Elisséeff was allowed to stand with in the row of "A" students at their graduation ceremony, which was also the last public function attended by Emperor Meiji. Notwithstanding his excellent academic performance, Elisséeff was still racially discriminated against as a foreigner. On the official list of 1912 graduates, Elisséeff's name was printed at the very bottom of the paper, separated from the rest of the students by a wide space, which implied that he graduated last in his class when he had actually been one of the top students. When Elisséeff confronted Haga Yaichi (; 1867–1927), the professor responsible for his low placement on the notice, Haga "simply explained to him that it was impossible to list a foreigner higher than any Japanese." Elisséeff had to make a special request to receive an invitation to join the Alumni Society (Bungakushikai ) – normally automatically extended to all graduates – and his invitations to their meetings were commonly delivered the day after they had taken place, with the explanation that "the presence of a foreigner at these meetings would inhibit the discussion." In autumn 1912, Elisséeff returned to Tokyo Imperial as its first ever foreign graduate student. He studied Chinese and Japanese painting, Japanese history, and the drama of the late medieval Japanese poet Ihara Saikaku. Elisséeff was also interested in Kabuki theatre, and took private Kabuki dancing lessons in his spare time. In addition to Japanese, also began taking private lessons in Mandarin Chinese from a Manchu tutor to improve his knowledge of Chinese. In early 1913, Elisséeff met and interviewed Keiki, the last shōgun of the Tokugawa shogunate. Elisséeff's academic accomplishments as a foreigner made him "a kind of legend" in Japan and Japanese scholarship, and earned him connections with notable Japanese literary figures such as the renowned novelist Natsume Sōseki and author Kafū Nagai. University of St. Petersburg While a graduate student at Tokyo, Elisséeff met the German economist Heinrich Waentig, who read some of Elisséeff's scholarship and noted that while his linguistic and historical knowledge had become strong, his organizational and analytic skills were not up to Western standards, and advised him to return to Europe. He left Japan in the summer of 1914 and returned to St. Petersburg, where he presented himself as a Ph.D. candidate at the University of St. Petersburg. Elisséeff had to get governmental approval to have his University of Tokyo degree recognized