Where to find me on SNS

For anyone interested, just quickly:

I have started using Twitter again. I gave up on my last account because I wasn’t using it much, but having switched to a smartphone (and very smart they are too!) I figured it may become more useful. The recent earthquake in the Tohoku region has also encouraged me to make use of Twitter as it seems a good way to let people know that I’m safe in this quake-prone land.

You can find me on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/#!/eleanoracr I plan on “tweeting” in both English and Japanese.

In addition, whilst I’m on the subject of SNS, if you are a Mixi user, you can also find me here: http://mixi.jp/show_profile.pl?id=3936686

On LinkedIn I’m here:

http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=10430287

And on Academia I’m here:

http://kobe-wu.academia.edu/EleanorRobinson

With globalisation (or, globalization, take your pick) becoming evermore relevant to our world, the social networking sites have become an indispensable element for bringing us all together, so I look forward to connecting with you!

All the best,

Eleanor@you don’t have to be religious to say a prayer for Japan

Nakai in Biographical Portraits Series

I’m a little late in making this announcement:

It’s been some time since I wrote a blog having moved to another post, but before I digress further let me tell you about a new publication.

Britain & Japan Biographical Portraits, Volume VII, compiled and edited by Hugh Cortazzi (Global Oriental, 2010).

This, the seventh book in the series, has chapters on many characters who have played a role in Anglo-Japanese Relations. This particular tome includes chapters on Nakai Hiromu’s good friend Inoue Kaoru (written by Andrew Cobbing) and one of Josiah Conder’s (of Rokumeikan fame) students Tatsuno Kingo (written by Ian Ruxton) as well as British diplomat Francis O. Adams (written by Hugh Cortazzi) along with a plethora of other interesting and key persons.

It had long been a dream of mine to get a chapter on Nakai Hiromu in this excellent series and finally that dream has come true!

More about the publication can be seen here.

New Publication on Nakai Hiromu!

Mr. Yashiki Shigeo has published his long-awaited definitive work on his great ancestor, Nakai Hiromu. Self published through a Tokyo-based publishing company called Gentosha Rennaisance, this work goes into great detail about Nakai Hiromu’s life. Much new and previously unpublished information about Nakai’s life abounds in this truly excellent work.

I intend to write a fuller review in the near future, but for the time being, I would just like to get word out about the book. You can purchase a copy via Amazon.co.jp of course, as well as other online bookstores.

The author, Mr. Yashiki, came to Kyoto last weekend. I arranged to meet him at the Ryoma bar in Kiyamachi in order to express my congratulations on his publication. He was accompanied by several other members of the Yokoyama/Nakai clan. What a great honour it was for me to meet them all! History is really brought to life on such occassions. Nakai Hiromu is not just some old character from the history books. He was a real, living and breathing person, and meeting his descendents really reminded me of the fact.

Watch this space for my review of Mr. Yashiki’s book in future!

Doshisha and Globalization

My work for the Global MBA Programme at Doshisha Business School (DBS) is almost at an end. From the beginning of April, I shall become a “specially appointed associate professor” at the Research Institute for World Languages, Osaka University. Therefore, I felt it might be appropriate to write a bit of a review of my time at DBS, for my own record, if nothing else.

Having been a member of the administrative team for the Global MBA (GMBA) for the past year, my perspectives are naturally from an administrative point of view rather than an academic one. However, this in itself has been a useful exercise in getting to see the workings of a Japanese University at a structural level. My one word for this experience is “interesting”.

As the key initial programme geared toward globalization at Doshisha University, the Global MBA has been the leading force in the university’s successful bid for the Global 30 initiative.  Before coming to work full-time at Doshisha in May last year, since September 2008 I had been coming once a week to help out translating information from Japanese into English for the  GMBA website. Upon subsequently joining the Business School office team, I was initially busy translating many of the documents for our new incoming GMBA cohort. 

The entire GMBA programme is in English and our students are not expected to have any knowledge of the Japanese language (though, of course, it helps in daily life). Therefore, many documents (library information, student handbooks, official notices, application forms, etc.; everything needed to be translated into English. At one point, I was even making little English labels for things in the building and doing simple things like creating instructions in English for how to use lockers…)

Then, in September 2009 our international students arrived, and I have since been busy translating, interpreting, advising, helping to organise and so on, carrying out all manner of administrative duties. It was an interesting experience because prior to that I had been studying for such a long time as a student at Kyoto University, pouring over books alone in my quiet room with little contact with the outside world unless I sought it in the company of friends. It has been very interesting and eye-opening to observe the dynamics of working in an open-plan office with a team of other people, albeit a little difficult to concentrate sometimes because I am used to the silence of my own study.

The students seem quite happy with the programme, and because the programme is still in its early years, as the initial cohort, there are many opportunities for them to put forward ideas on the development and running of the programme. The 2009 cohort is a diverse  body of 20 students from 13 different countries around the world; they are a close-knit community of very enthusiast, dynamic people, and therefore, a lot of fun to be around.

My own field is not related to Business Studies and I have been asked on occasion why I am working at DBS. My first thought is, “That’s the way the cookie crumbles…”, but actually, in a  roundabout sort of way admittedly, my work here is very much related to my field, that is, the field of international relations. Granted, my research is more historically based, but a historical base is not much use if it is not to be made reference to in the context of the present, and indeed, the future. Therefore, it is important to understand the present situation too.

I have learned a great deal about globalization and internationalism during my time at DBS. I have also learned a great deal about what constitutes professionalism, and I have developed quite a strong opinion about what does not constitute professionalism. I have been fortunate enough to have been surrounded by colleagues who have taught me a great deal about professionalism, and about the world of business, of which I really knew nothing before.

As my interests lie in the history of Bakumatsu/Meiji Japan, I  wonder what the founder of Doshisha, Niijima Jo (or Joseph Hardy Neesima, as he is also known, 1843-1890), would think of his university’s Global 30 initiative and the Global MBA. I assume he would be proud of the developments, although admittedly sometimes during my time here I have sensed frustrations amongst those involved regarding the pace of these developments, and I have an inkling Niijima-sensei might have felt the same. There is still a lot to be done in terms of the general mindset toward globalization within the university as a whole, but small and gradual steps may be better in the long run rather than a dive into the unknown.  This begs the question, what is globalization (and should I spell it with an ‘s’ or a ‘z’)? What does it mean to globalize (I’m still not entirely comfortable with that ‘z’… nevermind, I’ll try and get over it)?

For me, an important element of being global however, is multiculturalism. As a child, I grew up in places like Birmingham, Dudley and later Liverpool, which are very multicultural places. Britain is a small island nation like Japan, but it is much more culturally and racially diverse. If the colour of somebody’s skin is different to mine, so what? They still have the same red blood coursing through their veins. If somebody has a different cultural background to mine, so what? Diversity makes the world a more interesting place. Multiculturalism is still pretty low on the cards in Japan. I still get stared at for my white skin and red hair in some places, at least I think it’s that and not my poor dress sense Being in the environment of the Global MBA at Doshisha however, is a very multicultural experience. With so many people from so many different backgrounds working together, the environment can do nothing but give you a sense of being a true global citizen.

