The Youth of Bakumatsu Satsuma and I: Following the Satsuma Students

2025/02/13

Today, I will talk about the "Satsuma Students." In 2007, I wrote a novel titled "Satsuma Students, Heading West." That was nearly 20 years ago now. My ancestors were samurai who served the Tayasu Tokugawa family, so if anything, they were enemies of the Satsuma-Choshu alliance and had no connection to Satsuma at all. Despite that, the reason I wrote about the Satsuma Students was that, by chance around that time, Japan Airlines was adding new flights to Kagoshima, and I was asked by JAL's public relations magazine if I would write something about the Satsuma Students. That was the beginning of it all.

At that time, I didn't know the first thing about the Satsuma Students, so I asked, "What is that?" but for some reason, the offer came to me (laughs).

Since I couldn't write without knowing anything, I hurriedly began an investigation. When I wrote a short piece, an editor from Kobunsha read it and asked, "Instead of a few pages like this, would you write a full-length novel?" I thought writing a long novel would be very difficult and was troubled, but I felt drawn to it somehow, so I began writing. As a result, by writing this, I was able to learn the historical significance of the Satsuma Students, which I think was very meaningful.

As for what the Satsuma Students were, as you may know, Lord Nariakira Shimazu was a very enlightened lord. It is well known that he built various modern factories—though by Western standards they were mere imitations—and aimed for civilization and enlightenment early on, ahead of the Meiji era.

In that context, what I find truly great about the Satsuma Domain was that they didn't just think it was enough to invite foreign teachers to teach them; they decided to select promising young men from within the domain and have them study in Britain, which was the world's leading nation at the time.

For the writing, I felt I had to actually go to Satsuma, so I drove all around Satsuma to investigate what kind of terrain it was. This novel took about six years from start to completion, and during that time, I frequently visited Satsuma and also Britain. Since I am originally a philologist, I cannot write haphazardly. I collected as many documents as possible for parts that could be backed up by literature, turned what the documents correctly showed into a novel, and decided to fill in the parts that absolutely did not appear in the literature with my imagination.

As a result of running around the mountains and fields of Satsuma, what I realized was, "My, what a poor land Satsuma is." After all, Sakurajima erupts frequently, and volcanic ash falls steadily. There are also typhoons all year round. And the summer is intensely hot. It is not a place like Echigo, for example, where rich paddy fields spread out and rice can be grown in abundance.

In the first place, the land of Satsuma is almost entirely mountains, with very little flat land. On that flat land, volcanic ash from Sakurajima has accumulated, forming a volcanic ash plateau where rice paddies cannot be made. Therefore, while the Satsuma Domain's official rice production (kokudaka) was very high, in reality, it could not function as a rice-producing region like Echigo. I went to places like Bonotsu on the outskirts of Satsuma and had a chat with an old woman; when I asked her when electricity first came to the area, she said it was in 1935.

The question is whether to see being such a remote place as a disadvantage or an advantage. What was great about Nariakira Shimazu was that he tried to turn this inherent disadvantage of being a remote, non-fertile land into an advantage. He thought that if they couldn't grow rice, they should learn Western science and technology to establish industries and become an industrial nation. Among the various daimyo at the time, Nariakira of the Satsuma Domain might have been the only one who thought this way.

Also, Satsuma had been engaged in smuggling since long ago. Being so far from Edo, I suspect the Shogunate's spies couldn't easily reach beyond the Satsuma Peninsula. It seems smuggling ships were going out to Ming and Qing China from around Bonotsu, where Ganjin Wajo landed. Therefore, among the men of Satsuma, there were people who had seen foreigners.

At that time, such smuggling ships would go to places like Shanghai and Tianjin, but those places were already entered by the Western powers, and various cultural artifacts were coming in. There was also a Chinatown at Ganjin Wajo's landing site, and Qing Chinese people were coming on smuggling ships.

