A DIPLOMAT IN JAPAN
_NEW & RECENT BOOKS_
A Diplomat in Japan.
The Inner History of the Critical Year in the Evolution of Japan
when the Ports were Opened & the Monarchy Restored, Recorded by
a Diplomatist who took an active part in the events of the time.
By The Right Hon. Sir ERNEST SATOW, G.C.M.G., British Minister,
Peking, 1900-5; Formerly Secretary to the British Legation at
Tokio. With Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 32s. net.
In Farthest Burma.
The Record of an Arduous Journey of Exploration & Research
through the Unknown Frontier Territory of Burma & Tibet. By
Captain F. KINGDON WARD, B.A., F.R.G.S. With Illustrations &
Maps.
Demy 8vo. 25s. net.
The Life and Explorations of Frederick Stanley Arnot.
The Authorised Biography of a Zealous Missionary, Intrepid
Explorer & Self-denying Benefactor amongst the Natives of the
Dark Continent. By ERNEST BAKER. With many Illustrations & a
Map. Demy 8vo.
12s. 6d. net.
In Unknown China.
A Record of the Observations, Adventures & Experiences of a
Pioneer Missionary during a prolonged sojourn amongst the wild &
unknown Nosu tribe of Western China. By S. POLLARD, Author of
"In Tight Corners in China," &c. &c. Many Illustrations. Two
Maps. Demy 8vo.
25s. net.
Among the Ibos of Nigeria.
An Account of the Curious & Interesting Habits, Customs &
Beliefs of a Little Known African People by one who has for many
years lived amongst them on close & intimate terms. By G. T.
BASDEN, M.A., F.R.G.S. With 37 Illustrations & a Map. Demy 8vo.
25s. net.
_Second Edition._
Unexplored New Guinea.
A Record of the Travels, Adventures & Experiences of a Resident
Magistrate amongst the Head-Hunting Savages & Cannibals of the
Unexplored Interior of New Guinea. By WILFRED N. BEAVER, with an
Introduction by A. C. HADDON, M.A., Sc.D., F.R.S. With 24
Illustrations & 4 Maps. Demy 8vo. 25s. net.
Modern Whaling and Bear-Hunting.
A Record of Present-day Whaling with Up-to-date Appliances in
many Parts of the World, & of Bear & Seal Hunting in the Arctic
Regions. By W. G. BURN MURDOCH, F.R.S.G.S. With 110
Illustrations.
Demy 8vo, 25s. net.
_Third Edition_
Prehistoric Man & His Story.
A Sketch of the History of Mankind from the Earliest Times. By
Prof. G.F. SCOTT ELLIOT, M.A. (CANTAB), B.Sc.(Edin.), F.R.S.E.,
F.L.S., F.R.G.S. With 56 Illustrations.
10s. 6d. net.
SEELEY, SERVICE & CO. LTD.
[Illustration: THE LAST OF THE SHOGUNS
Tokugawa Yoshinobu (Keiki)]
A
DIPLOMAT IN JAPAN
THE INNER HISTORY OF THE CRITICAL YEARS IN THE
EVOLUTION OF JAPAN WHEN THE PORTS WERE
OPENED AND THE MONARCHY RESTORED,
RECORDED BY A DIPLOMATIST WHO TOOK
AN ACTIVE PART IN THE EVENTS OF
THE TIME, WITH AN ACCOUNT OF
HIS PERSONAL EXPERIENCES
DURING THAT PERIOD
BY
THE RIGHT HON. SIR ERNEST SATOW
G.C.M.G., LL.D., D.C.L.;
British Minister at Peking 1900-05;
Formerly Secretary of the British
Legation at Tokio
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND PLANS
LONDON
SEELEY, SERVICE & CO. LIMITED
38 GREAT RUSSELL STREET
1921
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY
THE DUNEDIN PRESS LIMITED, EDINBURGH
PREFACE
The first portion of this book was written at intervals between 1885 and
1887, during my tenure of the post of Her Majesty's minister at Bangkok.