 The one or two movers and shakers at Doshisha are gradually influencing their colleagues and the “fear of the unknown” seems to be steadily dissipating. I imagine that Niijima-sensei came up against a lot of opposition and stick-in-the-mud mindsets himself when he first established his school. Certainly, his escape to the United States of America in 1864 was against the rules; at the time, no Japanese was allowed to leave Japan on pain of death, but off he went anyway to learn about the west. He studied at Amherst College, Massachusetts and was baptised a christian. Then he brought his religion back to Japan and established Doshisha on christian principles. That would have rankled quite a few people in Japan at the time having been a very anti-christian nation for so many years. Christianity had long been forbidden in Japan by the Bakufu government and it was still feared as a method for the western take-over of Japan by many. State Shinto was in many ways established as a means to counter this. Nevertheless, Niijima brought his christianity, set up an English school under its principles and the school eventually became one of the best private universities in the country. Doshisha is now faced with a new challenge, however; does it wish to get left behind, or does it wish to enhance and expand itself to meet the global era? I’m pretty sure Niijima-sensei would want it to move forward into globalisation and make its mark as a world-class university, and it is now taking gradual steps toward this.

Doshisha recently succeeded in becoming a member of AACSB International - the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. I was helping to organise the application for that and I am very glad that we managed to become a member before my work here finished (it gives me a bit of a sense of closure). It may perhaps be some time before Doshisha can become accredited by AACSB (the process usually can take anything up to 5 years, apparently), but if the University stays true to its goal of globalization, I really think Doshisha Business School can make its mark on the world stage. I think Niijima-sensei would be proud of that. Doshisha Business School aims to be a world-class business school. The standards must therefore meet the standards of international institutes. That means much more participation in the global sphere (ie participating in international symposia etc) and Doshisha Business School is certainly progressing towards that.

My time at Doshisha has been interesting. I truly learned a lot about the behind-the-scenes running of a Japanese university. More important to me personally, I also learned a great deal about myself and about what I want out of life. I would be lying if I said my time at Doshisha has been a breeze. If I am honest, it has been quite a struggle for me. I am grateful for all I have learnt however, and I am very happy that I was able to work with some very lovely people. Thank you to the GMBA team.

I hope the Global MBA will continue to go from strength to strength.

  

Exceptional Females in Bakumatsu/Meiji Japan?

Curator at the Kyoto National Museum, Miyakawa Teiichi, spoke recently about Chiba Shusaku and his younger brother Chiba Teikichi (Sadakichi?) at a lecture arranged by the Kyoto Ryoma-kai. The two Chiba brothers were both kendo masters and it was at the Chiba dojo run by Teikichi in Edo that Sakamoto Ryoma spent time honing his own kendo skills. Chiba Teikichi’s son Jutaro became very close friends with Ryoma, and Jutaro’s sister, Sana, became Ryoma’s girlfriend, for a time. This was before he met Oryo whom he eventually married. Very little is known about the Chiba kendo school and Miyakawa-sensei is currently following several leads to discover more about it. He is particularly interested in the life of Chiba Sana and the depictions of her in nishiki-e prints and other media. In some of these Sana has been mistaken for a man because she was very competent with a naginata, a wooden pole with a curved blade on the end. Some believe that women like Sana were not very common in her time. Fighting does not seem to have been considered very lady-like, I suppose. In the same way,  Ryoma’s wife, Oryo, is believed to have been an unconventional type of woman. In Meiji period media she was often depicted carrying a western style umbrella with books under her arm. Ryoma had told her she ought to read more, apparently. This line of thought leads me to recall the class I took back in Sheffield about Tsuda Umeko (1864-1929). I learned that at the age of six, Tsuda travelled as the youngest member of the Iwakura Mission to the United States where she received her education. She did not return to Japan until 1882, and had forgotten much of her native language. Later on, she went on to establish the Tsuda College, which is still in existence today.

I have never much been interested in women’s studies or gender studies in particular. I have spent most of my time investigating “samurai dudes”, and that it should be surprising for a woman to do anything other than fit into the narrow-minded stereotype of wife/mother seems fairly irrelevent to me, if only because I don’t fit the stereotype myself and not many of my female friends do either, but that is perhaps the subject of another kind of blog.

My field, especially in Japan perhaps, is dominated by male figures, but I have never questioned, or found need to question that. It was only because the character of Chiba Sana was questioned that the issue of exceptional females in history was brought to my attention. My immediate reaction, however, was to ask whether she really was all that uncommon in her time?

I’ll wait for the next lecture from Miyakawa-sensei to find out more.

Updates – rough notes

Sunday, 27th September 2009

I attended another lecture  hosted by the Kyoto Ryoma Club. This time the speaker was Machida Akihiro of Meiji Gakuin University. He spoke about Shimazu Hisamitsu, younger brother to one of the great lords of Satsuma, Shimazu Nariakira, and the father of that lord’s successor, Shimazu Shigehisa.

Although Machida-sensei did not really touch upon the subject in his talk, what interests me about Hisamitsu is his role in the famous Namamugi Incident, or as it is sometimes known, the Richardson Affair, in which the British merchant Richardson was murdered by Satsuma men.  The incident led to the Anglo-Satsuma War, which in turn led to much cooperation between Britain and Satsuma and to the sending of Satsuma students to Britain in 1865 (a subject I have touched upon in a previous post).  The British residents in Yokohama were in uproar over the Namamugi Incident and were initially baying for the swift arrest of Shimazu Hisamitsu, however he managed to get away and was not pursued further. I’d like to delve into this topic further in a future blog; will keep you posted.

Saturday, 10th October 2009

Today was the 115th anniversary of Nakai Hiromu’s death. In the morning I visited his grave at Sokushû-in within the precincts of Tofukuji Temple.

This was the second time for me to visit on the anniversary of his death. Last year I was joined by two Kyoto Ryoma Club members, but this year I went on my own. I washed the grave, placed flowers and lit incense as an offering before paying my respects with a prayer. I felt somewhat guilty about not having my completed my PhD thesis yet, and could only report that I am STILL working on it. My only excuse is not having the time as I currently work a full-time job now. There was a young priest cleaning up the temple gardens after the recent typhoon. There were leaves and twigs all over the place so he really had his work cut out for him; still he had some time to chat to me briefly. I spoke to the mother of the house too. She told me how Hiromu’s descendent, Nakai Hiroko used to often come and visit the grave all the way from her home at the foot of Mt. Fuji. Nakai Hiroko is one of the ladies who established the Nakai Hiromu statue that now stands in Kyoto’s Maruyama Park in 1964. According to the mother at Sokushû-in, Hiroko is an elderly lady now who can’t really get to visit the grave these days. I gave her a copy of one of my papers and she said she would pass it on to Hiroko-san. The first time I met one of Nakai Hiromu’s descendents, I felt the reality for the first time. Until that point, Hiromu had just been an historical figure from dusty history books. On meeting one of his descendents the realism hit me. I’ll never forget that feeling. Hiromu is somebody’s grandfather, great-grandfather…

Saturday, 17th October 2009

I attended Day One of the Japan Writers Conference (JWC) at Doshisha Women’s College of Liberal Arts (DWCLA). It had been my intention to go and listen to Juliet Winters Carpenter speak about the translation project she is now involved in, that of Shiba Ryôtarô’s Saka no ue no Kumo. There are eight books in the series and Prof. Carpenter will be team translating them. She informed us she will be doing three of the books over the next two years!

Whn I lived in Aomori (1999-2002) I bought a copy of her translation of Shiba’s Saigo no Shôgun, or The Last Shogun. It was from this publication that I first learned of Prof. Carpenter. Shiba’s books are well-known as fairly difficult to read and with all the historical references his books must be terribly difficult to translate. As Prof. Carpenter herself said however, Shiba is one of, if not the most influential authors in Japan. Some might even argue that to understand the Japanese mindset it is essential to know Shiba’s work. However, to my knowledge, despite the tremendous amount of works that he has written, only The Last Shogun, translated by Prof Carpenter, The Tatar Whirlwind: A Novel of Seventeenth Century East Asia translated by Joshua A Vogel, and Kukai the Universal: Scenes from His Life, translated by Akiko Takemoto have been translated and published in English. It has always been one of my dreams to translate Ryôma ga Yuku; that too is eight volumes long, so if I am going to do it, I had better get started….

