 Yamakawa was born in Kurashiki in southern Honshu in 1880.He was enrolled in the Doshisha high school in Kyoto, where he converted to Christianity, he did however not finish his studies and dropped out because of his dissatisfaction with the way the school was restructuring itself in order to receive accreditation from the Ministry of Education.He moved to Tokyo, where he helped to write an article on the Crown Prince's marriage that got him sentenced to two years in jail.