The person who planned the voyage of the "Satsuma Students" was Tomoatsu Godai. He was called Saisuke Godai then, and this Godai was played by Dean Fujioka in the NHK morning drama "Asa ga Kita" a while ago. He was quite handsome and cool, so everyone might have admired him, but the real person was completely different. For better or worse, this man was a big-time speculator (laughs). There are indications that make it certain he must have smuggled himself to places like Shanghai, though it hasn't been made clear.

During Nariakira's reign, Godai submitted a document called the "Saisuke Godai Report" to the domain office. In this, he wrote about how the Satsuma Domain must move toward a new era. He argued for sending promising young people from the domain as international students to Britain, the world's foremost civilized nation and ruler of the seven seas, to have them study mainly science and mathematics, as well as military affairs and industry, and then return. In other words, he argued that to train technocrats, it was best to send young people to Britain, the world's leading industrial nation. But this was no simple matter. This "Report" is interesting because it also describes methods for how to raise the funds to send these Satsuma youths to Britain. Looking at this, I think, "Ah, Tomoatsu Godai was truly full of speculative talent."

At the time, Satsuma owned steamships. He proposed sending them to Dojima in Osaka, saying they would buy relief rice because Amami Oshima was in a famine, and buying up a lot of unsold rice in Osaka's rice granaries. Then, without telling the captain or anyone else, they would set sail, not go to Amami Oshima, but head for Shanghai midway and sell off the rice there. Japanese rice was of very high quality, so it apparently sold for a high price even then.

He wrote that once they made money there, they would use it to buy a British-made steam-powered sugar-making machine in Shanghai, bring it back on the ship, and leave the machine in Ryukyu. At the time, sugar was made in Ryukyu in a primitive style by boiling sugarcane juice in a pot, but they would make it on a grand scale with the large British steam engine. Then, they would take that to Shanghai to sell and buy weapons and ammunition this time. He wrote that it would be easy to send students to Britain with the money earned from such various buying and selling.

In reality, they didn't do that. However, when Saisuke Godai submitted such a report to the domain office, a high-ranking official named Tatewaki Komatsu, who received it, became Godai's backer. I believe Toshimichi Okubo and others were also behind it, but Komatsu manipulated domain opinion, and eventually, the Satsuma Domain provided the money and sent a mission of 19 people.

Now, what kind of people were the members of the "Satsuma Students"? First, at the top of the Satsuma Domain mission was Gyobu Niiro (Hisanobu), a prominent figure in the domain holding the role of Inspector of Military Affairs. Then there was Hiroyasu Matsuki. He is famous as a diplomat after the Restoration under the name Munenori Terashima, but he was the Commissioner of Ships. Then Saisuke Godai. Then an English interpreter named Takayuki Hori. This man was from Nagasaki and not Satsuma, but he was said to be a genius interpreter. These four were not international students but went as a secret mission to investigate various circumstances or conduct diplomacy. At the same time, Gyobu Niiro was in charge of supervising the group of students.

Now for the "students" actually being sent. Minbu Machida (Hisanari) was 28 years old and a teacher at a school called Kaiseijo in Satsuma. Then there were Naoe Murahashi, Jounosuke Hatakeyama, Heima Nagoya, Seizo Samejima, Seishu Tanaka, Hiroaki Nakamura, and Konojo Mori. This is Arinori Mori, who would later become the first Minister of Education. Then there were Minoji Yoshida, Kanjuro Ichiki, Yaichi Takami, Ainoshin Togo, Shinshiro Machida, Seizo Machida, and Hikosuke Isonaga. Hikosuke Isonaga was the young master of the Satsuma Domain's astronomers and was a boy of only 13 at the time. Even the oldest, Yaichi Takami, was 31, and the rest were teenagers and young men in their 20s. Most were likely people who were at the Kaiseijo at the time, and I think they were all brilliant. In other words, they chose talented young people to be sent across thousands of miles of waves to Britain.

Among them, Jounosuke Hatakeyama and Minoji Yoshida were not enlightened at all but were obsessed with the "Revere the Emperor, Expel the Barbarians" (Sonno Joi) ideology. Also, Naoe Murahashi and Heima Nagoya originally didn't plan to go, but since Murahashi was also a samurai of the so-called domain clique from a branch of the Shimazu family, he wasn't enlightened at all. There were two "dropouts," Orinosuke Shimazu and Yoto Takahashi, who refused to go no matter what, so there was a circumstance where Naoe Murahashi and Heima Nagoya were put in as substitutes.