I had but recently left Japan after a residence extending, with two
seasons of home leave, from September 1862 to the last days of December
1882, and my recollection of what had occurred during any part of those
twenty years was still quite fresh. A diary kept almost uninterruptedly
from the day I quitted home in November 1861 constituted the foundation,
while my memory enabled me to supply additional details. It had never
been my purpose to relate my diplomatic experiences in different parts
of the world, which came finally to be spread over a period of
altogether forty-five years, and I therefore confined myself to one of
the most interesting episodes in which I have been concerned. This
comprised the series of events that culminated in the restoration of the
direct rule of the ancient line of sovereigns of Japan which had
remained in abeyance for over six hundred years. Such a change involved
the substitution of the comparatively modern city of Yedo, under the
name of Tôkiô, for the more ancient Kiôto, which had already become the
capital long before Japan was heard of in the western world.
When I departed from Siam in 1887 I laid the unfinished manuscript
aside, and did not look at it again until September 1919, when some of
my younger relations, to whom I had shown it, suggested that it ought to
be completed. This second portion is largely a transcript of my
journals, supplemented from papers drawn up by me which were included in
the Confidential Print of the time and by letters to my chief Sir Harry
Parkes which have been published elsewhere. Letters to my mother have
furnished some particulars that were omitted from the diaries.
Part of the volume may read like a repetition of a few pages from my
friend the late Lord Redesdale's "Memories," for when he was engaged on
that work he borrowed some of my journals of the time we had spent
together in Japan. But I have not referred to his volumes while writing
my own.
ERNEST SATOW.
OTTERY ST MARY,
_January 1921_.
* * * * *
_Note._--In pronouncing Japanese words the consonants are to be taken as
in English, the vowels more or less as in Italian. _G_, except at the
beginning of a word, when it is hard, represents _ng_.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I PAGE
APPOINTMENT AS STUDENT INTERPRETER AT YEDO 17
CHAPTER II
YOKOHAMA SOCIETY, OFFICIAL AND UNOFFICIAL 22
CHAPTER III
POLITICAL CONDITIONS IN JAPAN 33
CHAPTER IV
TREATIES--ANTI-FOREIGN SPIRIT--MURDER OF FOREIGNERS 42
CHAPTER V
RICHARDSON'S MURDER--JAPANESE STUDIES 50
CHAPTER VI
OFFICIAL VISIT TO YEDO 61
CHAPTER VII
DEMANDS FOR REPARATION--JAPANESE PROPOSALS TO CLOSE
THE PORTS--PAYMENT OF THE INDEMNITY 72
CHAPTER VIII
BOMBARDMENT OF KAGOSHIMA 84
CHAPTER IX
SHIMONOSEKI: PRELIMINARY MEASURES 95
CHAPTER X
SHIMONOSEKI--NAVAL OPERATIONS 102
CHAPTER XI
SHIMONOSEKI--PEACE CONCLUDED WITH CHÔSHIÛ 116
CHAPTER XII
THE MURDER OF BIRD AND BALDWIN 134
CHAPTER XIII
RATIFICATION OF THE TREATIES BY THE MIKADO 141
CHAPTER XIV
GREAT FIRE AT YOKOHAMA 156
CHAPTER XV
VISIT TO KAGOSHIMA AND UWAJIMA 167
CHAPTER XVI
FIRST VISIT TO OZAKA 185
CHAPTER XVII
RECEPTION OF FOREIGN MINISTERS BY THE TYCOON 194
CHAPTER XVIII
OVERLAND FROM OZAKA TO YEDO 204
CHAPTER XIX
SOCIAL INTERCOURSE WITH JAPANESE OFFICIALS--VISIT TO
NIIGATA, SADO GOLD MINES, AND NANAO 228
CHAPTER XX
NANAO TO OZAKA OVERLAND 239
CHAPTER XXI
OZAKA AND TOKUSHIMA 252
CHAPTER XXII
TOSA AND NAGASAKI 265
CHAPTER XXIII
DOWNFALL OF THE SHOGUNATE 281
CHAPTER XXIV
OUTBREAK OF CIVIL WAR (1868) 295
CHAPTER XXV
HOSTILITIES BEGUN AT YEDO AND FUSHIMI 310
CHAPTER XXVI
THE BIZEN AFFAIR 319
CHAPTER XXVII
FIRST VISIT TO KIOTO 332
CHAPTER XXVIII
HARAKIRI--NEGOTIATIONS FOR AUDIENCE OF THE MIKADO
AT KIOTO 343
CHAPTER XXIX
MASSACRE OF FRENCH SAILORS AT SAKAI 351
CHAPTER XXX.
