THE JAPANESE EXPERIENCE IN BRITAIN, 1862-1876 JAPAN’S CULTURAL DISCOVERY OF THE VICTORIAN WORLD IN THE EARLY YEARS OF OVERSEAS TRAVEL ANDREW JOHN COBBING (S. 0. A. S.) This thesis is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts in the University of London January 1997 ProQuest Number: 10673068 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10673068 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 Abstract The overseas investigations undertaken in the pursuit of knowledge by early Japanese travellers during the 1860s and 1870s have left a unique record of life in the West as seen by visitors whose understanding of developments in the world outside had been limited by centuries of cultural isolation. Fascinated by the extent of British political and commercial influence they observed during their travels, they paid particularly close attention to the Victorian world, and London became the base of the largest group of Japanese students to emerge overseas. This thesis examines the nature of these travellers' experiences and their perceptions of Victorian Britain. The period addressed covers the unprecedented boom in overseas travel from its inception during the last years of bakafu rule, and through the first years of the Meiji regime until 1876, when new government regulations were already beginning to curb the numbers of Japanese students abroad. The study presents an analysis of the diaries in which many early travellers recorded their observations of life outside Japan. It also examines a selection of particularly significant published works that some wrote following their return, which gave readers in Japan their first detailed introduction to civilization in Britain. In addition to well-known figures such as Fukuzawa Yukichi, this features long-overlooked writers like Nomura Fumio and Nakai Hiroshi whose works were also influential in the early Meiji years. The experiences of early overseas travellers in the 1860s and 1870s led to rapid advances in Japanese understanding of the world outside. By examining in detail how first-hand observations enabled travellers to develop increasingly sophisticated views of the Victorian world, this study clarifies the underlying forces at work in shaping perceptions of the West as a whole during this most formative stage in the modern history of Japan. Table of Contents Tables and Illustrations Fig. 1 Japanese Overseas Students 1862-71 32 Table 1 Students Sent Overseas by Han 32 Fig.2 Japanese Overseas Travellers 1860-71 33 Fig.3 Arrivals of Japanese in Britain 1862-76 34 Fig. 4 Humbers of Japanese in Britain 1865-76 34 Introduction 3 Chapter One: The Historical Context of the Japanese in Britain 7 Sakoku law and the ban on overseas travel 7 The wave of overseas investigations 11 Bakufu diplomatic missions 12 Students 14 i) bakufu students 15 ii) illegal students, the mikkosha 16 The introduction of passport travel 22 Overseas travel in the early Meiji years 23 The numbers of overseas travellers in the 1860s and 1870s 29 Chapter Two: Tansaku Investigations of Britain 38 Research on Britain during the sakoku period 39 Eikoku Tansaku and the 1862 bakufu mission to Europe 55 Seiyo Jijo and the 1862 bakufu mission to Europe 67 Seiyo Bunken Roku and student life in Britain 74 Bei-0 Kairan Jikki and the Iwakura embassy 88 Chapter Three: Japanese Diaries and the Victorian World 101 on the Voyage to Europe Overseas travellers and the Japanese diary tradition 102 The voyage to Europe and the British Empire 108 i) departure and the constraints of sea travel 109 ii) the China experience: Shanghai and Hong Kong 114 iii) Singapore, the Indian Ocean and the Middle East 120 iv) Europe 125 Travellers' encounters with European technology 129 Travellers' encounters with Victorian custom and society 136 1 Chapter Four: Japanese Observations and Activities in Britain 156 Arrival in Britain and impressions of London 157 Tours of observation 161 Tours of observation in the eyes of the Victorian press 165 Japanese students in London and their Victorian mentors 170 The Japanese boom in London in the early Meiji years 178 Japanese students outside London 183 Further Japanese activities 193 i) financial difficulties 193 ii) commercial ventures 196 iii) the Society of Japanese Students 198 iv) published works and journalism 199 v) artistic pursuits 203 vi) rites of passage 206 Chapter Five: Return to Japan 216 Domestic circumstances and the return to Japan 216 Student regulations and the recall from Britain 218 Arrival in Japan 229 Post-return activities 231 i) the Kyozon Doshu 236 ii) publications 238 iii) education 243 Conclusion 251 Appendix: biographical notes 261 Glossary 265 Notes 266 Bibliography 301 Note on romanisation of Japanese names Japanese names in this text are arranged in the order used in Japan with family names preceding given names. The method of romanisation used is the hyojunshiki (standard system), an adaptation of the Hepburn system, with macrons indicating long vowels. All place names given follow this system with the single exception of Tokyo (read as Tokyo) which features so frequently that I have dispensed with macrons. 2 INTRODUCTION Japanese understanding of the outside world advanced rapidly during the early years of overseas travel in the raid-nineteenth century. Until then, generations of scholars had struggled against the constrictions imposed on outside cultural contact by the bakufu authorities, often using material in Chinese and Dutch in order to glean information about the lands beyond Japan's shores. Their attention was particularly drawn to countries such as Russia, and then Britain, which increasingly appeared to threaten the security of the Tokugawa world. Following the opening of the treaty ports in 1859, however, opportunities to travel and observe life overseas at first hand created a flow of ideas and an impressive volume of written information that soon revised the existing vague impressions of such far-away cultures, and extended the parameters of Japanese knowledge of civilization in the West. This thesis attempts to examine the experiences of such travellers and the progress of their overseas investigations, and evaluate the development of Japanese perceptions of one culture, the Victorian world. Research on these early Japanese overseas explorations is crucial to an understanding of the process of modernisation in nineteenth-century Japan. Existing works on this topic, however, have concentrated predominantly on diplomatic aspects of some of the first official missions, and those which have addressed travellers’ cultural experience abroad have often been limited to biographical studies of individuals who later became influential figures in the Meiji government. A whole range of documents written by early travellers have thus escaped systematic analysis as they fall beyond the range of these parameters. Nevertheless, in terms of examining a Japanese overseas experience, such records may possess a historical value in relation to the perceptions they describe, regardless of whether or not the writer was involved in official diplomatic negotiations, or whether or not he later became a household name in Meiji Japan. When approaching the subject of early Japanese travels in the 1860s and 1870s, it is tempting to present the material in the form of narratives describing the progress of diplomatic missions and expeditions of students in broadly 3 chronological order. This, however, would amount to little more than a compilation of existing research in Japanese. For similar reasons, important diplomatic negotiations undertaken by government missions such as the Iwakura embassy have not been addressed in detail in this study, because these have already been examined in available English works. It is rather my concern here to throw new light on the Japanese exploration of the outside world by attempting to understand the psychology lying behind early travellers' encounters with western societies, in this case the Victorian world. The study has been organised thematically, and draws together primary documents written during and as a result of such pioneering adventures. Both the singular and common experiences which they record have been traced from the travellers’ departure to their return, following their voyages to Europe and activities in Britain. Comparable observations have been analysed together because, even if they were recorded by travellers on different expeditions at different times, they can reveal the common features which characterise the Japanese experience in the Victorian world. There is a variety of primary source material to draw upon. Letters and memoirs, for example, can be useful in filling gaps in our knowledge of Japanese travellers' activities. The two most significant sets of documents analysed, however, are tansakua investigations and travel diaries. Tansaku investigations were the organised results of overseas research that some travellers wrote up following their return