Nakai Hiromu and the Iguchi Albums

Again, it has been some time since I wrote last.

I have since updated my “About the Author” page, and if I am honest, lately I have been feeling the pinch of not having more published papers out by now.

My only excuses for not keeping up with this blog are that now I am working full-time as an administrator at Doshisha Business School where a new Global MBA Programme has starting this autumn.  My PhD thesis is still not complete, and I have  been hit by health troubles.

I am also working on several other projects too. Although, I am beginning to wonder when any of them will be completed! “A woman’s work is never done”, and all that.

Amongst the chaos of everyday life, recently I attended a lecture at Campus Plaza Kyoto hosted by the Kyoto Ryoma-kai. Curator of the Kyoto National Museum and author of Ryoma wo Yomu Tanoshisa (Rinsen Sensho, 2003), Miyakawa Teiichi, gave a talk about the photographs of Sakamoto Ryoma’s wife, Oryo. It was a fascinating lecture. One of these photographs of Oryo in particular  is a relevant artifact for my own research because the photograph album of which it is a part is said to have been put together by none other than the star of my own thesis, Nakai Hiromu.

Unfortunately, there is no direct physical evidence that states the album, which is one of a set of two, was put together by Nakai Hiromu. There is no signature written by Nakai himself, for example. There is not even a photograph of Nakai included in the collection. The only evidence we have is word of mouth.

Collectively these two albums are known as the Iguchi Albums, as they were donated to the museum in Autumn 2000 by Iguchi Shinsuke, a descendant of the same Iguchi Shinsuke who ran a Soy sauce shop in Kawaramachi Street where Sakamoto Ryoma and Nakaoka Shintaro were assasinated in 1867. When Shinsuke, the younger, donated the albums to the museum, he informed them that they had been given to the Iguchi family by Nakai Hiromu. Iguchi Shinsuke, the elder, had been a good friend of Nakai Hiromu during the Bakumatsu/Meiji years as he had to many of the samurai heroes of the time.

How a soy sauce shop owner became friends with a prefectural governor is an interesting story…

According to the story by Miyakawa-sensei in his book Ryoma wo Yomu Tanoshisa (p.166), Nakai met Iguchi when the former had collapsed from hunger near the Takoyakushi Bridge over the Takasegawa river after having run away from his domain, Satsuma. Iguchi Shinsuke and his wife Sumi took Nakai in, fed him and looked after him until he regained his strength. Then some years later in 1884, Nakai Hiromu became the governor of Shiga prefecture and he called Iguchi to the prefectural office to thank him. Iguchi is said to have wondered what the governor of Shiga would want with him, until of course, he got there and realised who it was.

Another version I could have sworn I’d heard somewhere, but could well have confused it with something else, was that Nakai had collapsed near the bridge in Kiyamachi after a fairly hard night of drinking, and had been taken in by Iguchi. Some days after that Iguchi was called to the Shiga Prefectural government offices where he was surprised to find the governor Nakai wanting to thank him… Personally, I quite like this second story. It paints a picture of a typical scene that might be still seen in Kiyamachi today after a wild weekend of partying!

Upon the death of Nakai Hiromu, Iguchi Shinsuke was entrusted with several of Nakai’s items, including the two photograph albums. Also in the collection, which was given to the Kyoto National Museum, were a number of scrolls with letters to Nakai from several illustrious Bakumatsu and Meiji period notables as well as a medal given to Nakai by the Meiji government.

Along with the letters housed in the Kyoto National Museum and the Reimeikan Museum in Kagoshima, these two photograph albums give an excellent idea of the sort of connections and famous friends that Nakai had. Although throughout the recording of history thus far Nakai himself has been a background figure, there is evidence enough to show that through these many connections, he was able to make not the smallest amount of influence on the history of his time.

Rokumeikan

I was recently in Tokyo in order to send off some relatives who had been visiting here in Kyoto. After seeing them through the gates at Narita Airport I dashed off to visit the Edo-Tokyo Museum near Ryogoku Station. I had been desperate to go there for some time as I had heard about the model of the Rokumeikan building they had. However, after being mighty impressed at the sheer scale of the museum itself and the somewhat elaborate method for actually getting into the museum building itself, I made a beeline for the Rokumeikan display and found myself utterly  disappointed with what was on show. Or rather, not on show, because the Rokumeikan model could hardly be seen. I felt most put-out. It was a little bit like that feeling you get when you’re all expectant and excited about seeing a movie you ‘ve heard rave reviews about and then you watch it and it’s quite simply ‘rubbish’.  What depressed me most of all was that all of the other exhibition pieces were brilliant! Only the Rokumeikan, or rather the method of its display, was a real disappointment. The model itself, what I could see of it at least, was amazing.

It simply could not be seen properly. It was fitted into a hole in the floor and over the top of it some thick glass was placed for people to walk over to see it from a kind of bird’s eye view. This might not have been such a problem if it wasn’t for the fact that because the model was so large in scale (it included both the Rokumeikan building and the large front garden and gate) one sheet of glass alone was not safe enough for people to walk over, so the glass cover was split into smaller sections with what appeared to be thick iron girders in between, thus blocking a clear view of the model beneath.

After this disappointment, I wondered despondently around the rest of museum and then decided to try the museum shop. I found some postcards with one being of the Rokumeikan model. The photograph on the front gave a much better perspective and clearer view. I wondered why the display itself could not have allowed a view like the one on the postcard. Thinking that was all they had in the way of Rokumeikan goods I was about to leave, but then, in the far corner of the shop I saw some publications, one of which gave a description of the Rokumeikan and the construction of the model by the modeller, Uchida Yoshio who is an architect and lecturer at Toyo University. I bought a copy of that and two copies of the Rokumeikan postcards and headed back to my hotel.

The following day, weighed down by heavy luggage, I went to the site where the Rokumeikan once stood. Now, the Yamato Life Insurance company building stands on the spot. Exhausted from the weight of my bags, I was glad to find a trusty old Starbucks coffee shop on the ground floor of the building. After taking a couple of pictures of the plaque commemorating  the Rokumeikan, I went and enjoyed a Matcha Tea Latte and pondered the significance of the Rokumeikan.

The Rokumeikan was highly criticised within Japan for its unnecessary lavishness. Inoue Kaoru, the driving force behind the Rokumeikan project, was eventually forced to resign from his position as Foreign Minister for failing to rid Japan of the bonds of the Unequal Treaties with western nations, and his so-called ‘failure’ is also seen to be part of the failure of the Rokumeikan.

My interest in the Rokumeikan began when I discovered that it was Nakai Hiromu who, apparently, suggested the naming for the Rokumeikan. It comes from a Chinese classic poem in the collection called the Shi Jing. In the book by Pat Barr, The Deer Cry Pavillion (which is how the word “Rokumeikan” translates into English) quotes the English translation by Arthur Waley of the Chinese poem:

Yu, yu, cry the deer

Nibbling the black southernwood in the field.

I have a guest.

Let me play my zither, blow my reed-organ,

Blow my reed-organ, trill their tongues,

Take up the baskets of offerings,

Here is a man that loves me

And will teach me the ways of Chou.

The poem represents the welcoming of guests, which is exactly what the Rokumeikan was for. The prevailing idea that its purpose was to rid Japan of the bonds of the Unequal Treaties appears to me to be more an idea that came with the after-thought of the contemporary media and critics of the time. The original purpose, I think, was that it would merely be a place to welcome foreign guests. Certainly, if anything positive had come from it regarding the unequal treaties, the Rokumeikan would perhaps not have been so highly criticised, and it could well have been in existence today.