KIOTO--AUDIENCE OF THE MIKADO 356
CHAPTER XXXI
RETURN TO YEDO AND PRESENTATION OF THE MINISTER'S
NEW CREDENTIALS AT OZAKA 364
CHAPTER XXXII
MISCELLANEOUS INCIDENTS--MITO POLITICS 373
CHAPTER XXXIII
CAPTURE OF WAKAMATSU AND ENTRY OF THE MIKADO INTO
YEDO 386
CHAPTER XXXIV
ENOMOTO WITH THE RUNAWAY TOKUGAWA SHIPS SEIZES
YEZO 395
CHAPTER XXXV
1869--AUDIENCE OF THE MIKADO AT YEDO 400
CHAPTER XXXVI
LAST DAYS IN TOKIO AND DEPARTURE FOR HOME 409
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
THE LAST OF THE SHOGUNS _Frontispiece_
SIR ERNEST SATOW--1869 56
SIR ERNEST SATOW--1903 56
PAYMENT OF THE INDEMNITY FOR THE MURDER OF RICHARDSON 80
KAGOSHIMA HARBOUR: BOMBARDMENT 90-91
THE STRAITS OF SHIMONOSEKI 106-107
INTERIOR OF A JAPANESE BATTERY AFTER THE LANDING OF
THE ALLIED NAVAL FORCES 112
DAIMIO OF CHO-SHIU AND HIS HEIR 184
CHO-SHIU COUNCILLORS 184
GROUP PHOTOGRAPHED DURING A VISIT TO OZAKA 192
NIIRO GIOBU, A SATSUMA COUNCILLOR 272
KATSU AWA NO KAMI 272
_The Design on the Cover of this Book is the Family Crest of
the Tokugawa Shôguns._
A DIPLOMAT IN JAPAN
A DIPLOMAT IN JAPAN
CHAPTER I
APPOINTMENT AS STUDENT INTERPRETER AT YEDO (1861)
MY thoughts were first drawn to Japan by a mere accident. In my
eighteenth year an elder brother brought home from Mudie's Library the
interesting account of Lord Elgin's Mission to China and Japan by
Lawrence Oliphant, and the book having fallen to me in turn, inflamed my
imagination with pictures verbal and coloured of a country where the sky
was always blue, where the sun shone perpetually, and where the whole
duty of man seemed to consist in lying on a matted floor with the
windows open to the ground towards a miniature rockwork garden, in the
company of rosy-lipped black-eyed and attentive damsels--in short, a
realised fairyland. But that I should ever have a chance of seeing these
Isles of the Blest was beyond my wildest dreams. An account of Commodore
Perry's expedition, which had preceded Lord Elgin's Mission, came in my
way shortly afterwards, and though much more sober in its outward
appearance and literary style, only served to confirm the previous
impression. I thought of nothing else from that time onwards. One day,
on entering the library of University College, London, where I was then
studying, I found lying on the table a notice that three nominations to
student-interpreterships in China and Japan had been placed at the
disposition of the Dean. Here was the chance for which I had been
longing. Permission to enter myself for the competition was obtained,
not without difficulty, from my parents, and having gained the first
place in the public examination, I chose Japan. To China I never wished
or intended to go. My age was sufficient by a few hours to enable me to
compete. I was formally appointed in August 1861, and quitted England
full of joyful anticipation in November of that year.