Jounosuke Hatakeyama (Yoshinari Hatakeyama) was also a samurai in a key position as a duty officer and was someone with no interest in foreign affairs at all. What was great about Tomoatsu Godai's insight, so to speak, was that he didn't just choose enlightened students. He deliberately chose and sent people who were not enlightened and had no interest in foreign countries.

The reason was that when these people returned and influenced domain opinion, if only enlightened people had been sent, everyone would have ignored them, saying, "Those guys are just Western-obsessed." However, if he took young men from the domain clique who originally advocated for Sonno Joi, they might change their minds, realizing that their rigid, old-fashioned way of thinking was wrong. I believe he thought the success or failure of this venture depended on this. That's where he was great.

Actually, there was one more person, Takehiko Machida, who was Minbu Machida's younger brother. He went as far as Hashima in the outskirts of Kushikino, the departure point, but for some reason, he didn't actually go. One theory says it was due to insanity, and another says it was because he died suddenly, but it remains a secret and is not known at all. Since this venture itself could not be made public, I suspect it was handled behind the scenes. Thus, while 20 people were supposed to go in total, because Takehiko Machida was missing, 15 students and 4 diplomatic envoys were sent with domain funds.

You all know the "Choshu Five," right? Five young men from the Choshu Domain, including Hirobumi Ito and Monta (Kaoru) Inoue, went to London in 1863, two years before the Satsuma Students traveled.

The biggest difference between the Choshu Five and the Satsuma Students is that the Choshu Five went as stowaways, very secretly, on a foreign ship, in a state truly like slaves. According to records, the ship they boarded was crude and had no toilet, so a board stuck out from the ship, and they would sit there to relieve themselves. There are messy descriptions left behind, such as Hirobumi Ito having an upset stomach and having diarrhea there many times for his life.

However, for the Satsuma side, while it was also a stowaway voyage, they didn't go with such miserable feelings at all. The one who backed this Satsuma group was Jardine Matheson. It was a major capital that controlled world trade at the time. Thomas Glover was a subordinate of Jardine Matheson. This Glover owned a steamship called the Australian.

Glover came from Nagasaki in this ship to pick them up at Hashima, a poor fishing port near Kushikino, and they went to Hong Kong. And in Hong Kong, grand steamships of the P&O Steam Navigation Company, which monopolized the so-called Eastern route, were in service. The entire Satsuma Student group traveled as first-class passengers of this world-class P&O company. The Eastern route departed from Southampton, passed through Gibraltar and the Mediterranean—since the Suez Canal was not yet built—went from Alexandria to Suez by the Suez Railway, boarded another ship at Suez, passed through the Indian Ocean, and came to Hong Kong via the Malay Peninsula.

Traveling as first-class passengers was very expensive. From Hong Kong to London, it apparently cost about 25 million yen per person in today's money. It's like staying in a top-class hotel. Since that was for 20 people, it was about 500 million yen. The Satsuma Domain paid this without hesitation.

What did that mean? I think that was where the Satsuma Domain was great. While Ito and the others from Choshu barely had enough to eat, the Satsuma group went leisurely, eating feasts every day as first-class passengers. The sea route from Hong Kong to Britain was Hong Kong to Singapore, then Penang, Galle in Ceylon, from there to Bombay, Aden, and Suez. From Suez, it was by rail to Alexandria, then another ship to Malta, then Gibraltar, and Southampton, but all the ports I just mentioned were British territories.

In other words, these students went all the way to London leisurely while eating feasts, stopping at ports that were all British territories. And at each of those ports, they were able to see the cutting-edge civilization of the time. Being taken to Britain suddenly would have been blinding, but the style was to arrive in London while gradually coming into actual contact with Western civilization during the long sea voyage, associating with Westerners, and learning Western manners and clothing. For that purpose, the domain office did not begrudge spending as much as 500 million yen in today's money. This was likely because Tatewaki Komatsu was a very great man. Also, the Lord must have been a person of that caliber.

