The Diaries and Letters of Sir Ernest Satow [Chapter 3 Japan (1870-1883)]

Chapter 3 – Japan 1870-1883
00:00 Intro
01:00 Start of Chapter 3
07:43 1870-1871
19:21 1872
21:42 1873
26:03 1874
27:38 1875
31:01 1876
35:02 1877
47:21 1878
1:00:44 1879
1:10:25 1880
1:18:20 1881
1:27:53 1882
1:42:24 1883
1:44:17 Outro

#sirernestsatow
#ernestmasonsatow
#アーネストサトウ
#アーネスト・サトウ

Hello friends! About a year ago I started  reading from my book about Sir Ernest Satow   that’s me actually let’s show you the the  front cover there we are The Diaries and Letters   of Sir Ernest Mason Satow which was published  back in 1998 of all things and since then  

I don’t think anybody has actually yet written  a biography of Satow although I believe that there   might be at least one in the works. Anyway  now I have a slightly better camera    and I’ve got Satow behind me on the wall up here  so he’s he’s backing my efforts so I think  

I will uh continue with my reading of the book  from where I left off before which was the   end of chapter two. So Chapter Three Japan  1870 to 1883 Satow’s first six and a half years  

In Japan were undoubtedly the most exciting years  of his life (that’s 1862 to 69). In a letter to his   friend FV Dickins that’s Frederick Victor Dickins  from the British legation in Tangier dated 2nd of   November 1893 which is in chapter 4 Satow  wrote “those years from 62 to 69 were the  

Most interesting portion of my life. Then I lived  now, I seem to vegetate.” Although the years from   1870 to 1883 were generally an anticlimax after  the heady drama of the preceding period and all of   Satow’s subsequent distinguished career tends to be  obscured by the fame of ‘A Diplomat in Japan’ it was  

During these years that Satow built his reputation  as a pioneer japanologist. He attained the position   of the leading European expert on the language and  literature of Japan. At the same time Satow played a   significant part in the political and social  developments that took place in Japan during  

Those years. One of the most important aspects  of this period was the rivalry between Japan   and China over Korea and Okinawa and the topic of  Korea frequently recurs in Satow’s Diaries. While we   may doubt if indeed the Japanese looked on [Sir Harry] Parkes  throughout this time as their guide philosopher  

And friend we may agree with Bernard M Allen  that Satow served as an acceptable channel   of communication with the representatives of the  proud and sensitive Japanese. Bernard Allen was a   a family relation actually. He wrote a monograph  of Satow in I think 1933. WG Aston William George  

Aston 1841 to 1911 William George Aston arrived  in Japan in 1864 two years after Satow. He had   studied at the Queen’s University Belfast and had  entered the consular service by the competitive   examination following in Satow’s footsteps. He served  first as a student interpreter and interpreter  

Later as Consul in Hyogo (Kobe) and as secretary  to the legation in Tokyo. Unlike Satow he was a   japanologist first and foremost producing an  English translation of The Nihongi Chronicles   of Japan from the earliest times to AD 697 in  1896 and authoring the first English language  

Grammar of spoken and written Japanese. He also  wrote a history of Japanese literature (1889) and   Shinto (1905). He retired early owing to ill health  in 1889 and went to live at the Village of Beer   near Sidmouth on the south coast of England.  (That’s beer spelled as in the drink.) A friend  

Of Satow’s for many years he died in 1911. The  Public Record Office [National Archives] at kew contains the Satow   Papers. A number of letters to but surprisingly  none from Aston are included. One of particular   interest from Satow’s first period of leave 1869 to  70 is addressed to Aston then assistant Japanese  

Secretary on the legation staff in Tokyo. Satow  wrote on the 14th of June 1870 that he would   leave Marseilles France on the 2nd of October and would  arrive in Yokohama in the middle of November. He   felt that he was being unfair on the legation and  Aston in particular in extending his leave but  

He had found it hard to tear himself away from  European life and his parents had been anxious   for him to stay a few months longer. He concluded  ‘I quite share your feeling of disgust with Japan.  

For at least a year before I left I had ceased  to take any interest in the work the natives   may be making progress there but we foreigners  only fall back I think. The railway scheme and  

The loan will I am afraid be a damned nuisance  to the legation.’ it seems surprising that Satow or   Aston should be thinking in terms of disgust with  Japan yet Satow’s relationship with the country was   perhaps after all one of love and hate. Love of  the people, language and culture and hate of the  

Drudgery especially clerical work copying being  considered the best way to understand current   issues that Parkes forced on him daily. Here we  see too that he was at heart still a lover of   European life rather than a japanized foreigner.  This may be one of the reasons why he did not  

Wish to return to Japan during the long years of  his retirement in England (quite apart from the   distance of course). The Railway Scheme The railway  scheme essential to Japan’s modernization and the   loan to which Satow referred were initiated  when the Dajokan that’s the Grand Council  

Of State, forerunner of the cabinet system which  began in 1885, set up by the young Emperor under   the charter oath proclaimed on the 6th of April  1868 decided in November 1869 to follow Parkes’s   advice that the government itself should build and  manage railways and plan the construction  

Of an extensive system eventually connecting Edo  with Osaka and with northern and western Japan.   (still calling it Edo at this stage) Richard  Henry Brunton the Scottish engineer recommended   that a pilot railroad be built between Edo and  Yokohama. His advice was accepted however the  

Funds were lacking so Date Muneki the Minister of  Finance Okuma Shigenobu the vice Minister and Ito   Hirobumi assistant Vice Minister were appointed  to negotiate for a loan from England and to take   charge of the railway work. In December 1869 the  patriotically named but suspect Horatio Nelson Lay  

CB a former British government employee in  China who was introduced by Parkes contracted   to provide the Japanese government by the 31st  of July 1870 with a loan of 1 million pounds. However at   the same time he drew up another document by  which he was appointed commissioner for the  

Japanese government to raise the loan. This double  position was questioned by Parkes in writing to the   foreign secretary Lord Clarendon and led to the  Meiji government cancelling Lay’s commission on   the 29th of June 1870 (gosh misprint there)  and appointing the Oriental Bank Corporation in  

London in his stead in September 1872. The section  of railway between Edo and Yokohama was officially   opened by the Emperor. In July 1870 work began on  the 20 miles between Osaka and Kobe and finished   in November 1873. The Kyoto-Osaka line was  officially opened by the Emperor in February

1877. 1870 to 71 The Ainu In July 1870 four years  after the publication of Eikoku Sakuron Satow   ventured into print once more. His topic was a much  safer one as his position as Japanese secretary   required him to study Japan deeply. He wrote on  ‘The Ainos of Yezo’. Yezo now written Ezo  

Was the old name for Hokkaido. The article took up  two pages in a journal called The Phoenix edited   by James Summers who had taught Chinese to Satow  prior to Satow’s departure for the Far East in 1861  

In it Satow described the location of Ainu Villages  the dress and appearance of Ainu men and women and   a short vocabulary list. Satow had in fact first  visited Ezo in October 1865. He had recorded in  

His diary a trip to Otosube where he found an Ainu. Satow  wrote that he ‘commenced to gut him of words   and phrases in his own tongue’ but he had been  prevented from studying his subject by the Ainu’s  

Master who feared that Satow was trying to displace  him. The equation of Ainu and fish is dehumanizing   and again young Satow’s coolness is shown here. Satow  visited an Ainu village of perhaps half a dozen   huts and commented on both sexes. ‘The women’ he  noted ‘are extremely ugly. They tattoo around the  

Mouth so that it looks four times its real size.  Their hair is dirty unkempt and hangs in loose   masses over their shoulders or is tied up with a  filthy rag.’ On the other hand of the men he wrote  

That they were ‘handsome or rather have a striking  appearance to people who admire beards and   moustaches.’ He sketched two older men with a pencil.  Most of them spoke Japanese but among themselves   they used their native tongue. (Satow himself had a  moustache for most of his life.) Return to Japan  

Satow returned to Japan in December 1870. He resumed  his diary on the 7th of December but there is   little of Interest until October of the following  year. Parkes left for England in May 1871 leaving   legation secretary Francis Ottiwell Adams in Japan  1868 to 72 author of ‘The history of Japan’ (1875) as  

Charge d’affaires. This accounts for the more relaxed tone  in the diaries, yet a letter from Satow’s father at   Sidmouth dated 25th of May 1871 asked anxiously  ‘will you not have to work harder still when the   chief is gone? Your position will be to a certain  extent more independent but also entail greater

Responsibility.’ Satow, Adams and a visiting Austrian  Diplomat Baron Josef Alexander Graf von Huebner   dined with the new foreign minister Iwakura Tomomi  on the 11th of September 1871. Adams expressed   surprise at the sudden change of Han (clans)  into Ken (prefectures). Iwakura explained that it  

Was the desire of the leaders to consolidate the  government, adding that the old daimyo would not be   reappointed as prefectural Governors lest things remain  the same as before. On the 6th of October Satow went   to call on Kido and had a conversation about the  changes in the government. Kido Koin also known as  

Kido Takayoshi was one of the three heroes of the  Meiji Restoration with Saigo Takamori and Okubo   Toshimichi of Satsuma. Following the restoration  of Imperial rule Kido became the chief Choshu   spokesman in the new government, itself largely  a creation of the alliance between Satsuma and  

Choshu what in Japanese is called the ‘SatCho domei’. He had  directed the surrender of domain registers in 1869   and worked successfully for the abolition of domains and establishment of   prefectures in 1871. Satow learned from Kido  that no Parliament was planned but a council  

Was to be nominated by the Emperor. Three days later  a young scholar of Chinese called on Satow. His   name was Hattori Kinju. He was the son of Daisanji  of Amagasaki anxious to study European learning   in the proper way. The interview terminated  abruptly when the ‘impertinent young wretch’  

Asked Satow if he had a mekake (mistress). Satow is  clearly sensitive to this question. It seems   quite possible that he had by this time been  living with Takeda Kane for a number of years   and a daughter was apparently born in 1872 who  only lived for about a year. The Iwakura mission  

On the 24th of October Satow went to breakfast  with Iwakura Tomomi by invitation. iwakura was   a court noble (a kuge) who had played an important  part in the Meiji Restoration. with Okubo Toshimichi and   Saigo Takamori he had engineered the seizure of the  Imperial Palace on the third of January 1868 and  

He was largely responsible for the charter oath  and the establishment of the prefectural system.   Soon after his appointment in 1871 as minister  of the right (Udaijin) he led a major mission abroad   to discuss revision of the unequal treaties  and examine Western society closely. The Iwakura  

Mission December 1871 to September 1873 was the  most important and largest of all the Japanese   missions sent to Western countries between the  end of the Edo period and the beginning of the   Meiji era, that is between 1860 and 1873. It was  the first diplomatic Mission abroad since the  

Meiji Restoration, the first Japanese Mission  designed according to Western diplomatic   principles and perhaps the first mission in world  history to include such a large proportion of the   country’s leadership. The aims of the mission’s  members were to achieve recognition for the new  