There is an excellent translation by David Rosenfeld (2001) of Pierre Loti’s vicious attack on the Rokumeikan. Loti tells of his personal experience when he was invited to a ball at the Rokumeikan to celebrate the Emperor Meiji’s birthday in 1886. I was absolutely shocked to read his account; his racist attitude seems to know no bounds. To give an example, he calls the rickshaw men that drive the guests to the ball “little black imps”! Need I say anymore?!

I am glad I finally made it to the Edo-Tokyo Museum. As long as you don’t get too excited about seeing the Rokumeikan exhibit as I did, I can really reccommend a visit there. It’s a pretty big place and one of the bonuses is that you can use your ticket for multiple re-entry for one day, so if you fancy going to get some “chanko-nabe” (sumo wrestlers’ hot-pot) for lunch you can! Ryogoku is a famous Sumo mecca, of course; home to a number of Sumo stables, restaurants that serve Sumo hot-pots and there is also the famous Sumo Stadium. I always enjoy watching the Sumo on TV; I’d like to go there again to see a tournament. Perhaps by that time, the Rokumeikan model will have a  better form of display.

A Stone Marks the Spot

Stone marker

On March 29th 2009, the unveiling ceremony was held for the stone established by the Kyoto Ryoma Club to show where Sakamoto Ryoma’s wife Oryo lived in her days before marrying Ryoma as well as where Nakai Hiromu lived during the end years of the Tokugawa Shogunate.

I attended the ceremony which was led by Akao Hiroaki, head of the Kyoto Ryoma Club and I helped out with the unveiling. Nakamura Takeo, a Geographical Historian who teaches at Kyoto Women’s College gave a brief speech about Oryo to the crowd that had gathered to come and see the event.

I was suddenly also asked to speak a little about Nakai Hiromu, but unfortunately became incredibly tongue-tied and perhaps didn’t make much sense to the listeners; whereupon I was rescued by Miyakawa Teiichi, a curator at the Kyoto National Museum, who also spoke a little about Nakai. I regret not having been better prepared to say something (a lesson for any similar future scenarios!) but I had no idea I would be asked to say something. The day then continued with a mini tour of Kyoto led by Nakamura-sensei who took us round some of the places related to Oryo’s life and times.

Finally, in the evening there was a celebration to commemorate the 2nd anniversary of the opening of the Ryoma Bar in Kiyamachi Street, Kyoto; after which we all ‘piled in’ to the Ryoma Bar and lots of karaoke was enjoyed.

My only other regret was not having prepared some handouts about Nakai Hiromu to give to the crowd. What with having to write a PhD thesis and everything else that is going on I didn’t really have the time to make something up. Nakai Hiromu is still not very well known so I have to get word out as soon as possible. Time is always something I wish I had more of these days.

One of Nakai Hiromu’s descendents is currently in the process of publishing a biography in Japanese about his great ancestor so that will be a big step forward (one I am looking forward to). Once the thesis is out of the way, my plan is to get to work on an English version of a biography.

Nakai Hiromu saved the life of the British ambassador to Japan, Harry Parkes, in March 1868 at the Nawate Incident in Kyoto (when  Parkes was on his way to an audience with the Emperor Meiji) so he is an extremely key figure for the history of Anglo-Japanese relations history.

The “What if?” concept within historical studies has been utilised much in recent years and I for one think it is a very important concept to consider. What if ambassador Harry Parkes, or those that accompanied him: the famous Japanophile and diplomat Ernest Satow, or grandfather of the famous Mitford sisters and later Lord Redesdale, Algernon B. Mitford, had been killed that day? I believe that Anglo-Japanese relations would have developed in a considerably different manner. In what way different? Maybe Robert Cowley will do some more “What If?” books and he’ll let me ‘sling in’ a few of my ideas?

Some recent occurrances

March 25th, 2009, Cloudy and windy.

I got all excited today because I found some photographs of Nakai Hiromu on the Internet that I had not known about previously. The photographs are in the “Izeki collection”, and can be viewed here:

Nakai photos in the Izeki Collection (Photo no. 20, 104, and 105)

Seeing Nakai in Japanese dress (photo no. 20) was nice because he is more usually portrayed in western dress. He is the one in the middle at the back . Also in the picture is Yamaguchi Naoyoshi (1839-1894), a samurai from the domain of Saga who joined the famous Iwakura Mission on a tour around the world. Tanaka Moriaki (1843-?) is second from the left, and he is one of the Satsuma students who travelled secretly to Britain in 1865. Ueno Kagenori (1845-1888) is second on the right. He was a well-known scholar of English from Satsuma and became the Japanese minister for Britain. Finally, on the far-right is Komatsu Tatewaki (1835-1870) the famous samurai from Satsuma who is recently gaining much attention in Japan after the airing of the NHK period drama Atsuhime. Also, the picture of Nakai Hiromu sat next to a women (photo no. 104) was intriguing. She looks very stern; I wonder, who she could be? The description at the bottom tells us the picture was taken in London in Meiji 2 (1869) after he had finished working for the Foreign Department, so it was taken on his second visit to London.  I think however, that he looks his most “dashing” in photo no. 105, again which was taken in London.

March 26th, 2009, glorious Spring weather!

I had a little bit of time in between tasks today so I cycled into Kiyamachi as the weather gave me my first real feeling of Spring of the year. The blossoms have just started to come out a little along Kiyamachi. My reason for going there was to take a photograph of the pre-unveiled stone I mentioned in my last blog entry that informs passers-by that Nakai Hiromu and Sakamoto Ryoma’s wife Oryo lived around that area. Here’s the picture (the stone and plaque are still covered up in white tape waiting for the unveiling on the 29th):

A still covered stone

It all started with a samurai

The now renowned samurai, Sakamoto Ryoma, is the reason I am where I am today.

I became engrossed with the fact that he is, and continues to be, so popular in Japan, and I wanted to know why, so I began a dissertation.  That dissertation got me into graduate school here in Japan where I discovered another samurai who is not so well-known. This samurai goes by many names and aliases, but I like to use the name by which his descendants call him: Nakai Hiromu.

I have started this blog in order to tell the world about Nakai Hiromu, and anything else I find interesting to share with you.

So here are some Nakai facts:

He was born on 29/11/1838 (Tenpo 9), which means January 14th 1839 in the Gregorian calendar (he’s a capricorn!), to a Satsuma samurai family in the castle town of Kagoshima. He was the first son of Yokoyama Eisuke and at birth was given the name Yokoyama Kyunoshin. He ran away from Satsuma at the age of sixteen in 1854, the same year that Commodore Perry came to “open” Japan.

He travelled to Britain in 1866 and on his return in 1867 he entered service in the Foreign Department. It was in this capacity that he left his mark on history in an incident called the “Nawate Incident” or “Parkes Incident” – I’m going to save that story for another day though….

As this is my first attempt at such an endeavour, and I’m still like a baby taking its first tentative steps, I will keep it brief by wrapping up here for now.

Nakai Hiromu’s Final Resting Place

Nakai Hiromu’s final resting place is in a temple called Sokushuin within the Tofukuji Temple complex in the southeast of Kyoto city. You can get there easily if you take the Keihan line to Tofukuji Station. Alternatively, it is accessible on the JR line from Kyoto Station. Tofukuji Temple is famous for its red leaves in Autumn. Sokushuin itself is normally closed to the public all year round, except in the month of November when the gardens are open to the public. The place swarms with tourists at that time of year, but the leaves are truly a sight to behold.