Since I wanted to depict it based on facts as much as possible, I first collected as many documents as I could. In fact, if I didn't know what kind of ship they were on, I couldn't depict what happened inside the ship. In the illustrated books of the P&O company that depict those days, everything including cabin blueprints appears, so by investigating such things, I become able to depict this as a realistic scene.

Then there are the ports. I was surprised doing this work, but at that time, Britain had already laid undersea telegraph cables as far as Hong Kong. Hong Kong was a very key city for managing China. When doing business there, for example, how much the price of gold rose or fell had to be shared between London and Hong Kong in detail. For that purpose, they had to lay telegraph lines, and these had already reached Hong Kong. Then, what happened in Hong Kong would be known in London on the same day.

Such a thing was unimaginable to Japanese people at the time. It took two weeks of walking to go from Edo to visit Ise Grand Shrine. It is earth-shattering that communication could be made by telegraph on the same day to Britain on the other side of the globe.

Now, what did the students do when they got off at the various ports? That is generally known. I will introduce one piece of material. It is the "Yoshinari Hatakeyama Diary of Foreign Travel," and its formal title is "Record of Mr. Yoshinari Hatakeyama's First Foreign Travel."

According to it, they departed on the 20th day of the first month of Genji 2. This book is in the Kagoshima Prefectural Library; it was likely originally written with a brush, but only a transcription remains that someone copied with a pen in the Meiji era. Reading a bit: "Genji 2, Year of the Ox, 20th day of the first month, clear sky. Item: Around 6:30, Lord Gyobu was present, immediately set out, accompanied by him... arrived at Yokoicho in front." The next "XX" is not well understood, but "Mr. Yaemon Honda was also at the same place XX had a short talk. We set out for Nanko Shrine, the group offered prayers, from there rested briefly at Ijuin-cho. Offered prayers at Myoen-ji, prayed for military success, and arrived at Naeshirogawa after 7:00."

Everything is written in this manner, and there are some parts that cannot be read, but it is written very diligently from the departure to life in London. This became a precious primary source for my writing.

Also, among the students was Kanjuro Ichiki. He had the pseudonym Junzo Matsumura. At the time, stowaway travel was a major crime punishable by death, so officially this departure was reported to the domain office as "Official business for Koshikijima and other Oshima islands," stating they were setting sail because there was business in the Koshikijima area. But that was a complete lie, and in reality, the people who went were in a state like absconding from the domain. Since it would be bad if it were known who they were, everyone used pseudonyms. Gyobu Niiro was Enosuke Ishigaki, Hiroyasu Matsuki was Senzo Izumi, Saisuke Godai was Kenzo Seki, and Takayuki Hori was Masaji Takagi.

However, among them, Kanjuro Ichiki continued to use Junzo Matsumura as his formal name even after the Meiji Restoration. Also, Hikosuke Isonaga, from a distinguished family that served as astronomers for the Satsuma Domain, used the pseudonym Kanae Nagasawa, and he also used this Kanae Nagasawa as his real name after the Meiji Restoration.

This Kanjuro Ichiki (Junzo Matsumura) also left a diary to some extent, which is included in a thick book called "History of the Satsuma Domain Navy" and can be read by anyone. Regarding Tomoatsu Godai, there is a book called "Biographical Materials of Tomoatsu Godai," where documents Godai submitted to the domain office are recorded. There is also the "Kiyonari Yoshida Related Documents." Kiyonari Yoshida (Minoji) would later be active as a diplomat, so formal documents remain.

Furthermore, a book titled "Collection of Diplomatic Correspondence of Naonobu Samejima in Europe" has been published. I believe this Naonobu Samejima (Seizo) was perhaps the greatest diplomat of the Meiji era. He was a linguistic genius and became a formal diplomat, so his overseas diplomatic documents remain and are public. Since there are things that remain as formal documents, reading these was the first step of research. Even so, it was truly helpful that Yoshinari Hatakeyama left such detailed records.