Imperial regime, to initiate a renegotiation of the  treaties which had been signed with foreign powers   or at least to find out the reforms necessary as  preconditions for renegotiation, and to judge for   themselves the achievements of Western societies  with a view to adopting those parts of value to

Japan. Iwakura said to Satow that the change from  Han (clans) into Ken (prefectures) had not    at first seemed possible for 50 years  at least but the opportunity to effect the   transition bloodlessly had presented itself. He  commented on Parkes that his aggressive stance  

And violent temper sadly often worked against his  sincere and friendly advice. Satow had heard similar   remarks before. Iwakura also hinted  to Satow that he might invite him to join the   Japanese government service (i.e. join the mission  as an escort) but Satow answered Iwakura’s questions in  

A way that left no room for doubt that he was not  prepared to consider such a move. In November 1871   a second article by Satow appeared in The Phoenix.  It was a translated extract from ‘The history of  

Taikosama’ Taikosama was a title of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. It  covered two pages and was entitled ‘The armies of   Mikadzuki and Mowori (Mori in fact) unite to attack  Danidaizen’s fort. (Mori is written m o w o r  

I but this was Satow’s special romanization of the  long o so we would say Mori now.) uh Meanwhile   Satow was enjoying visits to the races .On the  5th of November he went to the Shokonsha temple  

With charge d’affaires Adams and Wirgman. They got seats in  Kido’s box. On the 26th of November Satow recorded   in his diary that he and Adams dined with  Iwakura and discussed the Iwakura Mission again.   They learned that Ito and Yamaguchi Naoyoshi (1839  to 1894) were to accompany Kido and Okubo as Vice  

Ambassadors. After the Meiji Restoration Ito Hirobumi  was appointed San’yo which is junior counselor with   responsibility for foreign affairs. In 1870  he went to the United States to study Western   currency systems. Returning to Japan in 1871 he  was made director of the tax division and then  

Vice minister of Public Works. (Of course later he  became prime minister.) On the 14th of December Satow   went to Yokohama to help Awa no Kami the former Daimyo  of Tokushima and his wife whom he had first met  

In 1867 to choose Western clothes. They were going  to be in England for several years. On the 17th of   December Ito sent Satow an unusual document written  by a member of the Tokugawa Clan pretending to   be a foreigner. It called on the Emperor to be  baptized and become the head of the Christian  

Religion in Japan. Japanese Christianity On the  30th of November Satow had dined with Kido who   had expressed great respect for Christianity  and said he supported its introduction or at   least permitting its practice in Japan. ‘Someone has  addressed a memorial to the Mikado on the  

Subject, nominally a memorial from a foreigner.’ In  1865 Catholic missionaries under Monseigneur Bernard Petitjean   dedicated a church in Nagasaki French Settlement  and a group of Japanese publicly identified   themselves as Christians. Soon various communities  of ‘kakure Krishtan’ or hidden Christians were  

Discovered in Kyushu. Located in remote areas these  communities had preserved their religion in secret   for more than two centuries. Of approximately  60,000 Kakure Krishtan discovered at that time only   about half chose to return to the reintroduced  church. The anti-christian laws were still in  

Effect and many of the discovered Christians were  jailed or exiled to other parts of the country. In   1867 the refusal of some Christians in Urakami now  a suburb of Nagasaki to summon Buddhist priests to   their funeral services led to persecution. After  the Meiji Restoration the Christians were harassed  

For refusing to practice Shinto rites. In January  1870 as many as 2,810 Believers in Urakami were   shipped to other provinces. This triggered protests  by the representatives of Great Britain France   the United States and the Netherlands. This  was the fourth and most extensive persecution of  

Christians in Urakami. In the first 1790 to 95 and  the second 1842 no one was executed but 10 died under   torture in the third in 1859. In the fourth  ‘kuzure’ literally disintegration conducted between   1867 and 1873 a total of 3,404 were deported  from Urakami and no fewer than 660 died in  

Exile. It was only on the 14th of March 1873 after  various protests had been delivered by Western   governments to the Iwakura mission, notably that  of the Council of the Evangelical Alliance   headed by Lord Ebury in London on the 10th of  December 1872 that the Meiji government withdrew  

Religious sanctions and allowed the Exiles to  return, although freedom of religion was not   specifically granted. Even the 1889 constitution  of the Empire of Japan guaranteed only qualified   religious freedom within limits not prejudicial to  peace and not antagonistic to duties as a citizen  

1872 Travels The first diary entry for 1872 was  on the 17th of January. Satow wrote that he traveled   with the charge d’affaires Adams by the Koshu Kaido one  of the five main highways from Edo. He   noted that there were new milestones on the road  and ‘signs of reorganization of the system under  

Which the peasants are retained in poverty and  consequent brutality. Truly their dwellings are   wretched. The wind has free course through most of  them.’ The next day Adams and Satow left Fuchu with Mount   Fuji appearing before them as they reached the  outskirts. On 22nd of January Satow recorded that it  

Was so cold during the night that the ink froze in  Adams’s ink pot. The rest of the year saw Satow undertake   various travels. On March the 13th he writes that  he left for Nikko with Adams Charles Wirgman and Punch.  

Punch was probably the name of his dog it will  be recalled that he had lost a dog of that name   in the great fire at Yokohama in 1866. The Asiatic  Society of Japan On the scholastic front October   saw the formal founding of the pioneering Asiatic  Society of Japan whose founders were mainly  

British and American. Its aims were to be the  collection of information and the investigation   of subjects relating to Japan and other countries.  Most of the members from the start were diplomats,   missionaries and teachers. Treaty port merchants  tended not to join as they regarded it as too  

Highbrow for them. The society which continues to meet  regularly in Tokyo to this day is still a valuable   conduit for Japanese studies within Japan. Satow  later to be president of the society from 1895   to 1900 read a paper at the first meeting on  October the 30th entitled ‘Notes on Loochoo’ which  

Became the opening article in volume one of the  Journal of the society called Transactions of the   Asiatic Society of Japan. Satow’s paper described  the history and geography of Loochoo which is Ryukyu   modern day Okinawa. He included accounts of the  customs, temperament and language of the Loochooans or  

Ryukyuans as we would say the Okinawans. 1873 Parkes returned  to Japan from England at the end of April. It may   be no coincidence that 1873 was a very active year  for Satow as a japanologist. Satow was encouraged to  

Research into a variety of Japanese subjects by  Parkes as it was a vital part of his information   gathering duties and he probably felt that  publication was something to show for his   relative inactivity while Parkes was away. On the  22nd of March Satow read ‘The Geography of  

Japan’ before the Asiatic Society. It sought to  correct certain basic errors in Dr Cornwell’s   school geography including the divisions of the  provinces of Japan and the names of the main   rivers and mountains. He published two translations  from Japanese to English ‘Kaikoku Shidan’ a history  

Of Japan from Perry’s first visit in 1853 to 1864  and ‘Kinsei shiriaku’ a history of modern times from   1853 to 1869. Satow also finally finally published  ‘Kwaiwa hen’ the language textbook he had first begun   in the 1860s to help Mitford to learn Japanese. (Mitford and others) Debate about punishing Korea  

(the ‘Seikanron’ as it’s called in Japanese) On  the 26th of October 1873 Satow noted in his diary   that Council ministers Soejima Taneomi, Saigo Takamori,  Goto Shojiro, Eto Shinpei and Itagaki Taisuke had resigned from   the government on the question of a war against  Korea which they had strongly promoted. Okuma Shigenobu and  

Okubo Toshimichi remained and new members were  added Katsu Awa no Kami better known as Katsu Kaishu   one of the pro Tokugawa founders of the  Japanese navy as Minister of Marine Terashima   Munenori as Minister for foreign affairs and  Ito Hirobumi as Minister of Works. It had been  

Soejima’s plan to invade Korea with 50,000 troops,  a plan to which Iwakura had been strongly opposed.   For the moment the idea had been shelved as well  as the plan to send troops to Taiwan. Here Satow   was touching on the Seikanron debate over whether  Japan should send a punitive expedition to Korea  

An issue that divided the Japanese government in  1873. The new Meiji government sought to reorganize   relations with Korea. That country however had  long been a Confucian tributary state of China.   This meant merely that presents were exchanged  as a ritual between the two countries. Korea  

Nonetheless regarded the Japanese overture as  an attempt by Japan to arrogate China’s   rank in the Confucian hierarchy. Accordingly the  Koreans responded negatively and the   Japanese thought insultingly. Negotiations at  Pusan (or Busan sometimes we say) proved fruitless   and the idea of punishing Korea arose in Japan.  However many key members of the Meiji government  

Were absent from Japan on the Iwakura Mission  and it had been agreed that no large projects   would be undertaken until their return. Meanwhile  the caretaker government at home which included   Saigo, Itagaki and foreign minister Soejima decided  to pursue the Korean issue independently. In August  

Saigo obtained approval from the Dajokan, the  Council of State, to go as an ambassador to   Korea and provoke war if a settlement could not  be reached. But the president of the council Sanjo   Sanetomi brought back to the council the Imperial  decision that the young Emperor wished to defer  

The matter until after the return of Iwakura. Iwakura  Tomomi returned in September determined to counter   Saigo’s plans. He had Okubo Toshimichi who had  accompanied him on the mission to the West   appointed to the Council of State and it was Okubo who  took the lead in the argument against Saigo and  

His supporters. The debate was so intense that  Sanjo suffered a breakdown and Iwakura assumed   the council presidency. He announced that he would  not permit the emperor to approve the appointment   of Saigo to Korea and force the resignations of  all the pro-war counselors. Saigo left Tokyo in a  

Fury and returned to his own base in Satsuma (now  kagoshima prefecture). As pro-war and other samurai   dissidents gathered there he gradually emerged as  the leader of the anti-government movement that   was to culminate in the Satsuma rebellion of 1877.  1874 On 18th of February 1874 Satow read a paper  

Entitled ‘The Shintau temples of Ise’ to the Asiatic  Society. (He’s spelling Shinto s h i n t a u at   this time.) He described the shrines in detail  giving precious [precise] measurements and etymologies.   His diary is however silent until the 24th of  September when he records that he went to Nikko.  

Was Parkes making his life a misery during this  time? It is hard to say but the absence of entries   suggests that Satow did not have much fun or any  interesting topics to write about in this period.  