The picture I have included above was taken when I visited Nakai’s grave (centre) this year on the 114th anniversary of his death on October 10th. I have been to the grave a couple of times in the past, but one of the most memorable times was in 2006 when I went with one of Nakai Hiromu’s descendents, Mr. Yashiki, who is currently in the process of writing a biography about Nakai in Japanese. This was quite an emotional experience for me because at the time I had been studying about Nakai for three or four years already, but until that moment, Nakai had just been an historical figure to me. To meet one of his descendents and be able to visit Nakai’s resting place with him really gave me a sense of the reality of Nakai Hiromu’s life. He was no longer just some historical figure from books; he was real, he was a person’s relative, he was Mr. Yashiki’s relative, and I was being allowed to join him in his visit to his ancestor’s grave, a pretty personal thing from my point of view.

In the picture, to the right you can see the grave of Nakai’s wife, Takeko (竹子). There has been some confusion over Takeko, which I’ll go into some other time. Then to the left, there is the grave of Nakai’s daughter Sadako (貞子), who also deserves further explanation, but for the time being let me just say that she was the first wife of Japan’s famous first prime minister from a “common” background, Hara Takashi (1856-1921).

The grave plot includes other members of the Nakai and Yokoyama families; Nakai’s father, Yokoyama Eisuke, is also there for example. All together there are 11 graves and these are surrounded by a low cut hedge.

Lately, I have been trying to visit the graves more often. I doubt that they get many visitors since the temple is normally closed to the public. Each time I want to go, I have to call in advance and let the priest know I’m coming.

Sokushuin is recently getting a lot of attention in Japan because it is also famous as one of the hide-outs of the famous Satsuma samurai Saigo Takamori (1827-1877). Sokushuin was established by the Shimadzu family who have been the Lords of Satsuma for many generations. Recently in Japan, the NHK TV drama, “Atsuhime”, has put Sokushuin in the public eye because the Satsuma Princess Atsuhime visited the temple on her way to Edo (present-day Tokyo) when she was going to be married off to Tokugawa Iesada (1824-1858), the 13th Shogun of Japan who ruled when Japan signed the Unequal Treaties with the west thus “opening” Japan after over two hundred years of isolation.

I highly recommend a visit to Tofukuji, and if you can make it in November, I recommend you to see the gardens of Sokushuin too. If you do, please go say hello to Nakai Hiromu and his family.

There are still a couple of days left, I might try and get there again myself before the month is out.

The End of an Era or the Beginning of a New One?

I read today, on Yahoo Japan news, that the hot springs (onsen) where Sakamoto Ryoma and his wife Oryo spent their honeymoon, said to be the first honeymoon in Japan, is to be closed down due to dilapidation. That’s a real shame. In 2010 NHK will air their historical drama “Ryoma-den” and the Ryoma “boom” is just on the rise again. It seems a shame to close down something that is likely to bring in a lot of revenue from tourism and boost the local economy. Why don’t the local government, to which the hot springs establishment now belongs, simply put in a bit of investment and give the place a make-over? Exactly how dilapidated can it be? Ryoma is just beginning  to make more of an impression on the world stage now too. I’m pretty sure the place would get its fair share of foreign tourism.

I was intrigued to see that the Ryoma Festival held at Gogoku Shrine this year had its fair share of foreign visitors, not including myself of course. I have also noticed in recent years the number of foreign tourists visiting Maruyama Park in Kyoto and taking the time to inspect the statue of Sakamoto Ryoma and Nakaoka Shintaro at the far end of the park. No one really seems to have noticed the smaller statue of Nakai Hiromu at the other end of the park closer to the entrance to Yasaka Shrine though; most Japanese do not even pay attention to that. If you ever get a chance to go to Maruyama Park, do go and have a look at Nakai Hiromu’s statue (pictured below).

Wonderful news!

Today I cycled to work under another glorious day of sunshine, through the grounds of Shokokuji （相国寺） temple, where the Japanophile Sir Ernest Satow himself once stayed on a visit to Kyoto. The autumnal red and yellow leaves were truly a sight to behold!

Whilst attempting to complete my thesis on Nakai Hiromu at Kyoto, I am also currently working part-time at Doshisha University established by the great pioneer of education Niijima Joe  (新島襄、1843-1890), which now sits upon ground that once was the spot of the Satsuma domain estate. I am helping out with the creation of the new Global MBA programme website, translating documents from English to Japanese and so on.  I was fortunate enough today to meet and interview a former sensei of mine from Sheffield University who will be teaching on the new programme of which many classes will be given in English. It is a very impressive programme of study that the Business School is preparing and I believe it will help Japan to become all the more prominent on the international stage. Niijima sensei would no doubt be very happy to see that his university is growing ever more into an international establishment.

Then, upon arriving home this evening I read great news that Nakai Hiromu has received mention in the Autumn edition of the JR West publication called Kyoto Sansaku （京都散策）. Nakamura Takeo sensei wrote the article entitled, Sakamoto Ryoma to Bakumatsu Shuyo Jinbutsu no Sumai, (Sakamoto Ryoma and the Residences of Key Bakumatsu Figures [this author's translation]), on pages 14~15. Nakamura sensei is a specialist of the geographical history of Kyoto and I am much indebted to his excellent work. You can find his blog listed in my blogroll on the right.

In the article, aside from informing us about the residences of the various prominent clans such as Choshu and Tosa, he also guides the reader to the private residences of such famous characters as Nakaoka Shintaro (1838-1867), Sakuma Shozan (1811-1864), Takechi Zuizan (Hanpeita, 1829-1865). In addition to these characters however, the map included in the article also tells us the spot where Nakai Hiromu temporarily resided on Kiyamachi Street. Nakai is also known to have had his residence to the west side of the Kamo river near Kojin-guchi (荒神口) Bridge not far from the Imperial Palace, but for a time he also lived in the more central area of Kiyamachi, which is now a famous nightspot in Kyoto. Indeed, one excellent bar I can recommend along there is the bar “Ryoma”, which is of course dedicated to the samurai hero Sakamoto Ryoma. So again, whenever you’re in town…

Anyway, it’s good news that gradually Nakai Hiromu is beginning to be recognised in Japan. Niijima Joe’s residence near the Imperial Palace is also not so far from Nakai’s residence at Kojin-guchi. I have discovered that Doshisha University also maintains a copy of Nakai Hiromu’s publication Man’yu Kitei (1878) in its library. I have yet to go and see their copy, but I do wonder if it was a copy that Nakai personally gave to Niijima, and were the pair well acquainted with each other? I still have some investigating to do. I am unsure of whether the dates of their residency match and here, do excuse me, I am just thinking allowed. When I find out the facts, I’ll let you know…

Nakai Hiromu in English texts

One of the hardest things about carrying out research on Nakai Hiromu, I have learned, is actually finding documentation and sources on him. There’s not a lot, and what there is often tends to be fairly limited in its scope. In my last post, I mentioned that the spot where Nakai’s temporary residence had been in Kiyamachi Street had been briefly touched upon in the JR West journal Kyoto Sansaku, and it’s exactly this kind of thing that I mean. Modern texts tend to give only a passing mention. Our Mr. Nakai is quite an elusive character it seems.

Naturally in English texts too, information about Nakai Hiromu  is few and far between. However, Andrew Cobbing has made a more extensive study about Nakai in his works, for example, The Japanese Discovery of Victorian Britain (Japan Library, 1998) and The Satsuma Students in Britain (Japan Library, 2000). Also, thanks to Professor Cobbing for his kind and helpful advice, I have learned that another author, Susanna Fessler has also looked at the travel journals of Nakai Hiromu in her publication Musashino in Tuscany: Japanese Overseas Travel Literature, 1860-1912 (University of Michigan, 2004). This work gives 16 pages of coverage on Nakai and discusses both of his travel journals as they are published in the Meiji Bunka Zenshu series.

It is good to see though, that Nakai is getting a little more attention. It does put pressure on me of course to hurry up and finish my PhD thesis! What am I doing writing a blog?! Get to it woman!