In addition, Seizo Machida, who I believe was the fourth son of the Machida brothers, called himself Saneyuki Takarabe in the Meiji era, was active in his own way, and later told old stories of the Satsuma Students' voyage at a historical society. It's interesting, but such reminiscences are quite inaccurate, so I had to compare various materials to investigate how much was the truth.

Now, what kind of places were the ports they actually stopped at? For Singapore and Hong Kong, illustrated books like "Pictorial Hong Kong" have photos and explanations of the situation in the early 19th century, so it's well understood, but for other ports, it's not easily known. Therefore, the method I basically took was, for one, to collect maps. This cannot be done while in Japan. The method I took was to go to the Map Room at the University of Cambridge and have them look up maps of the various ports.

In Britain, the British Library and the libraries of Cambridge and Oxford are copyright libraries, and basically all publications are supposed to be deposited there, so maps of almost any town exist for almost every year. Therefore, I was able to obtain maps of Penang and Galle on Ceylon Island from the 1860s with a difference of only two or three years.

Maps of that time are different from current maps; for example, the water depth near the island is written. Then, by looking at the depth, one can tell from which direction the ship entered this port. Also, in the margins of the sea part of the map, sketches of the island as seen from the sea are drawn. Furthermore, looking closely at the map, various things like palm groves or wasteland are entered with symbols.

Looking at these, I can roughly imagine from which direction and while seeing what kind of scenery the ship approached the land, and what kind of scenery was visible after arriving. Such basic research is very important in historical novels, and how close one can get to the truth is a matter of life and death.

Also, there is a book called "Suez" that describes the entire origin of the Suez Canal. It is rich in illustrations, and the situation at the time is well understood. Also, in the February 21, 1863 issue of The Illustrated London News, a famous English newspaper of the time, there is a copperplate engraving of the Suez Canal construction site. I diligently look for and buy such things at old bookstores in Britain.

Actually, Aden on the Arabian Peninsula has a connection to my family. My great-grandfather was Jozaku Hayashi, who was a very excellent naval officer in the Meiji era. He was one of the very early students when the Naval Academy was established in Tsukiji and was a brilliant student in the torpedo department. He went to the site as the receiving officer for the warship Itsukushima, which had been commissioned to France for construction. However, after having an audience with the King of Naples and eating a feast, he contracted typhoid fever and died in Aden on the way home. Since he was cremated locally, my great-grandfather rests in Aden.

What was that Aden like? Since Aden is a remote place, it's not easily known. There are many old bookstores in front of the British Museum in London, and there is a shop called the Oriental Bookshop that handles only things related to the East. The Jewish owner is quite a character, and he brings out various things saying, "Mr. Hayashi, how about this?" so I end up buying what he brings out.

In that way, we gradually became friends, and after going there several times, I asked, "I want to know about Aden around the end of the 19th century; do you have any materials?" He brought out two albumen silver prints of Aden from that time from the back and sold them to me for 25 pounds each.

In that way, I investigated each port town as much as possible in a visible form and wrote in the novel where and how they stopped. I would be grateful if you could understand that I am writing with the support of such materials.

Now, what was it like after the students actually arrived in Britain? This ship arrived in Southampton, which was very prosperous as a British trading port at the time. Southampton port is like a natural fortress and the waves are very calm. Around the Strait of Dover, the waves are rough and the wind is strong, but Southampton is not like that and is very suitable for a port.

Already at that time, the South Western Railway ran from Southampton to London. The station building of this Southampton terminal station still remains today, and it is exactly what the Satsuma Students saw (photo). The lower building was the terminal station of Southampton. It was called Southampton Terminus. The adjacent building is the terminal hotel that was managed by the South Western Railway. When they arrived in Southampton early in the morning, they would enter this hotel to rest and head for London on the evening train.

The current Southampton station is in a different place; the Terminus station building is currently used as a casino, and the adjacent former hotel has been converted into resort apartments. In this way, in Britain, buildings from about 150 years ago still remain today. I was also shown the inside of the building, and the rails from that time remain. I believe they went to London via these rails. Since the railway still runs on the same route as the South Western Railway of that time, one can tell what kind of scenery the students saw on their way to London.