He was probably working too hard. Troops to Taiwan  (the so-called Taiwan Shuppei in Japanese) In May 1874   the Japanese government sent more than 3,000 men  led by Saigo Tsugumichi a younger brother of Saigo   Takamori to Southwestern Taiwan. This was a  punitive expedition using as a pretext the murder  

Of 54 Shipwrecked Ryukyu (Okinawan) islanders by  Taiwanese aborigines in December 1871. The ulterior   aims were to force Chinese acknowledgement of  Japanese claims of sovereignty over the Ryukyu   Islands (the Loochoo islands) and gain a foothold  in Taiwan. After meeting fierce resistance from the  

Taiwanese the Japanese forces withdrew but China  agreed to pay an Indemnity of 500,000 Taels t a  e l s the currency and thus tacitly acknowledge  Japanese suzerainty over the Ryukyu Islands. 1875 In   1875 Satow’s ‘Revival of Pure Shintau’ was published as  an appendix to volume three of the Transactions  

Of the Asiatic Society of Japan. He also  wrote a guide book to Nikko which was published   at the Japan Mail office. Satow returned to England  on leave early in 1875 and wrote again to Aston   from the parental home in Upper Clapton on the  16th of May. He was beginning law studies which  

He described as ‘a tremendous undertaking’ for  which the Foreign Office had expressed little   or no support, refusing to give the necessary  study leave. Yet Satow himself was not prepared   to devote all his leave to law studies especially  as there was little advantage to be gained in his  

Diplomatic career by becoming a barrister. After a  term of Roman law and jurisprudence he planned   to go to mainland Europe for a holiday from  the beginning of August to the end of October. In   the same letter he mentioned that Willis had not  yet arrived back in England and Satow was worried  

That he had perhaps been persuaded to continue  his work in a hospital in Kagoshima. Why was Satow   beginning law studies? It will be recalled that his  father had wanted him to come home and study the   law in the 1860s yet Satow seems to have been  attracted to law as an academic discipline of  

More than passing relevance to his work rather  than as a new career. It would not help him to   gain promotion in his diplomatic career, but in  retirement was to open up a second career as a   published authority on international law and  diplomacy. A second letter to Aston followed  

Less than a month later in which Satow thanked him  for a bill of lading for a Koto (that’s a Japanese   zither) which he planned to present to the British  Museum. Willis had still not appeared in England  

And it was feared that he had broken his collarbone.  Satow was impatient about the printing of his   English Japanese dictionary which he feared would  take a year, and was looking forward to finishing  

His law lectures at the end of June. He planned to  go to the family home in Sidmouth [Devon] for two weeks   then go to San Moritz in the Engadine to drink the  spa waters. From there he would visit Italy before  

Returning to England at the end of October. Satow  had considered European travel to be impossible   as long as he opted for a career in Japan, yet he  was able to make effective use of his extended   periods of leave to travel in Europe. Drinking the  waters in Europe was a popular pastime for  

The Victorian gentry. 23rd of July is the first  entry in Satow’s diary for 1875. He left Cannon   Street Station by the mail train and took the  ferry to Ostend which he reached just before 4   a.m. He spent the next three months touring mainly  in Italy as planned, returning home to Clapton on  

The 4th of November. On the 6th of November Satow  enjoyed the novel sensation of roller skating for   the first time. He went to the rink at the Old Deer  Park in Richmond. The sensation was quite different from   ice skating but he soon mastered the technique.  He also went to various classical concerts and  

A performance of Rip Van Winkle at the Princess  Theatre. He thought the acting was excellent but   found the story incredible. ‘One might as well try  to turn Jack [and] the Beanstalk or any other nursery   tale into a serious drama’ is what he wrote. On the  13th of December Satow started with his sister  

Augusta for San Remo in Italy near the border with  Monaco, returning to Clapton on the 6th of January. 1876. 1876 Satow was on leave throughout that year.  The first edition of his dictionary written with   Ishibashi Masakata of the Japanese foreign ministry  and entitled ‘An English-Japanese dictionary of the  

Spoken language’ was published in January. He also  attended lectures for three months in the summer   on the history of Roman law at the University  of Marburg in Germany. His talent for languages   was such that lectures in German presented  no great difficulty. Second Secretary On the  

1st of September Satow noted in his diary that he  had returned to Clapton. He went to the Foreign   Office and wrote a letter of thanks to the foreign  secretary Lord Derby for granting him the local  

Rank of second secretary which Satow did not in  fact consider of any value, but he had also written   to Sir Philip Currie from Marburg to express his  appreciation. Currie had recommended that Mayers the   Chinese secretary in Peking and Satow the Japanese  secretary should should be made local second  

Secretaries, thus entitling them to the social  position and uniform of diplomatists, that is   members of the Diplomatic service so long as they  held their posts, but that they should have no rank   or claim to promotion in the Diplomatic service.  Lord Derby concurred and when Wade the minister  

In China tried one last time to put in a good  word for Mayers, Tenterden the permanent   under secretary, retorted that ‘it would never do  to hold out hopes to Mr Mayers of succeeding Sir   Thomas Wade for which in my opinion he would be  quite unfit.’ Satow was regarded as equally unfit to  

Succeed Parkes at this point. A copy of Lord Derby’s  letter to Parks dated 2nd of August 1876 clarifies   Satow’s rank of second secretary at Her Majesty’s  legation in Edo and is a model of foreign office   caution. The local rank was to run concurrently  with the Japanese secretaryship and would cease  

When Satow gave that up. The rank. was given to  Satow in recognition of his achievements and his   successor was to be allowed no claim to the same  privilege. On the 3rd of September Satow went out to  

Dinner but fell ill during the evening. He had to  send for a doctor who told him he was suffering   from nervous exhaustion. Satow thought that this  was due to the hot summer days he   had endured in Marburg. On the 13th of September  Satow went to the Foreign Office where he had dinner  

With Sir Philip Currie and talked about Japan. Currie  seemed to think that considerate treatment and   some small concessions now and again would help  to convince the Japanese that the British were   their friends. Satow gave his opinion that Parkes  was too unpopular with the Japanese to carry  

Out this policy. ‘He asked me too if I could not do  it if I were Minister but I replied simply that I   thought it could be done.’ Satow here seems to show  reticence with regard to putting himself forward  

For promotion. Why did he dodge the question? Maybe  he lacked confidence or felt that his speaking ill   of his superior Parkes would tell against him at  the Foreign Office. It seems more likely that he  

Felt it was improper to be regarded as ambitious  or pushing for promotion. As he wrote in 1893 to a   junior official the Foreign Office disliked men  who made too many demands, and patience was the

Key. french: ‘Tout vient a qui sait attendre.’ (‘Everything comes to he who waits.’)   The discussion with Currie turned to whether hope   could should be held out to the Japanese  of someday obtaining colonial jurisdiction   over Korea. Satow said that even if Britain was  resolved never to agree to it, such an impression  

Should not be conveyed but in the fullness of time  jurisdiction would be conceded anyway. He thought   that the Japanese would benefit greatly from  seeing courts organized on civilized principles   administering a civilized code. The present piecemeal system was one by which some nations dispensed  

Justice according to their own laws while other  nations had no Consular courts and no justice.   Currie agreed, citing the example of Egypt where a  civil code had been drawn up for application to   all foreigners while criminal jurisdiction had  been retained in the hands of the the foreign

Consuls. 1877 Satow returned to Japan early in 1877  arriving at Nagasaki on the 28th of January. On   the 3rd of February he proceeded to Kagoshima  where he was reunited with Willis and on the   7th he visited the Korean Potters at Tsuboya, a  village near Kagoshima. All the inhabitants of the  

Village were potters and peasants descended from  Koreans brought to Japan in 1598 by one Ijuin whose   relations still lived at Kagoshima. (Indeed they  probably still do.) Satow learned how they came to   Satsuma. Over 200 years previously. some Japanese  went hunting tigers in Korea as related in the  

Book ‘Tora gari’ (Tiger Hunt). A number of Koreans  got mixed up in the train of the great Japanese   and were carried along with them on their return  to Japan. In fact they were taken back as prisoners  

As were as were others who settled at this time in  Hagi on the Japan Sea Coast of Honshu and Karatsu in   Kyushu. All three areas retain strong traditions of  pottery making to this day. The Satsuma Rebellion. On  

The 8th of February there was talk of the Satsuma  Rebellion. A young doctor came to dinner with   Satow and Willis. Satow recorded in his diary that  he talked freely about events and   confirmed previous reports. Saigo Takamori and  his close friend and follower Kirino Toshiaki  

Had written a letter to Oyama Tsuneyoshi, an old friend of  Saigo and Kagoshima’s first prefectural governor   (kenrei) to say that they were going to Edo with  15,000 men. They planned to ask the government some   questions and had requested Oyama to inform  the authorities of the various prefectures  

Through which they would pass in order to avoid  civil unrest. A plot to murder Saigo had been   discovered, initiated from Edo and three would-be assassins had been arrested. On   the 11th of February Saigo came to see Willis. He said  that everything had been prepared for a long time.  

It had begun four years ago when Saigo returned  to Kagoshima from Edo. The Satsuma men were ready to   leave on the 15th of February, the anniversary of  the battle of Fushimi in 1868. Satow felt that it was  

Very unlikely that Kawaji the chief Commissioner  of police at Edo should have decided on his own   that Saigo should be assassinated. He suspected  that the cabinet was more or less responsible for the plot. On the 15th of February Saigo’s troops  began to move as planned. Two days later Satow  

Noted that Saigo and his bodyguard embarked in  boats and were towed up to Kajiki by the little   steamer Kagoshima Maru. ‘Willis who went to see  him start says he wore his full dress uniform of   a general in the Japanese Army and was smoking a  foreign cigar.’ Satow left Kagoshima on the 19th of  

February reaching Osaka on the 4th of March. on  the 9th of March he dined with Parkes and Iwakura.   The latter was ‘most curious’ to find out everything  Satow knew about events in Kagoshima. Satow told him   that the rebels had behaved in an orderly  fashion both in Kagoshima and when on the march.  

This surprised Iwakura greatly. Frederick Victor  Dickins. FV Dickins 1838 to 1915 Frederick Victor   Dickins was a lawyer who had arrived in Japan  as a British naval surgeon in 1863 and had met   Satow at that time. He was an important member  of the Yokohama community and a keen amateur  

Botanist. He contributed to Satow and Hawes’s Handbook  for Travelers in Central and Northern Japan (first   edition 1881) and accompanied Satow to Hachijo in  1878. However he had a breakdown that summer   and returned to England where he first assumed a  legal career. He later wrote a biography of Parkes  

With Stanley Lane-Poole ‘Life of Sir Harry Parkes’ two volumes, Macmillan 1894 and became registrar of   the new London University in 1896. In retirement  he taught Japanese part-time at the University of   Bristol where he was appointed reader in Japanese  in 1911. He delivered several public lectures in  

Bristol on Japanese history. Satow corresponded with  Dickins over many years until the latter’s death   in 1915 and some of the letters are contained in  the Satow papers at Kew. They are the most valuable   source for Satow’s personal views apart from Satow’s  diaries (and I have put them in a separate book  

Together with Satow’s letters to  Aston.) On the 21st of March Satow wrote to Dickins   from Yedo as the British legation following Parkes  still called Tokyo after returning there from his   leave in England, thanking him for his kind welcome  back and expressing the hope that they they would  

Be able to meet more often than before. ‘There  will I hope be many subjects in which we can   take a common interest. After all with some aim to  work for Japan is not an intolerable place   to live in. Pleasures are fewer than at  home but there are more opportunities for doing  

Useful work. I expect to be in Yokohama in a day or  two and will come to see you at your office.’ On the   28th of March Satow called on Miyamoto Okazu at the  Japanese foreign office. Miyamoto had  