In all seriousness though, it is important that such “background characters” like Nakai get more attention so that a broader and clearer picture of the historical facts can be made.

Some recent events

I’ve only just started this blog and I’m getting lazy with it already! So, here’s a few things that have happened over the last few days.

December 9th, 2008

Today, the copy of Meiji Bunka Zenshu – Gaikoku Bunka-hen [Meiji Culture Collection - Foreign Culture edition] (Vol. 7, 1955 edition) that I had ordered last week finally arrived at my door. I’ve only ever had naff photocopies of the 1992 edition, the pages showing Nakai Hiromu’s travel journals, before now, so I was mighty pleased to at last get my hands on a copy of my own. It’s of a reasonably good quality considering it’s the 1955 edition. It still has its own box, though that has browned tremendously over the years. Still the book itself is properly intact. In fact, it still has the old advertising pamphlets and so on that often come with newly published books in Japan.

I was rather pleased to find in there also, a copy of the No. 5 Monthly Report on Meiji Culture, published on June 25th, 1955. Being from a second hand bookshop I would imagine it is not all that uncommon that such added papers get lost over the years, so I was very fortunate to get a copy of the book with these papers in it still. Why get so excited over such things? Well, this particular report has a short article on Nakai Hiromu at the beginning, and I learnt some things about him from it that I did not know, which I will go into another time.

December 10th, 2008

Today was the anniversary of the death of Sakamoto Ryoma and Nakaoka Shintaro in the western calendar.  In the old Japanese calendar  of course, they were killed on the 15th day of the eleventh month 1867 which was December 10th in the western calendar.  In commemoration of the event Nakamura Takeo gave a guided tour of the route that the killers are said to have taken after they murdered Ryoma and Shintaro. I attended the long walk with the members of the “Ryoma Terakoya” group that is held once a month at the Ryoma Bar in Kiyamachi Street, Kyoto. Off we marched at a fairly speedy pace with Nakamura sensei leading the way, followed by “Ryoma” aka Mr. Akao, leader of the Kyoto Ryoma Club and “Oryo” who both carried chochin lanterns. We first stopped at the site where the Tosa domain house (Tosa yashiki) used to be situated, then going past Tosa Inari Shrine we went to the site of Omiya where Ryoma and Shintaro were murdered. From there we followed the killers’ route, along Kawaramachi Street to Shijo Street, then along Shijo to Senbon Street where we turned to go north up to Marutamachi Street. It took a little over an hour and we were walking at night roughly at the time the actual killing was said to have taken place.

Kyoto is a very different place now, but strangely it was not difficult to imagine what the scenery would have been like in 1867 thanks of course to Nakamura sensei’s excellent commentary along the way.

December 12th, 2008

Today I attended the annual meeting party for the UFJ Mitsubishi Scholarship students in the Kansai area. This was my second time at the meeting so I saw some familiar faces but also was fortunate to make some new acquaintences.  Mitsubishi is of course the company founded originally by Sakamoto Ryoma’s Kaientai member, Iwasaki Yataro (1834-1885), so it is very significant for me that I am currently receiving their kind sponsorship to further my studies.  I am very interested in seeing the diaries and other documents of Yataro maintained at Mitsubishi and hope one day to go to Tokyo to see them for myself. It is my belief that perhaps there is more information available in those documents on Nakai Hiromu that is yet to be discovered. It is fairly common knowledge already that Nakai was very close to Goto Shojiro and other Tosa domain samurai, so I would not be surprised to find something in Yataro’s collection. In Yataro’s already published diaries Nakai Hiromu is mentioned as having attended a meeting with Yataro himself along with Goto Shojiro, Sakamoto Ryoma, the British merchant William Alt and others. Yataro mentions Nakai under one of his aliases, Tanaka Kosuke and Nakai visits on several occasions around the same time period. I am pretty certain there is much more on Nakai in the Iwasaki Yataro documents. It’s just a case of finding them…

Anyway, it was nice to meet so many nice people at the party

Translating Japanese History

I have recently begun work on the English translation of Nakamura Takeo’s work Kyoto no Edo Jidai wo Aruku (Bunrikaku, 2008).  I really feel that this work will be of great benefit to both scholars and the general public abroad who are interested in learning more in depth about the history of Kyoto, as well as to foreign tourists who visit Kyoto and want to do more than just scratch the surface while they tour round the city. I feel it is a shame to limit the vast amount of information in the book to just Japanese language speakers.

I do of course also have to complete my PhD thesis on Nakai Hiromu, but it is nice to have a break from that occasionally and to do some pure translation work.

Nakamura’s work presents a large section of information on Sakamoto Ryoma of course too, which will be very good for an English speaking audience since Ryoma is becoming ever more popular in a global context.

Speaking of translation work, I was also happy recently to receive a copy of the soon to be published Shinsengumi no Ronjikata ([Discussing the Shinsengumi] Matsuno Shoten, 2009) by Miyachi Masato, Ito Katsushi, Kobayashi Takehiro, Tada Toshikatsu and Miyakawa Teiichi.  It was my job to help out with the English translation of the contents page; however, as I read through the articles themselves I thought how nice it would be to present this work in full to an English speaking audience in the future.

There appears to be an ever-growing interest in Japanese history of all periods and this is evident from the ever-growing number of books in English in this field. Many of these books in English are written by western scholars who are specialists in the field of Japanese history, and of course there are many great works out there. However, it is also important to present the works of Japanese historians and give them a voice in the English speaking world to present their views of their own history. One example of this kind of work that I enjoyed particularly was Takii Kazuhiro’s The Meiji Constitution (I-House Press, 2007) translated by David Noble. I hope to be able to present much more about Japanese history to the English speaking world in future with both my own research and with translations of great works by Japanese authors.

Knowing Nakai Through his Chinese Education

Poetry Collection by Oshu Sanjin (Nakai Hiromu)

According to Ito Chiyu in his work Kaiketsuden, for a brief period Nakai Hiromu studied under the Confucian scholar Hirose Tanso (1782-1856).  I had not heard of this scholar until I read Ito’s chapter on Nakai. When I made a search about him, the Japanese Wikipedia site informed me that Hirose ran a school in Oita prefecture called Kangien (咸宜園), which apparently can still be seen and was once visited by the ex-prime minister Koizumi Junichiro. According to Ito Chiyu, Nakai Hiromu only attended this school for a short period, though he does not give any exact dates. Indeed, Ito’s work is known to be considerably loose on the facts, so whether Ito’s assertion is really true or not I have yet to find more evidence. Nevertheless, it is a fact that Nakai Hiromu was well versed in the Chinese classics as many a samurai elite was in those days, and Hiromu himself was a fairly prolific writer of Chinese poetry.

As I study more in depth the life of Nakai Hiromu, I feel more and more the necessity of studying kanshi/kanbun (Chinese poetry/Chinese writing). Hiromu wrote many poems, some of which can be found in his travel journals, and to really understand the man himself as well as the mindset and the thinking of the many Meiji period elite, an understanding of their educational backgrounds seems vital.

According to many scholars, present and past, there was a growing tendency in the Meiji period for people to look down on the thousands of years of Chinese culture that they had been raised on. This derogatory view of Asian culture is considered to have had an influence on the culmination of terrible atrocities that occurred during the 1930s. Many of the Meiji elite saw the west as the new “master” to follow and wanted to forgot all about their previous Confucian teachings. Fukuzawa Yukichi (1834-1901) and Hiromu’s good friend Inoue Kaoru (1835-1915) are perhaps good examples of this.

