Monday, March 5, 2007  

The Choshyu 5

Last night we went to see a Japanese film called Choshyu Five, which is the true story of five samurai who secretly travel to England just before the Meiji Restoration. (Choshyu is the prefecture they were from.) They were one of the first Japanese to study in England during the period when Japan closed its borders (1641-1853) (when it was still illegal to enter or leave Japan; see here, here, here, and here for examples of others who travelled prior and during that period) . The five eventually had pivotal roles in Japan's poiltics, technological development, and westernization.

One of the five, who ends up being the main character in the movie, though he is no more historical than the rest, is Yamao Yozo 山尾 庸三 (1837–1917), and he initiated the development of deaf schools in Japan, amongst other achievements. He is referred to as the "Father of Engineering" in Japan in the movie, because he studied boat building in London and after he returned, he entered the Meiji government for a while as head of the Yokohama Shipbuilding Yard. He went on to be Acting Vice Minister of Public Works, and set up the Imperial College of Engineering (ICE) and the Imperial College of Art. Yamao assumed the office of rector of the ICE and was a strong advocate of the need for technical education to support the industrialisation of the Japanese economy.

But all of that is not emphasized  in the movie. It actually focuses on the romantic relationship he develops with a deaf woman in London. The film uses their relationship to focus on the plight of ordinary people in the so-called "Civilized" West, and the story is movingly told. I haven't been able to find out if the story of his meeting a deaf woman is accurate, but he did establish a deaf school in Kyoto.

As to the other four, [expand-contract]
Ito Hirobumi 伊藤博文 (1841-1909) was Japan's first prime minister and served a record four times. A short bio can be found here. Inoue Kaoru 井上薫 (1835-1915) held various high positions in the Meiji government, including Vice-Minister of Finance, Governor of Okinawa, and Minister of Public Works. Endō Kinsuke 遠藤 謹助 (1836-1893) served as the head of the National Mint, but is remembered more for his policy that the grounds of the Mint should be open for all the people of Osaka in spring, when the cherry blossoms come into bloom. Inoue Masaru 井上 勝 (1843–1910) is known as the "Father of the Japanese Railways".

Finally, to understand some of the background, there is this selection:

A WIDER WINDOW ON THE WEST
from NAGASAKI IN THE MEIJI RESTORATION: CHOSHU LOYALISTS AND BRITISH ARMS MERCHANTS by Sidney DeVere Brown
[the village of] Nagasaki's second, and ultimately more significant role was cultural. Radical Emperor loyalists lived among "barbarians" in Nagasaki where Japanese and foreigners mingled more meaningfully than in the newer treaty ports. There was less "political scheming" in Nagasaki, and more attention to trade pure and simple albeit the arms trade.  [A political mediator named] Sakamoto observed to a Choshu friend that "Nagasaki, with all these people here, is as interesting as something from the period of the warring states." [Satsuma samurai entrepreneur] Godai [Tomoatsu] believed that Nagasaki, where radicals lived among foreigners, moderated the innate xenophobia among these loyalists. The conversion was completed when they actually started for the West. "More than half of our number had been leading instigators of anti-foreign sentiment, but when they stepped ashore at Malta in the Mediterranean and saw for the first time the enlightened progress and the mighty power of Europe they awoke at once," he continued.

[British merchant Thomas Blake] Glover's hand was visible in the two major study abroad projects of the period, as his firm arranged secret travel for the Choshu Five to England in 1863 when it was still illegal, and quietly sent the fifteen from Satsuma under  Godai there in 1865. A Mr. Weigal, Glover's manager in Yokohama, put the Choshu youths, disguised as English sailors, aboard a reluctant Captain J. S. Gower's vessel at 1000 ryo each, bound for Shanghai where they were sheltered on an opium storage ship before dividing into two groups for the long voyage to London. Inoue Kaoru and Ito Hirobumi, destined to be two of the greatest statesmen of the age, worked as deckhands aboard the 1500 ton steamer Pegagus on the voyage to Europe.

William Matheson himself introduced the Japanese students to Professor Alexander Williamson, University College, London, a chemist in the Royal Academy. As is well known, Inoue and Ito returned to Japan after a few months of observing the military and industrial might of England to warn Choshu authorities to abandon their extreme joi policy, but the other three stayed long enough to become technical experts. One of them, Yamao Yozo went to Glasgow to study science at the Andersonian, and to work in the shipyards, 1866-1868, evidently with introductions from Glover. These five modernizers, with their British experience though without university degrees, alloccupied important offices in the early Meiji government: Inoue Kaoru as Acting Finance Minister, Ito as Minister of Public Works, Inoue Masaru--Director of Railways; Yamao Yozo--founder, Imperial Engineering College; and Endo Kinsuke--Director, Osaka Mint. Japanese modernization owed that much to Glover.

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