So I brought an assistant who is studying landscape science at the University of Tokyo; I sat on the left side in the direction of travel and that student sat on the right side, and while going back and forth many times on the same railway, we took notes on everything that could be seen. By investigating in that way, I wrote the scenery seen by the Satsuma Students of that time in the novel. Fortunately, the scenery in Britain hasn't changed much since then, which is very helpful.

Originally, these Satsuma Students were scheduled to study at University College London for about two years. At that time, Oxford and Cambridge, in principle, did not admit anyone who was not British, especially not a member of the Church of England. Therefore, University College was established in London as a cutting-edge university for the common people, which could be entered regardless of denomination.

The reason this novel is titled "Satsuma Students, Heading West" is that this venture of the Satsuma Students cannot actually be said to have achieved proper results. First, they arrived during the summer vacation, and University College had not yet started. So, until the new semester began in the fall, they rented a house and boarded near Bayswater in Kensington, hiring a housekeeper and several language teachers. It's just north of Kensington Park. That area is very bustling now, but around 1865 it was a new residential area, and if you went a little west from there, it was still a countryside that was entirely like a pasture.

And when it was finally time for the university to start, it became a period of turmoil at the end of the Edo period in Japan, and since the Satsuma Domain was purchasing nine steamships from Britain in rapid succession, it seems the budget finally became tight. This was likely to counter the Shogunate's navy. It is even known how much they were all bought for. Looking at such materials, one understands that the reason the Satsuma Students' study abroad venture failed was ultimately because the money ran out.

Just when they were excited for the new semester, an order came to return home because domain funds would not continue. So these students moved to America or France and scattered, returning home by following their own paths. People ask why I haven't written in the book about what kind of studies the Satsuma Students did in Britain afterward, but just when they were thinking of studying, the venture itself disappeared. Therefore, the fact that their observations during the journey until going west defined their lives was what I most wanted to write in this novel.

The fact that their observations during the journey until going west had a great influence on them can be seen from various things. For example, when they went to Hong Kong, a man named Ryle Holme, who was like Glover's manager, accompanied them as a guide, and he led the group to the Botanical Garden. This was a botanical garden opened in Hong Kong the previous year, what we would call an English garden today. Botanical art and botanical gardens are one of Britain's very important cultures, and they were shown such a beautiful, newly made garden. They also went to see the docks owned by the British at the time.

When they arrived in Singapore, there were two big things. This is detailed in Junzo Matsumura's diary: "The local people, black people naked, also enter the water well; when coins are thrown into the water, they enter the water and know the heart of the water well." In other words, black boys were swimming in the sea, and when coins were thrown there, these boys would pick up the coins, which was frequently done. Seeing such a thing, what did the Satsuma students think? I believe they must have thought that if their own Satsuma and Japan became colonies like Singapore and Hong Kong, they would be the ones happily picking up coins thrown by Westerners.

Another thing, which both Yoshinari Hatakeyama and Junzo Matsumura write in detail in their diaries, is that a person who seemed to be a Dutch merchant was in Singapore, and this person's wife and children were to return to the Netherlands. And they wrote this about the time when the family finally parted: "Westerners' parting is a very poignant thing. Here a Dutch person came to this neighboring country of Singapore for business and resided there, but for some reason his wife is to return home first. At that time the husband came to the ship for the farewell; he seemed to have four or five children, and the affection of parting seemed hard to endure. When the time came to part, the husband sucked the mouth of the said wife and parted. That state truly looked painful even from the side. It did not settle with one time, and while they sucked each other again, among the hundreds of people who came to bid farewell to European and Indian passengers, it seemed as if there were no people around at all. The same for the children; the said parent parted while sucking their mouths. We were seeing such a thing for the first time and were amazed; we have heard that sucking each other's mouths is the most proper etiquette for a close parting" (Matsumura Diary).