Been to Korea twice in the previous year but had seen very little as the Koreans would not let   either him or his attendants go out except for  ceremon occasions. The next day Satow learned from   Terashima at the foreign office that a number of men  from Hyuga in northeastern Miyazaki prefecture (Kyushu) had  

Joined the Satsuma forces at Kumamoto and that the  imperial forces were not advancing with the speed   and ease which they had expected. On the same  day he noted that red pyus japonica was in flower   in his garden and in the evening he played the  Rondo finale of the German composer Louis Spohr’s  

Quartet in G minor with Mrs Aston. Satow was a talented  pianist. On the 4th of April Satow wrote that the   Japanese foreign office was denying that Kumamoto had  fallen to the Satsuma rebels while admitting that   a minor Insurrection had taken place near Fukuoka.  And a week later he wrote that the government  

On April 5th had ordered 10,000 samurai to be   recruited by levy, a sign of desperation he thought.   On the 2nd of July Satow noted that he went down  to Yokohama on his birthday the 30th of June ‘to  

Stop over Sunday with the Dickins and enjoyed  the change immensely.’ Five days later there was a   farewell dinner for Willis at the Grand Hotel with  about 50 men present. Dr Hepburn proposed Satow’s health   as being a long-term resident and possessing a  greater knowledge of the Japanese people than  

Anyone else. (That’ll be Dr James Hepburn.) On the 19th of  July there was a large meeting of the Council of   the Asiatic Society at the [British] Legation with dinner  afterwards. On the 11th of July Satow wrote again  

From Edo to Dickins. He thanked Dickins for  his corrections to a list of plants. He concluded   ‘the enclosed list contains several works  in which the Chinese characters have no kana  written at their sides. I think it is especially  for this class of books and  

For all newspapers, proclamations and letters  that the kind of dictionary which we propose   is intended. A student coming across 時雨　”jisame” (toki  and ame) in reading   by himself would take a long time to find that it  meant “shigure” a drizzle or rain shower. So that we  

Ought to insert all of that sort.’ On the 23rd of  July Satow set off with Dickins for Suyama. On the   22nd of August Satow wrote of great successes for  the Imperial forces. Nobeoka in Miyazaki prefecture   had been taken on the 18th and several thousand  insurgents had surrendered. Saigo, Kirino and a  

Few hundred picked men had fled westwards. At  last on the 3rd of October Satow noted the end   of the Satsuma Rebellion. The end came on the morning  of the 24th at a small hill in the northern part   of the city of Kagoshima called Shiroyama. The  government troops routed the rebels. Saigo was  

Rendered unable to move by a bullet through  both legs and he was then decapitated. All the   other leaders were killed with no quarter given or  expected. Although Basil Hall Chamberlain claimed   in Things Japanese that the word Bushido appeared  in no dictionary native or foreign before 1900 it  

Is clear that a code of conduct for warriors arose  in the Edo period involving martial spirit, skill   with weapons, loyalty  to one’s Lord and the courage if required to   sacrifice one’s life in battle or in ritual  suicide. So Saigo Takamori was following the code

Here. Basil Hall Chamberlain 1850 to 1935  Basil Hall Chamberlain had arrived in Japan   on the 29th of May 1873. Later to be with Aston  and Satow one of the three foremost 19th century   British Japan scholars (you might add  the fourth which would be Dickins) he taught as  

A foreign employee ‘o-yatoi gaikokujin’ at the Imperial  Naval School in Tokyo from 1874 to 1882. His most   important position was as professor of Japanese  at Tokyo University beginning in 1886.   Here he gained his reputation as a student of  Japanese language and literature. He translated the  

Kojiki into English in 1906 to which he provided  an introduction which is still worth reading. He   also wrote a Handbook of colloquial Japanese  (1888), a kind of dictionary of japanology called   Things Japanese (1890) and a Practical Guide to the  study of Japanese writing (1905). With W.B. Mason he  

Wrote a Handbook for travelers in Japan (1891) which  superseded the Handbook for travelers in Central   and Northern Japan (1881) written by Satow and Hawes,  to which Chamberlain himself had contributed. On the   4th of October Satow wrote a letter to FV Dickins  from Edo. He had returned the previous night from  

Nikko by boat from Koga, landing about three Ri  which is approximately 12 km from Nihonbashi.   In a ditch he had found four aquatic plants  and he asked Dickins to help identify them. On   8th of October 1877 Satow wrote a letter thanking  Dickins for hints to help him identify the plants.  

Satow wrote another letter to Dickins which is  not dated but presumably was late October 1877.   (J.H. Gubbins read his paper to the Asiatic Society on  the 27th of October which was a Saturday. A general   meeting was held that day at Tokyo University.  Satow himself made some observations upon the  

Causes which led to the downfall of the Christian  Mission in Japan.) ‘There is a meeting of the Asiatic   Society at Edo on Saturday at which Gubbin’s review  of the the introduction of Christianity into Japan   and China is to be read, and I feel bound to  be present, more particularly as I have some  

New details to communicate otherwise I should have  enjoyed a trip to Enoshima (which is near Kamakura   in Kanagawa prefecture) with you very much. There  are at present no patent laws in Japan. I made the   enquiry a short time back for Russell Robertson  (the British Consul at Yokohama 1871 to 1888). Certain  

Regulations were issued some years ago but were  afterwards annulled. I should like very much to   read your Asamayama diary sometime if it  is not of a private nature.’ Asamayama is a triple   active volcano on the border of Gunma and Nagano  prefectures in central Honshu. It has erupted 50  

Times in recorded history. The Emperor’s birthday  was celebrated on the 3rd of November. Satow went   with Reverend Dr Syle S y l e, a leading light  and a founder member of the Asiatic Society of   Japan to the Kongo theatre for classical  drama. On the 10th of November Satow read his paper  

On the ‘Introduction of Tobacco into Japan’ to  the Asiatic Society in which he discussed the   date when tobacco was introduced into Japan and  Japanese medical opinions on smoking. The last   entry in Satow’s diary for 1877 was on the 28th  of November. He went to a Beethoven concert  

In Yokohama. Although he left before the concert  finished he enjoyed it immensely. 1878 1878 was a   particularly active year for Satow’s writings. In Japan he  read four separate papers to the Astic Society.   However the first entry of the year 9th of January  brought mixed tidings. The new year was the wettest  

Satow could remember in Japan but at last the  bright frosty weather usual in midwinter had   arrived. ‘Still the laburnums have a few leaves, so the  Pyrus Japonica but the   roses are quite green. Last December my servant  Nakamura Rokunosuke committed robberies in the house  

To the extent of about $200. He is now in the hands  of the police.’ At last Satow had time to work on an   article for the Westminster Review on the subject  of the Shinto religion as found in the norito  

(Shinto liturgies) and he was planning to make a  paper on the prayer for Harvest for the   Asiatic Society of Japan. On the 5th of February  Okuma Shigenobu came to the legation to discuss the Tariff.   Satow noted that among the interesting things he  said was that the consumption of rice for sake  

Brewing amounted to about 5 million koku (a measure  of volume or capacity equal to about 0.18 cubic   metres theoretically enough rice to feed  one person for a year). It is not clear what s what   use Satow made of this observation beyond recording it.  Parkes demanded to know why the Japanese government  

Would not give concessions to foreigners to  build railways in the interior to improve    communications. Okuma replied that there would  be problems of ownership as long as the owners   were not under Japanese jurisdiction. Parkes made  light of these positions saying that the Japanese  

Government could enforce agreements by suing  in the Consular courts just as any Japanese   Merchant could sue a foreigner. Okuma replied that  the Japanese government objected to the idea of   petitioning a foreign government for justice.  Satow concluded ‘all that Okuma said was marked  

By good sense which was not apparent in Sir Harry’s  arguments, if they could be so called, about giving   concessions to foreigners.’ Here perhaps lie the seeds  of Satow’s later opposition to the system of extraterritoriality. On the 10th of February Satow  went by steamer with Dickins to Yokosuka. A week  

Later he had finished his article on ‘Ancient  Japanese Rituals’ for the Westminster Review.   On the 23rd of February he read a paper to the  Asiatic Society entitled ‘The Korean Potters in   Satsuma’ which described in detail his visit to  Tsuboya one year earlier. On the 4th of March Satow  

Sailed with Dickins, Pryer and Dimsdale to Hachijo  Island about 300 kms due south of Tokyo for   a visit lasting two weeks. On the 17th of March  he was back in the capital. On the 22nd of June  

He read his ‘Notes of a visit to Hachijo in 1878’  written with Dickins to the Asiatic Society. On   the 14th of May Satow noted that Okubo Toshimichi  had been murdered that morning by five Kaga (that   is Ishikawa) men and one Iwami (that is Shimane)  Samurai ‘who surrendered themselves at  

The palace immediately after the deed. Okubo had been  despised by the people who generally rejoiced at   his death. It is certain that he was leading the  spirit of the government. He was in the train of   Shimazu Saburo when Richardson was murdered in 1862  but I never knew that until now. He was certainly  

Not disposed to court the advice or friendship of  foreigners except such as served his own purposes.’   In a letter dated 24th of May from Her Britannic  Majesty’s legation in Edo to her sister the    Intrepid Victorian traveler Isabella Bird wrote  admiringly of Satow’s reputation for scholarship  

Especially in the field of History which  was second to none according to the Japanese   themselves. ‘This reputation has been won by 15  years of hard labour.’ However Satow did not hold a   monopoly for other members of the Consular service  passing through the various grades of interpreters  

Were distinguishing themselves by their research  in Japanese history, mythology, archaeology   and literature. ‘Indeed it  is to their labours and to those of a few other   Englishmen and Germans that the Japanese of the  rising generation will be indebted for keeping  

Alive not only the knowledge of their archaic  literature but even of the manners and customs   of the first half of the century.’ On the 16th of  July Satow wrote to Parkes applying for a house to  

Be built for him inside the legation grounds  ‘on the ground that is it is difficult to warm a   Japanese house properly during the winter and  that my library could not be replaced if burnt   in one of the general conflagrations so common.’ The  next day he went away with Lieutenant Albert George  

Sidney Hawes an instructor of English at the Naval  College and retired officer of the Royal Marine   Light Infantry on a tour to Hida now part of Gifu  prefecture lasting about a month. On the 27th of  

July Satow wrote a letter to Parkes describing his  trip and asking him to accept that it would take   more time than he had at first thought. writing  from Ashikuraji at the base of Tateyama  in eastern Toyama prefecture he mentioned  fair weather and magnificent scenery but  

That the difficult terrain had slowed progress.  The new road over the mountains from Shinshu to   Hida was longer than had been reported. It was  extremely steep and impassable for horses and   even oxen except for during the few days when  the snow melted. Of the peculiar ‘solfataras’

Of Tateyama, fumaroles which emitted sulfurous gases  encrusting the edges with sulphur he wrote:   ‘innumerable circular pits varying from 2 to 20 feet  across are in a constant state of ebullition   throwing up boiling water, black mud and sulphur  with intense energy which comes to nothing as  