Nakai Hiromu however, seems not to have taken this view to such extremes. He recognised the benefits of western culture and recognised that Japan could learn from that, but he does not denounce Chinese learning entirely either. He continued to compose poetry throughout his life and the Chinese classics continued to influence him. In his first travel journal however, he does demonstrate some feelings of despair toward contemporary Chinese due to their weakness in response to western pressure. He laments the fact that China had bowed to western pressure, but he also sees the Chinese example as a lesson for Japan.

Hiromu had many friends and colleagues who were also known poets and Confucian scholars such as Onuma Chinzan (1818-1891), Washizu Kido (1825-1882), Narushima Ryuhoku (1837-1884) to name but a few. In studying Meiji history, to really understand the minds of the people then, I really feel it is essential for me to get a grasp of Chinese learning too. So I have a large task ahead of me. I am certainly glad of those classes I had at Sheffield University in the philosophy of East Asia, but I was only scratching the top of a very large iceberg. There’s still a very long way to go!

It was Hiromu who decided upon the name for the Rokumeikan (known somewhat awkwardly as the “Deer Cry Pavillion” or “Hall of the Baying Stag” in English). The Rokumeikan was of course, Inoue Kaoru’s “baby”, a means of demonstrating to the west that Japan could be civilised too by providing western style entertainment for visiting foreign dignitries. Hiromu, however, took inspiration for the name from a poem in the collection of one of the five Chinese classics, the Shi Jing (詩輕), or Book of Songs (Book of Odes). The poem represents the spirit of hospitality the Meiji government wished to show the west. An English translation of the poem by Arthur Waley is published in his “Book of Songs” (1937):

Yu, yu, cry the deer
Nibbling the black southernwood in the field.
I have a guest.
Let me play my zither, blow my reed-organ,
Blow my reed-organ, trill their tongues,
Take up the baskets of offerings,
Here is a man that loves me
And will teach me the ways of Chou.

Calendar Conundrums

First, I would like to wish everyone a very happy New Year. I hope 2009 will bring a lot of good into the world. I realise I am a little late with my wishes, the reason being that from Christmas day 2008 right through to about January 4th or 5th 2009, I was sick with what I believe to have been the norovirus. Well, whatever it was, it put everything on hold, I was quite incapacitated for some time, and my research was put on the back burner for a couple of weeks. It wasn’t fun. So my Christmas and New Year were pretty much ruined. On January 11th however, I made up for all the missed celebrations of Christmas and New Year by partying BIG TIME as it was my birthday!

I had started writing this  entry on Christmas Eve, I think it was, and then became sick, so this is now a little less timely, but I started it and being the stubborn Capricorn that I am therefore must complete it.

Christmas in Japan is quite different to what I had grown up with in Britain. Being in such a different world as Japan is to the one I grew up in sometimes makes me wonder about my concepts of time and space. Studying the history of Japan makes me wonder about such ideas even more. The calendar is an excellent example of what I mean. Christmas Day is a national holiday in the UK. In Japan, December 23rd is a national holiday as it is the Emperor’s birthday, but Christmas Day is a regular working day. Where I come from Christmas is a family affair, but here in Japan, New Year is a time for family gathering. Experiencing life in Japan therefore, really challenges my perceptions of the meaning of these yearly events.

In 2008, December 26th was the 29th day of the eleventh month in the Lunar calendar. Nakai Hiromu was apparently born on  this day in 1838, which according to calculation was January 14th 1839 in the Gregorian calendar. That would make him a Capricorn, like yours truly. Sakamoto Ryoma was born on the 15th day of the eleventh month 1835 of the lunar calendar, which was January 3rd 1836 of the Gregorian calendar; also making Ryoma a Capricorn!

In Ryoma’s case, he died before the Meiji government changed the calendar over to the western one and figuring out the dates is perhaps not so awkward. However, the calendar was changed over from the old Japanese lunar calendar to the western Gregorian calendar in 1873, therefore, dates for Hiromu sometimes become a little more awkward because it can be difficult to know which calendar is being used, particularly in the case of private diaries and journals. It gets me into a real tizz sometimes!

Now that I am fully recovered from my sickness of course, I have been working hard to catch up with my research. I am STILL trying to perfect the translation of Hiromu’s Kokai Shinsetsu travel journal. It is no easy endeavour. During his sea journey to Britain in 1866, he tells us briefly about what he sees when in the western calendar the date changes from 1866 to 1867. He experiences New Year celebrations with the British passengers on board ship and he describes the people dressing up in “strange hats” and “clapping hands and banging on tables”. Some of the sailors play flutes and drums etc and go running wildly around the ship! The passengers, “even the ladies” he tells us, are drinking alcohol until late at night. Hiromu does not give much away about his feelings on the experience. He tells us only that it is all a little bit strange for him, and surely it must have been.

Having grown up with a certain tradition all one’s life, like the New Year celebrations, and then experiencing another that is quite different, it can feel a little bit strange. I can testify to that myself! I think it is important though to have such experiences in order to be more open and accepting of the world around us. I for one am glad of my experiences in Japan; I think they have helped me to be a little less stubborn and dogmatic… only a little mind!

Nakai Hiromu Statue – Maruyama Park

Yesterday I went to Maruyama Park in Kyoto and watched the cleaning of the Sakamoto Ryoma and Nakaoka Shintaro statue. The organizers of the “cleaning event” were the Kyoto Kochi Kenjin-kai (a group of Kyoto residents born in Kochi Prefecture – Japan amazes me sometimes. I wonder if there is group for say, Newcastle-born Liverpool residents?). I was hoping to be able to lend a hand (I’d even taken some rubber gloves, just in case). I was hoping I could get those involved to help me clean the small statue of Nakai Hiromu that also stands in the park. The scale of things however, totally stunned me and I felt like I couldn’t ask. There was a huge team of people and they had brought all sorts of cleaning apparatus. They even had a huge yellow truck with a lift on the back to carry people up so that they could ‘shampoo’ Ryoma and Shintaro’s heads!

Sakamoto Ryoma and Nakaoka Shintaro get a wash

When I got there, I was a little early and “Ryoma” and “Oryo” from the Kyoto Ryoma Club (who had invited me) had not arrived yet, so I didn’t know anybody there. I’m a bit shy and didn’t like to butt in, so I went off to see the statue of Nakai Hiromu while I waited for Ryoma and Oryo to show up. I’m glad I did too, because it was in a terrible state: covered in bird droppings with mold growing up the side of the plinth; there was even a bit of the cement missing where the statue is attached to the plinth. Suffice to say, the statue is in a real mess. Something really has to be done about it! I really have to do something about it….. Nakai Hiromu is not from Kochi Prefecture, so  I can’t really ask the Kyoto Kochi Kenjin-kai, I guess. I wonder if there is a Kyoto Kagoshima Kenjin-kai, and would they be interested? Nakai is, afterall, from Kagoshima. But, he did abandon his domain and nobody in Kagoshima really knows who Nakai is. There are many statues of famous Satsuma samurai in Kagoshima city, but Nakai is not among them. Would anybody from Kagoshima be interested in cleaning the statue at Maruyama Park when they don’t even have one in Kagoshima? Ryoma and Shintaro have thousands upon thousands of fans in Japan and all over the world. People go to visit their graves at Gokoku Shrine in Kyoto everyday. How many people even know where Nakai Hiromu’s grave is? How many people even know who Nakai Hiromu is? The scale is quite different. The statue of Nakai wouldn’t need a huge team of people to clean it though; it’s not a big thing. Two or three would be enough, I guess.  I’ll have to see if I can’t arrange something…

Nakai Hiromu’s statue is looking a little worse for the wear

Cement missing on one side of the Nakai statue

One side of the plinth is badly covered in mould

The statue that currently stands in Maruyama Park is not the original. The original seems to have been removed some time around the Second World War; no doubt the metal was used for the war effort. The statue that currently stands was erected in 1964 by Hiromu’s descendents, Nakai Kise and Nakai Hiroko. It is a terrible waste to let the statue fall to ruin, so I will see what can be done about it. I shall keep you posted.

