His longstanding intention was to lead an expedition to the North Pole, but when this mark was claimed by Robert Peary in 1909, Shirase switched his attention to the south.

Although the expedition's achievements were modest, it demonstrated that the Japanese were competent Antarctic travellers, and Shirase returned to Japan in June 1912 to much local acclaim, although the rest of the world showed little interest in his exploits .

Nobu Shirase was born on 13 June 1861, in the Jorenji temple at Konoura (now part of the city of Nikaho in the Akita Prefecture), where his father served as a Buddhist priest.

[3] Shirase was seven years old when, following the Boshin civil war of 1868–69, the shogunate was replaced by the Meiji dynasty and the slow process of modernisation began.

[6] To prepare himself for future rigours, he adopted a deliberately spartan lifestyle, avoiding drink and tobacco, and forsaking the warmth of the fireside for a regime of hard exercise.

Its leader, Gunji, left after a year to fight in the First Sino-Japanese War, leaving Shirase and the survivors to face a second winter, during which several more succumbed to privation and scurvy.

[12] Neither the Japanese government nor the learned societies would support his plans,[13] but in 1910, with help from the influential Count Okuma, he was able to raise funds for an Antarctic expedition,[14] which sailed from Tokyo in the converted fishing vessel Kainan Maru, on 29 November 1910.

[17][18] In Australia the expedition received much help and encouragement from the distinguished geologist and Antarctic explorer, Edgeworth David,[19] to whom, as a token of appreciation, Shirase presented his samurai sword.

He had by this time modified his plans; he recognised that the conquest of the Pole was beyond his reach – Scott and Amundsen were too far ahead of him – and settled for more modest objectives in the fields of science and general exploration.

[27][3] Although it had made no major geographical or scientific discoveries, it had proved Japan's ability to organise and execute a polar expedition, the first such by any non-European country.

[30] This, however, proved to be a short-lived period of fame; six weeks after the expedition's return the Emperor Meiji died; the national interest in Antarctica was diverted, and then faded away.

[31] His former exploits were not quite forgotten; in 1927 he was invited to meet Amundsen, who was visiting Tokyo to publicise details of his forthcoming planned flight over the North Pole.

[39] In 1961 the New Zealand Antarctic Place-Names Committee (NZ-APC) gave the name Shirase Coast to a part of the coastline of King Edward VII Land.

[40] In Sydney, Australia, the Australian Museum now holds the samurai sword presented to Edgeworth David by Shirase just before the expedition began its second voyage to Antarctica in November 1911.

[42][43] Each year, on 28 January, the museum holds a special festival, the Walk in the Snow, as a tribute to Shirase's unwavering dedication to the cause of Antarctic exploration.