The stuff hurled into the air always falls back  again. Noise of steam rushing through holes in the   ground is almost deafening.’ Despite torrential rain  Satow hoped to reach Takayama the capital of Hida on   the 30th. He would reach Fukushima by the 6th of  July cutting short his itinerary. As if to placate  

An irascible superior who would not take kindly  to delays in the schedule however unavoidable, he   continued: ‘in this way we ought to get back to Edo  on the 13th or 14th and I hope that the delay in  

My return to the extent of a week after the date  I had originally mentioned will not inconvenience   you. Part of our route has lain through a country  where distances are estimated only by guesswork   and concerning which it was impossible to obtain  any information in Edo.’ Satow mentioned in passing  

An isolated community living in Arimine south  of Tateyama which had intermarried over four   centuries. They lived in parochial style with  three or four married couples under one roof and   were said to be descendants of Heike fugitives.  There had been no time to visit them although Satow  

Would have liked to. He concluded with a reference  to the state of the Nakasendo highway which was   being repaired with whatever soil and pebbles were  available for the Emperor’s expected journey. On   his return Satow noted on the 16th of August that  he had withdrawn his letter asking for a house in  

The legation grounds. He had been told by Marshall  the acting surveyor that he would not get more   than five rooms and Parkes had said he would not  support the application. Making the best   of this minor setback Satow concluded that he was  better off where he was and as he was  

Not obliged to sell all his furniture whenever  he went home on leave. On the 6th of September   Satow received a letter from Dr Chapman editor  of the Westminster Review saying that his paper   on Shinto was to appear in the July number and  offering to accept any other articles which Satow  

Would care to write for him on Japanese social  subjects. Satow was relieved at this news. ‘So long   a time had elapsed since I sent away my article  to him that I began to fancy all sorts of mishaps  

And disappointments. It comes second in the table  of contents and I am greatly encouraged to hope   that it will be possible now for me to write a  book on the whole subject which may be fit to print.’ Perhaps encouraged by the news of his  Shinto paper two days later Satow wrote that  

He had written to one W.W. Hunter ‘to ask his   friendly offices with the editor of the   Encyclopedia Britannica whom he is sure to know for  the commission to write Japan for the new edition   now being published. Hawes and I are   publishing notes from our Journal through Etchiu (now  

Toyama prefecture) and Hida (now part of Gifu prefecture)  in the Japan Herald.’ There is no record of Satow   having been successful with the Encyclopedia  Britannica. On the 5th of October Satow gave   a musical entertainment. ‘Kishimoto brought with  him Sano Tsunetami’s daughter to play the mouth  

Organ, Takasaki attendant of the Mikado his  daughter to dance Mahi and about 10 other   performers male and female. There were five kotos  three female voices and two sho. A great success. I   sang Haruno y Yayohi and afterwards played the Koto  part on the piano to the great amusement of the

Audience.’ Sano Tsunetami 1822 to 1902 was a politician  from Saga who founded the Red Cross in Japan.   It began as the Hakuaisha, a relief organization to  treat soldiers wounded in the Satsuma Rebellion.   Sent to Korea. On the 13th of November  1878 Satow started in HMS Egeria on an expedition  

To a Korean Island Quelpart (that’s q u e l p a r t  or Cheju in modern Japanese) to thank the   authorities there for their kind treatment of  the shipwrecked captain and crew of the Barbara   Taylor. There was an ulterior motive to the trip  ordered by Parkes, namely to gather intelligence  

About Korea and investigate the possibility of  a treaty. Japan had already forced an unequal   treaty on Korea the Treaty of Kanghwa on 27th  of February 1876. Parkes finally signed a   treaty with Korea on 26th of November 1883  and visited Korea in April 1884 to exchange  

The ratifications. On the 24th of November Satow  tried to speak to a higher official (the governor   of the island) however he was not allowed to do  so. After exchanging compliments Satow learned the name   of the envoy Chin Sa Chong. ‘He explained that he  had been sent from the capital. He added that  

Saving and helping shipwrecked people is  a reciprocal duty incumbent on all states and   the performance of it requires no thanks. For the  Taionshu the governor of the island to hold   an interview with me or to receive the letter  which I brought without special authorization  

From his own superiors would be contrary to the  laws of Korea.’ This conversation was held through   an interpreter. The next day Satow went to Pusan and  again tried to see the governor of   Tongnei, but with no success. On the 28th  of November he returned to Nagasaki. On the 2nd of  

December Satow went shopping for for books in Kyoto  and in the evening ‘dined at Ikehama a restaurant   in the Kiyamachi and had geisha, very stupid and  uninteresting, did not give themselves the   slightest trouble to be amusing but got awfully  bored and went home at 10.’ On the 5th of December  

Satow reported back to Parkes in Edo. Parkes said that  he was very satisfied with the results of the trip   and approved Satow’s conduct in not having insisted  on anything which the Koreans did not like. Parkes  

Commented in a letter to his wife dated 12th of  December 1878 that ‘the visit so far as it went can   only leave good Impressions and  as no harm has come of it I presume the government   at home will approve of my having sent the  Egeria.’ The difficulties of communication between  

London and Japan still allowed the Minister some independent judgment at   this time yet Chamberlain was to  comment later in Things Japanese that ‘after 1880   rapid communications and the telegraph had killed  diplomacy. The field is no longer open for original  

Thought and daring action. There is no longer any  responsibility to take for every   Point must be referred home.’ The Foreign Office  however was not pleased. A note written on the   11th of January 1879 on Parkes’s despatch number  117 of 25th of October of November 1878 commented:

‘This appears to be a great flourish of trumpets  about a small matter. There was no    need for the despatch of a special Embassy. The truth is   that Parkes wants to open relations and conclude a  treaty with Korea and this was directly negatived  

By the Secretary of State.’ 1879. On the 17th of  February Satow wrote from Edo to Dickins who had   by now left Japan. ‘The English Japanese dictionary  second edition is at last completed and I had the   pleasure of sending a copy of it to Bellasis for  you which he promised to forward to your  

Address in Paris by the mail a week ago. Pray let  me know whether it has reached you and whether   you find many mistakes. That there are myriads  of emissions I know full well and    have already collected  several score additional words for the chance  

Of a third edition. You know how retired a life  I lead and that what goes on in   Yokohama is out of my range so forgive me if  I am deficient in news. The important matter   to us in the legation is the arrival of John G  Kennedy to become legation secretary in place of  

Augustus H Mounsey and the consequent probability  that Sir Harry will go home on leave. If he does   I shall have more leisure than at  present for various pieces of work in which I am   engaged. There are no present signs of the advent  of Balfour to edit the Japan Mail which is getting  

Feebler every day and will probably die for want of  subscriptions. Charles Rickerby is said to have some   temporary employment on the Japan Gazette. Everything is very quiet in the   political world but it is said that we have  had an unseasonably mild winter and that the  

Crops of rice and what wheat will not be up to the  average this year so the farmers may give   trouble.’ The first entry in Satow’s diary  for 1879 was dated 6th of April. He went with    Winstanley to see the cherry blossoms at Mukojima. On the 7th of May he embarked  

On the Nagoya Maru for a long projected tour in  Yamato (now Nara prefecture). On the 11th   of May Satow visited Todaiji Temple and found that  the great Buddhist head was ‘comparatively new   and very ugly’. On the 10th of June Satow returned  home and found a letter with news of his election  

To the St James’ Club as a diplomatist. Although  still in the Consular service Satow was apparently   allowed this distinction ‘through the exertions  of Adams and Mitford who induced the representations   representatives of the foreign office to concede  this.’ He also found that A.H. Mounsey the secretary  

of the British legation had sent  a copy of his book on the Satsuma Rebellion.    On the 22nd of June W.H.  Talbot then the co-editor with J.R. Anglin of   the Japan Gazette wrote to ask Satow to review  Mounsey’s Satsuma Rebellion. However Satow declined  

‘on the ground that it would be necessary to give  an opinion upon the events and measures of the   actors which is ground upon which I ought not to  venture. Such a review would perhaps grow to be   longer and certainly more outspoken than the book  itself.’ After the British policy (Eikoku Sakuron) episode  

In the 1860s Satow was clearly more cautious about  expressing his views in print. Okinawa. On the 6th   of July Satow completed a memorandum on Okinawa  which he called Loochoo again which described the   process by which Okinawa was absorbed into Meiji  Japan as a prefecture. This had finally happened  

On the 4th of April 1879. In a letter from Edo  to Dickins dated 25th of July 1879 Satow noted   that rumours were circulating about a break in  diplomatic relations between China and Japan on   the question of sovereignty of Okinawa. Several  members of the Japanese government  

Seem to be keen to go to war while others were  anxious to avoid it. ‘If I were a Loochooan (that’s   a Ryukyuan or Okinawan) I should feel as they do that  it would be much pleasanter to go on in the old  

Style then to be forcibly civilized by a set of  gentlemen from Edo in badly fitting black coats   and white shirts a fortnight old. Chinese are very  unlikely to make it a casus belli but one thing   is quite certain namely that the  community of feeling and aims between the  

Two Nations is   impossible.’ By the old style Satow meant   the ancient system of tributes paid to China  and Satsuma by Okinawa. Lingering questions about   retaining the old China connection were expunged  by Japan’s victory in the Sino Japanese war of  

1894 to 95. In the same letter Satow mentioned  that he was studying Chinese. ‘I am at present   brushing up my Chinese with an old Chinaman [Liu] who  half belongs to the legation and find that the   spoken language throws a great deal of light upon  the Chinese vocables in Japanese especially  

Those used in newspapers. One of my dreams probably  never destined to be realized is being attached   to Peking for a year so as to get some direct  personal knowledge of the country and people, for I am more than ever convinced that  no one can be a good scholar in Japanese  

Matters who does not know enough Chinese history  philosophy and customs to sift out what is of   genuine Japanese from what is of Chinese  origin. It would not be wise to sacrifice one’s   European leave to this object because the latter  is absolutely necessary as mental medicine. Summer  

Here seems to do the greatest moral mischief. All  the people one knows go into the country for   two months and one is left all that time to get  more and more confirmed in habits of depending on   oneself for making the day pass and the difficulty  of taking part in Social Pleasures becomes greater  

At the end of each succeeding summer. Life is by  no means irksome here but it is distinctly more   vegetative than in Europe. Few people feel the  difference and you see men contentedly staying   on here 10 years and still putting off going  to Europe. Treaty revision makes no progress  

And will not as long as the Japanese insist on  making the Tariff just as they please.’ On the 7th   of July Chamberlain and Hawes that’s Basil Hall  Chamberlain and Albert George Sidney Hawes came  

To dinner. ‘The former seems to be unwell. He was  unable to eat and had to go home during the second   rubber of bridge.’ On the 16th of July Chamberlain  came to dinner again and seemed in better health  