Owing to the prevalence of a belief among those who then had the
direction of our affairs in Japan that a knowledge of Chinese was a
necessary preliminary to the study of Japanese, my fellow-student, R. A.
Jamieson, and myself were at first stationed for a few months at Peking,
where we were joined early in 1862 by Russell Robertson, who also
belonged to the Japan establishment. I pass over our sojourn there,
which, though not without its own interest, was not long enough for me
to gain any useful knowledge of China. But I learnt a few hundred
Chinese characters which were of great help to me afterwards, and I even
began the study of Manchu.
Our stay at the Chinese capital was suddenly cut short by the arrival of
a despatch from Yedo, containing the original text of a Note from the
Japanese Ministers, which it was found no Chinaman could decipher, much
less understand. This was decisive of the question whether the short cut
to Japanese lay through the Chinese language. I thought then, and still
think, that though an acquaintance with Chinese characters may be found
useful by the student of Japanese, it is no more indispensable than that
of Latin is to a person who wishes to acquire Italian or Spanish. We
were consequently bundled off to Japan with the least possible delay.
Of the eight students belonging to the China establishment then at
Peking, three only are still (1885) in the service--H. J. Allen, C. T.
Gardner, and W. G. Stronach, each of whom attained the rank of consul in
1877. They had all passed the examination at the same time as myself.
The man who came out second was "allowed to resign" in 1867, three are
dead, and one, the best man of the whole set, and who oddly enough was
last or last but one in the examination list, passed in 1872 into the
Chinese Customs Service, in which he now holds one of the highest
appointments. So unequal are the results obtained by even limited
competitive examination. When the competition was afterwards thrown open
to the public, the results became even more uncertain, as later
experience has shown, at least in Japan, and perhaps elsewhere.
The great fault of the system is that it takes no account of moral
qualities. Whether a candidate has the manners or feelings of a
gentleman cannot be ascertained from the way in which he will reproduce
a proposition of Euclid or translate a passage from a Greek author. It
does not test the intellectual powers, for a stupid young man who has
been properly coached will almost always beat the real student who has
not got the right "tips." Nowadays, every candidate for a public
examination goes to a crammer, who trains him in a few months for the
contest, and enables him to bring forth forced fruit for a moment. Show
me a successful examinee, and I will show you a well-coached candidate.
In the majority of cases the process disgusts the man who has undergone
it, and takes away any inclination he may previously have had for study.
And without serious study it is not possible to acquire such languages
as Chinese, Siamese or Japanese. The scheme of examination is no test of
the linguistic capabilities of the men, and sometimes sends into the
service those who can no more learn to speak a foreign language than
they can fly. My own success in the examination was due to my having
left school more recently than any of the other competitors.
While I was at Peking the whole body of students was invited to dine one
evening with the Bishop of Victoria, who was stopping at the Legation in
the absence of Mr. Bruce, the Minister. The conversation fell upon the
effects of Chinese studies on the intellectual powers, and the Bishop
inquired of us whether we did not find that the mind was weakened by
close application to such a dry, unproductive form of learning. At
least, his own experience had been to that effect. This was a curious
admission to make, but the matter of his conversation certainly
corroborated it. I do not think any of us was candid enough to confess
to a similar result in his own case.
