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

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

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