As ‘we played Spohr’s C minor quartet, Gluck’s Iphigenia.’ On  the 10th of August Satow told his diary that his   godown (that’s his warehouse) was almost complete  and contained all his Japanese and European books  

Comfortably in the lower storey. There was also plenty  of room for a writing desk at one end In late 1879   and 1880 Satow seemed to enjoy a brief respite  from hard work. On 25th of September 1879  

Satow had what he called a perfect day repeating  the phrase for emphasis. ‘A perfect day. First I   worked at the Mongol invasion after breakfast till  halfpast 10 and then at Chinese colloquial, old Liu  

Coming at a little after 11 till 12. After  lunch did a page or so of the guide, a route to   the temples of Ise and then Suzuki   Motoshi came with whom I sat in the godown over  

Buddhist books for two hours and a half. Then  to call on B.S. Lyman the American geologist to   look over his house which did not please me big  as it is. My own is far better arrayed. From there  

To Chamberlain’s at Shiba with whom I practised a  little (perhaps piano I suppose) till dinner time   when Hawes came and we talked guidebook chiefly  and rubber of dummy afterwards. No Chancery work.   A perfect day.’ Benjamin Smith Lyman 1835 to 1920  was invited by the Japanese government in 1872  

To survey the coast and oil fields in Hokkaido  and along the Japan Sea Coast. He published the   first geological map of   Hokkaido in 1876 and returned to the United States   in 1881. It can be seen from this entry that  despite his 36 years Satow was still very much  

A student at heart at this time. The next day he  played lawn tennis. On the 11th of October Parkes   left by the City of Tokyo (steamer) on leave. A telegram had  arrived informing him that his wife was seriously  

Ill. Satow noted that Parkes expected to be away for  six months ‘but we hope it may be longer’. The telegram   was from Dr Bishop of Edinburgh. Lady Parkes had  caught a cold at a Paris railway station. She   died on the 12th of November in Holland Road  Kensington before Parkes could reach her bedside.  

Parkes stayed in England until December 1881 mainly  to advise the Foreign Office on treaty revision.   He returned to Japan in January 1882. On the  28th of October 1879 Sato wrote from Edo to   Dickins ‘you will have heard of course of Sir  Harry’s sudden departure caused by his wife’s  

Illness. He left on the 11th of October and great relief was felt at once. He is an   excellent painstaking official but he did not  manage to make himself agreeable either to his   colleagues, subordinates or to the Japanese with  whom he came into contact. He is what they call  

An ingrata persona. Of course we all enjoy the  leisure produced by his absence and I hope to   get through some work, especially as Aston has  returned a few days ago and there is not work  

Enough to occupy us both. We no longer sit in the  Chancery at fixed hours whether there is work or   not which was one of Sir Harry’s favorite ways of  making one waste time. 1880. On the 21st of March  

Satow went with Chamberlain and Hawes to Kawasaki  to visit the Temple of Kobo Daishi. ‘It was his fete day   and there was a great crowd.’ He spent April and  May touring with Hawes and Chamberlain profiting   from Parkes’s absence. On the 12th of May Satow was  visited secretly by a Korean  

Who went by the name of Asano but his real name  was Lee Tong-in. He was a Korean patriot who wanted   to sweep away the conservative government in  Korea, open the country to the foreign powers and   begin a process of modernization. ‘He wants to buy  photographs of European buildings and machinery  

And whatever else is most striking to take back  and convince Koreans that the stories about the   magnificence of foreign countries are not lies,  and desires also to visit England. Also old Midzuno   Izumi no Kami called and wanted information about the  organization of charity in England and the rules  

Of the stock exchange and French bourse. Of course  I could not satisfy him.’ Mizuno was a former high   official of the shogunate with whom Satow had first  met during the ratification of the treaties in 1865. On the 13th of May Satow recorded that he visited the grave and temple of  

William Adams, thought to have been the first  Englishman resident in Japan at Hemimura near   Yokosuka. However the grave is now believed to be  at Hirado, an island of off the west coast of   Kyushu where Adams died on the 16th of May 1620.  At least his mortal remains are supposed to be  

There in Hirado. On the 15th of May Satow was again  visited by Asano who said that he was sure Korea   would enter diplomatic relations soon. Satow gave  him pictures of buildings, battles and other items   from The Illustrated London News. (That’s what he  had wanted in the previous visit.) Asano confirmed  

That the Japanese were very unpopular in Korea  because of Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s unjustifiable war   waged in the 16th century. He expressed the hope  that Japan could be dispensed with as a trading   intermediary between Korea and European nations.  ‘He asked me whether England desired to trade with  

Korea. I said that she was perfectly willing  to enter relations but did not wish to force   herself upon an unwilling nation which was the  reason why she would not send an envoy, for if   the envoy were turned back she would have to  avenge the insult and therefore would  

Leave Korea alone until she showed a desire to  enter relations. He had seen a copy of the letter   of which I was the bearer in 1878 and learned my  name from it. This was the reason he had come to  

Seek me out. He remained about 3 hours and I  promised to take him to Yokohama on the 20th   to buy his watches.’ Satow noted that Asano was very  keen on developing the resources of Korea which   included gold, coal and iron and whales on the  adjacent seas. He also gave Satow some specimens of  

Ginseng root which he thought might be exportable  to Europe for its valuable tonic properties. On   the 20th of May as he had promised Satow took  Asano to Yokohama and introduced him to one   of the Keswick family of Jardine Matheson and Company.   William Keswick had helped the first five Japanese  

Students from Choshu (Ito Hirobumi, Inoue Kaoru, Inoue  Masaru, Endo Kinsuke and Yamao Yozo) to go to England   on a Jardine company ship bound for Shanghai in  May 1863. Korea. In 1811 formal relations between   Japan and Korea conducted through Tsushima Island  had ceased. Thereafter Korea

Maintained a policy of total seclusion, firing on  French and American fleets that came up the Han   River to Seoul in 1866 and 1871. After the Seikanron  (which we have already explained) the Japanese   quick to imitate the Western Powers succeeded  in concluding the unequal Treaty of Kanghwa with the  

Koreans in 1876 which provided for the opening of  three ports, the appointment to each of a Japanese   Consul with extraterritorial jurisdiction over  Japanese Nationals, and exemption from customs   duties. The month of June was taken up with travels.  On the 11th of August Satow noted the arrival of  

The Korean Ambassador. For the past month he had  been learning Korean with Asano by reading Korean   novels. ‘The character is now quite familiar to me  and the grammar of the verb complicated as it is   becomes daily easier. The resemblance in idiom to  Japanese is very close but hardly to be wondered  

At since both languages have borrowed their  idioms chiefly from the Chinese.’ In a letter to   Aston dated 4th of August Satow mentioned that he  had talked to Asano about a teacher for Aston. Satow was   still officially a member of the Consular service  and when a relief officer was needed in Tokyo he  

Was stuck with the job. He wrote to Dickins on the  22nd of August 1880 ‘Fancy me   an acting Vice Consul. Such is the truth it is quite  absurd. I did not know how to register a birth  

Till the Constable showed me. Now I live in daily  terror lest a case should be brought in my court   and I am compelled to sit in judgment, not having  the faintest idea of how to preside, to say nothing  

Of complete ignorance of the law.’ On the 1st of  September Satow received a despatch from the   foreign secretary Lord Granville informing  him that he might go to Peking when Aston returned   from his leave with the rank of second secretary  at £800 a year to study Chinese. He commented ‘they  

Have been a long time in making up their minds.’ He  also dismissed his servant Inoue Kiku who refused   to have himself registered as a resident of  Satow’s household, insisting that he was registered   at his father’s house. Satow was pleased to be rid of  ‘this insolent servant who gave himself intolerable  

Airs.’ On the 4th of September Asano came to say  goodbye. Satow gave him his opera glasses as a   parting present, noting that Asano expected to  return before the end of the year. On the 24th  

Of September Satow started on a fourth journey to  Nikko by way of Oji and Iwatsuki. On the 30th of   September he went with J.G. Kennedy to Lake Chuzenji  and back. On the 11th of October Satow began to   study Chinese but this was interrupted when J.H.  Gubbins John Harington Gubbins left and he had  

To move back into the vice consul’s quarters  in the legation grounds so that Kennedy would   have someone available who could speak Japanese.  Asano reappeared on the 15th of November. ‘He said   that the King was supporting modernization and  enlightenment and was quite aware of the threat  

To Korea posed by Russia. A change of government  was also expected with the Liberal Party ousting the   present anti-foreign faction. He is anxious that  we (that is Britain) should go there at once with   as large and imposing a force as possible, not to  prevent a collision of which there is no danger,  

But to make it clear that it is an expedition  authorized by government and not the enterprise of   an individual captain. The Japanese always tried  to persuade the Koreans to make their first   treaty with Germany because they think Germany’s  policy is opposed to that of Russia and hope for  

Aid against her while from America they feel they  would never get any help.’ On the 17th of November   Satow noted that ‘Asano saw Iwakura and suggested  to him that he ought to make a journey to Korea.  

Iwakura answered that he had for a long time  wished to persuade Korea to join with Japan and   China in an alliance of the three Eastern Powers  but that he had felt it a waste of time to ask  

Because of the strength of anti foreign feeling in  Korea. However he was prepared to consider paying   a visit.’ On the 18th of November Satow attended the  Emperor’s chrysanthemum garden party. he noted that   the weather was magnificent and the flowers were  beautiful. On the 1st of December Satow recorded  

That Asano left after breakfast. ‘His latest  idea was to bring a Korean mission to Japan   to enter diplomatic relations with the foreign  Representatives.’ On the 24th of December Satow set off   with Sidney Hawes for a tour in Kazusa. 1881.  On the first of January Satow went to court as usual.  