I should like to dwell longer on our life in Peking--the rides in the
early morning over the plain on the north of the city, excursions to the
ruins of the Summer Palace, beautiful still in its desolation, the
monasteries among the blue mountains west of the city, the magnificent
temples inside and outside the walls, the dirt and dust of the streets
in wet or fine weather, the pink lotus blossoms on the lake of the
marble bridge, the beggars with their cry of _K'olien, k'olien, shang
i-ko ta_, the bazaar outside the Ch'ien Men Gate, with its attractive
shops, the Temple of Heaven, the view of yellow, brown and green-tiled
roofs embosomed in trees as one saw them from the city wall, the carts
bumping over the stone pavements worn into deep ruts, the strange
Eastern life that surrounded a band of boys fresh from school or college
or their mothers' apron-strings, and the splendour of the newly restored
buildings of the Liang Kung Fu, occupied by the British Legation--which
will never be effaced from my memory: but there is no time. Mr,
afterwards Sir Frederick, Bruce was then our Minister there, a tall man
of about fifty, with a noble forehead and brown eyes, grey beard,
whiskers and moustache; altogether a beautiful appearance. The Chinese
Secretary was Mr, afterwards Sir Thomas, Wade, a great Chinese scholar,
to whom we looked up with awe, and who was said to be of an irascible
temper. A story was told of his visiting the Chinese Ministers with the
chief, and waxing very warm in argument. The president of the Ts'ung-li
Ya-mên remarked: "But, Mr. Wade, I do not observe that Mr. Bruce is so
angry." "D'ye hear that, Mr. Bruce, they say you're not angry."
Whereupon Mr. Bruce, with a benevolent smile and with the most
good-tempered expression in the world, replied: "Oh, tell them I'm in a
deuce of a rage."
We, that is to say Jamieson, Robertson and myself, got away early on the
morning of August 6, arriving that evening at Ho-si-wu, a town on the
way, and reached Tientsin next day. Thence we took boat to Taku, where
we passed some days under the hospitable roof of the Vice-Consul Gibson.
He was later on transferred to a post in Formosa, where he got into
difficulties with the Chinese officials and called on the commander of a
gunboat to bombard the Custom House, for which he was smartly
reprimanded by the Foreign Office. Shortly afterwards he died, it was
said, of a broken heart. This happened in the days when the so-called
"gun-boat" policy was no longer in favour, and poor Gibson fell a victim
to his excess of zeal.
At Shanghai Jamieson left us, to start a newspaper on terms which
promised him a better future than the Consular service could offer.
Robertson and I embarked in the steamer _Lancefield_, and started for
Japan on September 2. The first land we sighted after leaving the coast
of China was Iwô Shima, a volcanic island to the south of Kiû-shiû, and
on the 7th we found ourselves close to Cape Idzu in a fog. Luckily it
lifted for a moment, and the captain, who was new to the coast, ordered
the ship to be put about, and we ran down among the islands. Next
morning early we were steaming over the blue waves east of Vries Island,
passed the serrated wooded range of Nokogiri yama on our right and the
tiny inlet of Uraga to our left, and stood across the broad bay towards
Yokohama. It was one of those brilliant days that are so characteristic
of Japan, and as we made our way up the bay of Yedo, I thought no
scenery in the world could surpass it. Irregular-shaped hills, covered
with dark-green trees, lined the whole southern coast, and above them
rose into the air for 12,000 feet and more the magnificent cone of Fuji,
with scarcely a patch of snow visible. The noble ranges of Oyama and
others bounded the plain on its western side, while by way of contrast,
a low-lying sandy coast trended rapidly away on our right, and speedily
sank below the horizon in the direction of the capital.
Curious duck-shaped boats of pure unpainted wood, carrying a large
four-square sail formed of narrow strips of canvas loosely tacked
together, crowded the surface of the sparkling waters. Now and then we
passed near enough to note the sunburnt, copper-coloured skins of the
fishermen, naked, with the exception of a white cloth round the loins,
and sometimes a blue rag tied across the nose, so that you could just
see his eyes and chin. At last the white cliffs of Mississippi Bay
became closer and more distinct: we rounded Treaty Point and dropped
anchor on the outer edge of the shipping. After the lapse of more than a
year I had at last attained my cherished object.