Monument of Satsuma Students

I’m not getting obsessed about statues or anything honestly, but I want to write about the monument for the Satsuma students in Kagoshima today. I’m reading the novel by Hayashi Nozomu called Satsuma Students, Go West! (Kôbunsha, 2007) at the moment and enjoying it immensely. The Kagoshima dialect that comes across in the book was a little difficult for me to grasp at first, but I’m gradually getting used to it. The book is about the adventures of the 19 students who secretly travelled to Britain in 1865; secretly of course, because at the time it was still against the Bakufu government’s laws for any Japanese to leave Japan without government consent. The history has been well covered even in English thanks to the work of Dr. Andrew Cobbing and his publication entitled The Satsuma Students in Britain (Japan Library, 2000).

So, in Kagoshima city there is a monument dedicated to these Satsuma students, which controversially does not include two of the men, Takami Yaichi from Tosa (Kochi prefecture) and Hori Takayuki from Nagasaki because they were not born in Satsuma (Kagoshima). There had been efforts to amend this but unfortunately so far the city of Kagoshima has deemed it too difficult a task to carry out.

Monument of the Satsuma students in Kagoshima City

When I originally set out on my studies of Nakai Hiromu I wondered why a statue of Nakai Hiromu had not been included in this monument either. Nakai Hiromu was in Britain when the other Satsuma students were there and indeed, the Satsuma students get frequent mention in Nakai’s travel journal Kôkai Shinsetsu, however, Nakai had not travelled with the Satsuma students. In fact, he had gone to Britain with the support of the Tosa domain and he had gone with the Tosa samurai Yûki Yukiyasu. Nakai had already run away from and abandoned Satsuma several years before at the tender age of 16, so it perhaps makes sense that he would not be included in the Satsuma students’ Monument. Having said that, it amazes me that even now there is still no statue of Nakai Hiromu in his hometown of Kagoshima. When I went to Kagoshima in 2005, I spoke with one of the curators of the Reimeikan Museum and was told that because Nakai ran away from Satsuma he was, to all intent and purpose, considered to be a traitor! It was almost unbelievable for me to hear that. Nakai Hiromu put his life on the line doing his duty for his country when he saved the British ambassador, Harry Parkes, in 1868. He could perhaps be said to be one of the earliest cases of karôshi (death from overwork) because he died of a brain haemorrhage whilst working on several huge projects to help make Japan a “strong and wealthy nation” as Prefectural Governor of Kyoto. It makes no sense at all that he is not more respected in both his hometown of Kagoshima and indeed, in the whole of Japan.

I think the two lads who joined the other Satsuma students, Takami Yaichi and Hori Takayuki, need a place on the Satsuma Students’ Monument, but perhaps more than that, Nakai Hiromu needs a statue in Kagoshima. And, the statue of him in Kyoto needs to be better looked after.

Attack on Ryoma at Teradaya

Sakamoto Ryoma (1835-1867) was a major troublemaker for the Bakufu government authorities. It was because of him and his fellow Tosa samurai, Nakaoka Shintarô (1838-1867), that the domains of Satsuma (present-day Kagoshima prefecture) and Choshu (present-day Yamaguchi prefecture) were able to form the Satsuma-Choshu Alliance in order to work together against the Bakufu authorities. The Bakufu knew about Ryoma’s activities and he was therefore on their “wanted” list.

The year was 1866 (Keio 2). The Satsuma-Choshu Alliance had finally been consolidated on March 7th (Gregorian calendar) and two days later on March 9th Sakamoto Ryoma and the Choshu samurai Miyoshi Shinzô (1831-1901) were staying the night at the Teradaya Inn in Fushimi to the south of Kyoto.

Ryoma had just gotten out of the bath and was only half dressed when  he and Shinzô were attacked at 3am on the morning of the 10th. Ryoma fired a few shots with his Smith & Weston, but one of the attackers came at him with a sword and sliced at Ryoma’s gun-welding hand cutting him across his thumb.

Ryoma shouted to Shinzô telling him to escape and the two of them dashed through the back of the house smashing into the house behind and out into the road on the other side. They ran to a log store house on the banks of the nearby canal. There they waited until dawn discussing their options, even considering committing suicide before falling into enemy hands. But Ryoma told Shinzô that he should make a run for it and try to get to the Satsuma domain house which was only a few blocks away. Shinzô agreed and off he went to get help. Ryoma’s hand was badly injured. He also happened to be suffering from a cold. Wearing only his undergarments in the freezing cold night air he did not have enough strength to run for it, so he waited at the log storehouse for Shinzô’s return.

Shinzô managed to get to the Satsuma house where he found Oryo, Ryoma’s wife had already arrived (she too had had to escape from Teradaya where she worked). Too weak to take the Satsuma men to where Ryoma was Shinzô told them of Ryoma’s whereabouts and Oryo went with a couple of men to find Ryoma and take him back to the safety of the Satsuma house.

On the evening of March 9th, I took the last train to Fushimi-Momoyama just after midnight. I had a few hours wait until the 3am rendevous outside the Teradaya Inn, so I dropped into a nice little cafe, which just happened to be open until 3am. Nice! I sat in the cafe reading about the Satsuma students who went to Britain in 1865 while I sipped a hot coffee to keep me awake until it was time to go.

There were six of us. Nakamura Takeo sensei guided us from Teradaya Inn and we followed the escape route of Ryoma and Shinzô. We got to the canal. It was pretty cold and I guess it must have been colder in Ryoma’s day because global warming wasn’t such an issue then; plus, I was fully dressed and only suffering with a bit of hayfever unlike Ryoma who was just in his underwear and bleeding profusely from his cut hand. I tried to imagine how it must have been for Ryoma while he waited for some of the Satsuma men to come to his rescue. From the canal we followed the route that Shinzô was said to have taken. Nakamura-sensei had given us photocopies of an old map from the Tenpo period (1830-1844) which showed how the roads had been. Some parts were different of course; most notably the section of road which had never existed in Ryoma’s time where later in 1895 Japan’s first electric tramway was installed.

We had a wonderful guide. It was a fairly cold night, but the moon was looking glorious, and I wondered if Ryoma had been able to see such a glorious moon that night too. Nakamura-sensei reminded me that Ryoma probably hadn’t been much in the mood for gazing at the moon; he had more critical things on his mind at the time! Actually going to see the places where history happened is always a moving thing, but going there on the exact day at the exact time (albeit another year) is even more exciting! Thanks to Nakamura-sensei and the Ryoma Company team for organising such a fun event. Despite feeling very sleepy all the following day, on the 10th (in fact I think I still haven’t quite recovered!) I had a very enjoyable and learning experience!

A VERY special event

At last, Nakai Hiromu is to get a commemorative stone in Kyoto!

On March 29th 2009 at one o’ clock in the afternoon in Kiyamachi Street、just south of Sanjo St., the unveiling ceremony will take place.

The stone will be placed somewhere outside the bar ‘Ryoma’ in Kiyamachi Street. It marks the spot where Nakai Hiromu lived for a short time during the end of the Bakumatsu period. Why bother telling the world that? Well, the stone will also mark the spot where Ryoma’s wife Oryo lived before she was married to Ryoma, so it is kind of killing two birds with one stone (excuse the pun) so to speak.

Incidentally, the event will also mark the 2nd anniversary of the Ryoma bar, so the day is going to be a full one, which I am rather looking forward to! If you are in Kyoto and not busy, please come out to see it!