On this occasion all the wives of the legation  members were presented for the first time. On the   8th of February he noted that the Handbook  for travelers in Central and Northern Japan   was nearly finished. On the 9th of March he wrote  that the first 50 copies of the handbook had been  

Received from the binder but the maps were not yet  ready. The next day he recorded that a typewriter   had arrived the previous night. He found it easy  to use after a couple of hours practice though  

He continued to handwrite his diaries until the  end of his life. On the 29th of March Satow went to   Yokohama to say goodbye to Dr James Hepburn  but the old man was too ill to receive visitors. He  

Was suffering from rheumatic gout which Satow felt  must be dangerous at the age of 66. On the same day   Chamberlain returned from Europe. On the 28th of  April Satow wrote that there had been an attempt   at reaction in Korea against the pro- foreign  tendencies of the king, however order had been  

Restored. The Japanese legation was safe and the  Korean Mission which Asano had mentioned on the 1st   of December 1880 was expected soon. It was supposed  to study Japanese efforts at modernization along   European lines. The mission did come to Japan but  left little record of their stay. Satow also noted  

That he had been having Korean lessons for the  past six weeks or so. He moved back to his house at   Ushigomi now Ushigome, Shinjuku Ward Tokyo from ‘that horrid  house at the legation where one froze in Winter   and roasted in summer and where one was subject  to constant interruptions throughout the day.’ On  

The 29th of April Satow had dinner with Charles  Wirgman and Albert George Sidney Hawes. He wrote   that ‘it was quite like old times to see the former  who is by no means in his dotage as people pretend  

To think.’ On the 12th of June Satow noted that  thieves had broken into his godown (that’s his   warehouse) and stolen some books on the previous  night. The thieves were caught and some of the   books were returned six days later. On the 16th  of June Satow called on Okuma who ‘said that the  

Financial situation was prosperous and that the  budget would be out that month. As   for their own paper money he is disposed to let  it go on as it is, withdrawing it gradually from   circulation until those who maintain that it is  in excess of the country’s requirements discover  

Their error.’ Satow also called on the American Minister  Judge John A. Bingham in mid-June supposedly to ask   after his health as he had malaria  but actually to try and discover something of   Commodore Robert W Schufeldt’s plans with regard to  Korea. Satow learned nothing new however. On the 6th  

Of July Satow began reading the Genji Monogatari with  his tutor old Shiraishi as he had finished reading   the Ise monogatari. On the 23rd of August Satow wrote  a letter to Aston in which he discussed Aston’s   proposal that they with Basil Hall Chamberlain  should decide on a transliteration system for  

Korean. Satow was still hoping to go to Peking but in  a letter to Dickins dated 11th of September he   wrote that he could not depart until JC Hall who  would be acting Japanese secretary returned from   leave. Yet he was also thinking of applying for  European leave in the spring for he felt stale  

After 5 years in Japan. On the 10th of October he wrote in another   letter to Dickins ‘I want very much to see all my  friends and get some new ideas for the old lot are  

In the same condition as my shirts, pretty nearly  worn out.’ On the 24th of September Satow had a visit   from a traveler named Frank Hudson and his son of  34 Highbury Grove London. They had brought a letter  

Of introduction from Lister the postmaster at Hong  Kong. Satow had dinner with them. ‘It turned out that   they are a dissenting (that is a non-conformist)  family and the boy had been at Anderton school   in Lower Clapton where I was myself in the time  of his predecessor Newcombe. He begged me to go and  

See him when I returned to England.’ Three days later  a Korean came to help transliterate the names in   the map of Korea. On the 10th of October Satow  wrote to Dickins. There was a deadlock in the   silk trade at Yokohama which threatened to extend  to all areas of commerce. He commented again  

On Parkes’s British policy towards Japan and the  Japanese response. ‘There is of course perfect lack   of sympathy between Japanese and foreigners at the  ports. The latter come there to buy and sell but   they remain in absolute ignorance of the people  they have to deal with and assume the airs and  

Position of a foreign garrison say in Zululand. It  is quite natural that the Japanese should resent   this. We have I think made a great mistake here in  pursuing an unfriendly harsh policy towards the   Japanese government, the knowledge of which has  come to the years of the common people and  

Has caused them to look on foreigners in general  and Sir Harry Parkes in particular as their enemy.   You would not credit the extent to which he is the  bugbear of the Japanese public and in the popular   estimation he occupies much the same position as  Boney (that’s Napoleon Bonaparte) with us 50 years ago.  

It has been going on for the past 10 years. I wish  you had not taken up the defence of Sir Harry as you   have done. No one can deny his great qualities  and his fitness to meet any dangerous crisis.  

His talents are however thrown away here. There  is no analogy at all between the circumstances   here and in China where he learned his diplomacy.  He would do excellently well at Peking but here he   is the square in the round hole (square peg in the  round hole). The Japanese require a  

Diplomatist of the Talleyrand type who would smooth  them down and attain his ends at the same time.   Everyone knows that argument is not persuasion.’ On  the 20th of October Satow dined with Walter C   Hillier from the Peking legation. He recorded ‘Hillier’s  talk about Peking has quite revived my desire to  

Go there if Sir Harry puts no obstacles in  the way.’ The visit of the royal princes. On the 21st   of October the British royal princes Albert and  George sons of the then Prince of Wales arrived  

In HMS Bacchante on a world tour. Satow noted on 24th  of October ‘the detached Squadron arrived on the   21st and today the two princes came up with  most of the captains by train in the forenoon  

And we met them at the terminus. On the next day  they had an audience of the Emperor (audience   *with* the emperor) and on the 30th of October Satow  wrote that it had been decided that he should   accompany them to Kobe and Kyoto. At some point  during their stay the princes surreptitiously  

Managed to engage a tattooer. Basil Hall Chamberlain  reported that Prince George later Prince of Wales   was appropriately decorated on the arm with a  dragon. Did it look like a Welsh Dragon? One can   only speculate. On the 31st of October Satow noted  that the Emperor went down by train to visit  

The princes on board the Bacchante. ‘He had the usual  suite of princes and ministers and was received   with salutes from all the men of war in Port. After  some torpedo experiments which I heard him say he  

Had seen better done at Yokosuka by their own navy  there was a luncheon in the cabin and shortly   afterwards he went away.’ On the 1st of November  Satow accompanied the princes in the Bacchante down  

To Kobe. The voyage was rough and he was seasick.  On the 4th of November the Admiral gave leave for   the princes to go for a week to Kyoto. ‘I landed  and was put up at the consulate by the Astons.’  

Next day the party visited Kyoto and Satow finally  parted from the princes on the 11th of November. A   letter written on the same day to Mr J.G. Kennedy  Secretary of legation and charge d’affaires in    Tokyo in the absence of Parkes by William Dalton  the tutor to the princes on the Bacchante expressed  

The princes’ gratitude for the warm welcome  accorded to them in Japan. Satow was singled out   for high praise. ‘I cannot express what pleasure his  (that is Satow’s) company has given them. He has been   of invaluable service. His knowledge of Japanese  and of everything connected with the antiquities  

Of the country has been of the most constant avail  to them. A more genial traveling companion it would   be hard to find.’ Satow himself apparently did not  see this letter until much later. He noted on it   ‘given to me by Lady Kennedy in December 1912  after her husband’s death among whose papers  

She found it’. One wonders if the contents were  deliberately kept from Satow or as seems more likely   Kennedy simply forgot about the letter. In any  case as a measure of Queen Victoria’s gratitude   Satow was created CMG (companion of the order of  St Michael and St George) at the age of 40 when  

He was on leave in 1883. On the 12th of November  Sato went hunting for antiquarian books in Kyoto   with Aston. ‘Aston and I went up to Kyoto to Zeniya  the book seller in Teramachi Oike Sagaru and bought  

A considerable quantity of old books after  which we lunched.’ On the 13th they went to Maiko   by kuruma (that is rickshaw). There they explored  the dolmens (that’s stone burial chambers) which   Aston had discovered in the hills. Satow commented  ‘they resemble very much those which I visited in Kaudzuke  

A year or two ago and fragments of pottery found  near there have much the same marks made with a   comb.’ On the 14th of November Satow and Aston were  in Kobe again and walked up Mount Futatabi behind  

Kobe. They also visited the waterfalls at Nunobiki. In  December 1881 Satow was struck down temporarily by   a fever which affected his speech and writing.  It was treated and cured by the ever faithful   Willis who was in Japan from November 1881  to January 1882. Willis had roots in Japan not  

Least Enatsu Yae, the daughter of i a Satsuma  samurai whom he had ‘married’ in 1871 and their   son Albert born in 1874. However he returned to  Britain in January 1882 taking Albert back with   him. 1882. The first entry in the diary was on 16th of  January. ‘Today I resumed my Korean studies with  

Sun having to all appearance  recovered from my attack of congestion of the   brain a month back. With Sun I am now reading a  Korean novel.’ It had been a narrow escape. Willis   had feared Satow might suffer permanent and severe  injury or death although the start had been a  

Mere chill caught at a photography session at  the legation. On the 18th of January Satow wrote a   letter to to Aston who had invited him to search  for more dolmens. In declining the invitation he   wrote that he did not like to take advantage of  charge d’affaires J.G. Kennedy’s good nature. He continued  

‘the fact is that the conferences about treaty  revision are about to begin and it is possible   that my presence may be needed in the capacity of  interpreter or secretary so that I ought not to   go away just at present.’ Parkes was due to return  on the 26th of January so Satow probably  

Felt he would be unwise to absent himself at  this juncture. So that’s another reason why he   would not accompany Aston on the 25th of January.  Satow noted in his diary that the first serious   meeting of the preliminary  conference on treaty revision met at the foreign  

Office. On the next day Parkes returned to Japan  with his daughters and the Hepburns. The preliminary   conference lasted from 25th of January to 27th of  July. On the 31st of January Satow wrote again to   Aston expressing delight at the latter’s success  in finding more dolmens and assuring him that  

The Asiatic Society of Japan would give him  a volume in which to record his research. Of   Parkes he wrote that he was ‘just the same as ever –  gushing, secretive and friendly by turns.’ It seemed   unlikely to Satow that he would ever be able to return to England for the foreseeable  

Future unless J.H. Gubbins should suddenly recover  from his unspecified illness. Rather bitterly and   despairingly he added ‘my idea is that Sir Harry  will keep me here as long as possible out of   revenge because he knows I want to get away from  him.’ Revision of the unequal treaties. The Ansei  

Commercial treaties of 1858 between Japan and the  foreign powers including Britain had established a   scale of tariffs (revised in 1866) and acknowledged  the right of foreigners to be tried in consular   courts according to their own laws, the so-called  system of extraterritoriality. The difficulty of  

Revision of these unequal treaties first became  apparent to the Japanese with the Iwakura mission. In   1875 to 1879 the foreign minister Terashima Munenori  unsuccessfully offered the opening of more ports   in return for tariff autonomy. Inoue Kaoru formerly  Monta of Choshu succeeded Terashima and sought  

To increase tariff rates and extend Japan’s  jurisdiction over foreign residents.    His proposals led to joint preliminary talks  in 1882 among representatives of the treaty states   and a compromise was reached in 1886. On the  1st of February 1882 a second meeting of  

The Conference was held and the third meeting was  held the next day. Satow wrote the draft protocol   which was afterwards translated into French  and Japanese. He remarked wearily in his diary   ‘it was arranged that the representatives should  take Monday afternoons to decide upon the final  

Text of the protocol and so they will no doubt  undo a great deal of what we have done in the   way of drafting.’ Satow wrote to Aston on the 9th  of February. Willis had sent in his resignation  

From the legation much to Satow’s regret. ‘It is no  doubt Willis whose name you saw in the Shanghai   papers as having taken a passage to London he  has sent in his resignation which arrived today.  

I am very sorry to lose him as you may imagine  but Japan was a great disappointment to him and   he had been very down in the mouth for a month  or so before he went. I hope he will get on in  

England as he certainly deserves to for there  is no question of his being a first rate doctor   and quite wrapped up in his profession. The want of  work here made him melancholy to a degree that   was almost catching. It is a pity however that he  should have gone away in this clandestine fashion  

But I saw he was bent on it and no arguments would  have any avail. I say all this for yourself alone.   His private affairs are of course secrets which  he’s entitled to have kept as close as possible.’  

