was the immigration of Japanese women who were the wives of US residents - a similar agreement for the husbands of United States citizens was not in place. Having immigrated in the last couple years of the 19th century, Yeikichi Kanazawa came over in the narrow window of time in which Japanese laborers were unwelcome, but not yet banned. His marriage to Mary, a white American, did not guarantee him protected status as a citizen. (Though there was no federal law banning marriage between white and Japanese people at that time, in many states, their marriage would have been illegal.) By 1924, Congress would pass the Johnson-Reed Immigration Act, officially halting all immigration from Japan.

Perhaps in response to the political climate at the time, Kanazawa petitioned for citizenship in 1911. His request was most likely denied due to the official US policies outlined above. Youturkey was beloved by American audiences across the country, but his fame didn’t aid him in his quest to become a citizen.

Kanazawa was beloved by his fellow performers as well as by audiences. After a horrific fall that left Kanazawa paralyzed in Atlantic City in July of 1912,⁷⁹ the Barnum and Bailey circus donated all of their proceeds to pay for Prince Youturkey’s care in a New Jersey hospital. Mary Lugar quickly delivered the funds from their performance in York, Pennsylvania. In spite of the show’s best efforts and a brief glimmer of hope that he might recover, Kanazawa passed a few days later on July 8th or 9th, 1912.¹²⁰