On the 11th of February Satow wrote in his diary  that he accompanied Parkes to an audience with   the Emperor. ‘His Majesty was very gracious, asked  after the young princes, alluded to Sir Harry’s   long experience of Japan and the advantage the  treaty revision negotiations would derive from  

His assistance, and condoled with him on the death  of Lady Parkes.’ Later the legation members went down   to Yokohama to say goodbye to the Kennedys. Satow  wrote ‘it was the general feeling that we had made   a bad exchange.’ Satow also had received letters from  Willis announcing his departure from Shanghai for  

England on the first of the month. He commented  ‘All things considered he was quite right to go.   He is too good a man to be thrown away on a small  field like Japan.’ Satow asked Parkes about the chance  

Of leave but was told there was ‘little chance  of my getting away at present. I ought to have   gone before his arrival.’ Satow wrote again to Aston on  the 16th of February. ‘Willis’s return to England  

Has caused me as much pain as yourself. Some day or  other if we meet I may tell you all about it but   I am certain that his only reason for not saying  to you what his intentions were was his wish to  

Relieve you of the burden of keeping a secret. He  had no hopes of any practice here among Europeans   that could at all make it worth his while to stay  and his connection with the Elder Saigo (Takamori)   combined with his dispute in 1877 about  compensation for furniture left at Kagoshima had put  

The official Japanese against him. For some time  before he left he had been very melancholy but   he is quite different from other men and has  some peculiar streaks in his composition. The   primers (elementary reading textbooks) were probably  intended for the youngster (that’s Willis’s son  

Albert) whom he took to England with him and perhaps  the best thing to do with them would be to send   them here as I am winding up his affairs.’ On the  22nd of February Satow was robbed yet again. He lost  

$100, rings and other items. On the 13th of March it was  discovered that the robber was ‘my servant Rokunosuke   the fellow who stole money from my drawer some  years ago and was condemned to penal servitude   for that offence’. On the 5th of April 1882 Satow  wrote to Aston about the American expedition to  

Korea. Sir Harry is much interested in your news about  the intended American expedition to Korea which   is confirmed by Sir Thomas Wade the British  minister to China and also by DW Stevens the   secretary of the United States legation. He would  like to see an English Squadron appear on on the  

Scene at the same time as Schufeldt and contemplates  telegraphing to the Foreign Office in order to   stir them up. Wade has already done so, so you may  possibly get your wish to go.’ Commander Robert W   Schufeldt had tried unsuccessfully to  obtain a treaty with Korea in 1867 and 1880. This  

Time he was successful with Chinese mediation  and a letter from China which claimed Korea as   a dependency. On receiving news of the American  treaty Parkes ordered the commander-in-chief of   the China Station Admiral s George O Willes to Korea to be followed by Aston. In June an Anglo-Korean  

Treaty was successfully concluded though  it was not subsequently ratified by the British   government. On the 8th of June Satow wrote in his  diary ‘telegram from Admiral Willes to say   that he had made his treaty and had  left Aston behind in the surveying ship Flying  

Fish to collect information. The Japanese newspapers  had all got the draft of the treaty previously   signed by Schufeldt in Chinese. I got hold of Chang  and with his aid translated it in five hours, a   good piece of hard work done by sticking to it.  Hard work over recent protocol the longest of all.  

My arm has got very tired and touch of neuralgia  in the right shoulder simply from too much writing.’   The British treaty was almost identical with the  American one. Chinese mediation was again used. On   the 12th of June Parkes invited the Korean minister  to Japan and his assistants to dinner. One of the  

Assistants was Kim Okkyun a pro-japanese Korean later  to be murdered in Shanghai. Satow found them more   agreeable and talkative than any Japanese. ( More about Kim Okkyun in chapter 5). From 9th of   August to 6th of September Satow accompanied Parkes and his daughters on an ascent of Mount  

Fuji before returning to Tokyo. While on  the trip on 19th of August Satow learned of the   appointment of Inamoto Takeyaki as minister to China  in connection with an anti-foreign attack on the   Japanese in Seoul on the 23rd of July. The Korean  Queen was reported as murdered along with many of  

Her family (the Min) who had supported diplomatic  contact with foreigners. The former regent and   father of the king the Taionkun who had been out  of power since the king attained his majority   in 1873 supported the anti-foreign faction but he  was carried to exile at Tientsin by the Chinese.  

He was removed because of his involvement in the  overthrow of the Min faction which had followed   China’s foreign policy guidelines and for  creating a situation in which foreign (that is   Japanese) troops had come into the country. Thus he  had upset Chinese Viceroy Li Hung Chang’s careful  

Balance. On the 9th of September Korea was once more  the topic of Satow’s diary. He had received further   news from some refugees of the outbreak. ‘Visit  this morning from Yun Eung-nyol and his son. The  

Former was reported murdered in the coup d’etat at Seoul  on the 23rd of July but escaped with the help of   the King. The newspapers are full of reports of  interviewers which are in the main correct he  

Says. The King told him to get on board the HMS  Flying Fish if possible but the route to Inchon   was not safe. China has never before interfered  to this extent in Korean domestic troubles. Wishes   to put Korea under the special protection of  England as to advice in her foreign relations  

And introduction of European appliances. Asked  whether the Japanese were good enough soldiers   to be military instructors to them. Said I thought  yes good enough for the present and much more   convenient to get than any instructors all  the way from Europe. The native papers are full  

Of the Korean matter and one has a great deal  to do in reading, extracting and translating.’   In 1881 Japanese military advisers had arrived in  Korea to initiate the modernization of the Korean   army. A newly organized select unit was given  benefits that aroused the anger of traditional  

Units unpaid for over a year. These troops  mutinied killed prominent Korean   government officials and Japanese officers and  attempted unsuccessfully to assassinate Queen Min.   China and Japan despatched troops to Korea and the  Chinese seized the former Regent who was believed  

To have incited and directed the mutiny  and held him in exile at Tientsin. The Imo Mutiny   or Jingo jihen in Japanese set the stage for the  Chinese-Japanese rivalry in Korea that culminated   in the Sino-Japanese war of 1894 to 95. On the  16th of September Satow added further background  

Information on Sino-Korean relations in his diary.  ‘went to see Yoshida Kiyonari the vice minister at   the foreign office. He says that in 1876 when the  Japanese were sending their expedition to Korea   to negotiate a treaty after the firing upon a  Japanese man of war Mori (Arinori) who was then  

Envoy to Peking had an explanation with Li Hung Chang  about the relationship between China and Korea. He   said it was the duty of China to interfere in any  extraordinary internal troubles in Korea or if the   latter had difficulties with any foreign power to  endeavour to arrange them. At the same time he said  

Korea had to pay tribute and receive investiture.  He disclaimed any wish on the part of China to   interfere with Korea’s ordinary domestic and  foreign policy. (So this is the Chinese  tributary system.) Okkam a young Korean friend  of Asano returned from Korea in September with  

More information about the reported murder  of the queen and the kidnapping of the Taionkun (the Regent). On the 18th of September  Satow recorded that the queen was confirmed to be alive despite reports given out by the Taionkun  that she was dead. The Taionkun was decoyed to  

Namyang in order to return a visit to Chinese  investigator Admiral Ting and found himself   surrounded by Chinese troops who carried him off  in his palanquin dismissing his own bearers and   once they had got him on board the signal was  given round went the screw and off they went.’  

8,000 Chinese troops were reported stationed at  Seoul near the palace. On the 10th of November Satow   wrote to Aston from Tokyo ‘we have obtained a copy  of the German treaty with Korea from J. Haas the   acting Austrian Consul-General in Shanghai. It only  differs from the American in having a stipulation  

In Article 13 that a French version shall be the  standard in the case of dispute. Everything seems   to point to a determination on the part of China  to tighten the bonds that hold Korea to them.’ This   last sentence indicates the growing rivalry  between Japan and China over Korea. It was the last  

Mention of Korea in Satow’s papers prior to his  departure on leave. Satow was also involved in the   training of new men as interpreters as part of his  everyday duties. On the 18th of November he wrote   again to Aston from Tokyo. ‘After talking the matter  over with Sir Harry and showing him Woolley’s papers  

We have come to the conclusion that he had better  come up again for examination in translation from   and into Japanese. He will be passed as far as  the code goes and can now devote himself seriously  

To reading and writing. I’m very sorry not to be  able to pass him on the present occasion but his   answers except in the penal code were very  unsatisfactory. I am off into the country for  

About 10 days.’ Satow prepared for his European leave  at the end of 1882. The last two weeks of November   were spent on an excursion, then he recorded in  an undated entry for December: ‘Gubbins arrived at  

Last and my leave was secured. Spent the first part  of the month in preparing for publication of the   manual of Korean transliteration of names. This  was only finished about the 29th. Also there was   a good deal to do to the handbook, the lion’s share  of which certainly fell to me. It was altogether  

A very busy time. Then at last there came the  farewell dinners and calls. December the 30th   Buchanan and I dined at Russell  Robertson’s in Yokohama before going on board and   we sailed early in the morning of the 31st just  after midnight. Okkam appeared at Robertson’s to  

Say goodbye and tell me of his firm intention to  reach England sometime in the spring. Gave him my   address and promised to help him if he eventually  arrived there during my stay on leave. 1883 Satow  

Went home on leave in 1883. In March his second  son Hisakichi was born after his return to England.   His common law wife originally his live-in maid  perhaps was Takeda Kane. Their first son had been   born in 1880. There is no mention of their births  in Satow’s diaries as Satow was unfailingly discreet  

And such liaisons would have been deeply frowned  upon by the Foreign Office. Parkes who no doubt   knew about Satow’s common law wife had in the  meantime been appointed Minister at Peking. On the   25th of August he had a farewell audience  with the Emperor and presented Mr P le Poer Trench as  

Charge d’affaires. It was therefore to Peking that Satow wrote  from 13 Welbeck Street (London) on the 25th of November. He   expressed the hope that Parkes was comfortably  settled in peking despite the dirt and dust. Satow   had organized the printing of a map of Korea in  Germany two or three months previously and he  

Enclosed two copies which he had hoped to send in  time for Parkes’s mission to Korea although delays   in printing had prevented this. He also wrote that  he had passed the bar examination and was waiting   to be called before returning to Japan. Meanwhile  the improved Handbook for travelers in Central  

And Northern Japan was soon to be completed  and was scheduled to be brought out by John   Murray in London in January 1884. Sir Francis  Plunkett was in London making preparations to   go to Japan as Minister succeeding Parkes with his  wife, two daughters and a governess and they were  

Looking forward to returning to Japan. Satow also  mentioned that he had been in Folkestone recently   where he had seen Sir Rutherford and Lady Alcock. He  was in his 70s but wonderfully active still while   she was taking seaweed baths for her bronchitis.  The last piece of news concerned JJ Enslie who  

Had foolishly sued the Foreign Office for damages  amounting to £13,000 for being passed over for   promotion on several occasions. He was finally  made Consul at Kobe in 1889. And that is the end   of Chapter Three, so thank you very much if you’ve  followed me until this point. I will stop here.