According to Japanese thinking at the time, "mouth-sucking" (kissing) was absolutely not done in public. Since this belonged to sexual matters and affairs in the bedroom, I think it was a huge shock that they were sucking each other's mouths many times in front of children and under public gaze. But they probably learned from Holme that this was the Western way. Later, Gyobu Niiro wrote about this in a letter to his son who was studying abroad, saying this was the Western way. From each of those things, I think they learned that cultures are quite different.

Also, since Hong Kong had gas lamps, it was brightly lit even at night. They learned Western artifacts in this way, thinking that the town of Kagoshima would be pitch black at night and this was completely different.

And when they arrived in Suez, they took a train from there, but they rested at a hotel at Cairo station on the way. At that time, when they arrived at the station, a large sign saying "Satsuma Group, This Way" was out. They couldn't help but wonder how these people knew they would arrive on this train even though they were hundreds of miles away. Then Holme said, "No, it's already been notified by telegraph." When asked what telegraph was, he said it was notified by those lines standing all along the tracks.

Also, for making the Suez Canal, there were labor camps for the workers all along. The canal was dug by hand, but in shallow areas near sandbars and tidal flats, the Suez Canal was made by digging sand using dredging ships called dredgers. Seeing such things, they learned that such ships were also necessary to make a canal.

In Suez, they also went to see an ice factory. Before that, when they were traveling in the Indian Ocean, the group ate ice cream. In the intense heat of the Indian Ocean, ice cream was served to first-class passengers. For the Satsuma samurai, it was a mystery how such cold things could be kept in this intensely hot ship. They didn't think for a moment that ice was being made. Already by this time, ice-making machines using ammonia had been created.

So, they went to see an ice factory in Suez, but before that there was a water-making factory, which pumped up seawater and burned coal to evaporate it and make fresh water. There were such water factories and ice factories. Without them, thousands of workers could not be made to work in such a desert. It is written that they were astonished to see that giant plan.

In that way, they learned in practice what Western civilization was like at each place they went. Herein lies the significance of the Satsuma Domain having the young people travel as first-class passengers; even if what they learned after going there was not so much, I think what they learned during this long journey was truly enormous.

In this era, many suspicious characters were also active. There was a Frenchman named Count Montblanc (Comte de Montblanc), who concluded something like a "Belgium Trading Company Treaty" with the Satsuma Domain. It was a treaty where Count Montblanc would be the agent for all of the Satsuma Domain's overseas trade, but the Satsuma Domain did not keep this treaty at all.

The reason was that Montblanc probably approached the Shogunate first but was ignored, so he seems to have come to Satsuma. Just when Godai and the other envoys were in Britain, Montblanc invited them to his castle in France and gave them a grand welcome. Godai completely trusted him and concluded the treaty. However, an interpreter named Kenjiro Shirakawa (Saito) was attached, and he was a truly shady character. Later, Naonobu Samejima wrote in a letter that he was a truly shady character. In this way, the message "Montblanc must not be trusted" apparently reached the key parts of the Satsuma Domain. So although they concluded the treaty for the time being, they didn't deal with Montblanc at all.

Later, Montblanc complained that it was a treaty violation and came all the way to Kagoshima. However, Tomoatsu Godai was one or two levels above Montblanc in speculative talent. He took him to a hot spring resort at the foot of Mt. Kaimon, overwhelmed him with feasts, and sent him back without listening to anything he said, so the Satsuma Domain managed not to be deceived by Montblanc. I think that was also because they had seen the state of European people in Britain.

Also, the person who dealt with Matsuki and others at the British Foreign Office at the time was Laurence Oliphant. This Oliphant had a terrible experience being slashed by a ronin in Japan and seriously injured, but he was very pro-Japanese throughout his life. Just when Matsuki and the others returned to Britain after also inspecting the situation in Russia, he told them not to trust that country because it was a country that only thought of itself.

However, Oliphant was great for more than just that. He said Russia was an untrustworthy country. But then, when asked if Britain was a country to be trusted, he said that was not the case. He said that the European powers were groups that intended to prey on others if there was a gap, so Japan must never be deceived and must not let its guard down when dealing with Europe.

The person who guided this Satsuma group in London was Alexander William Williamson. This man had a slightly disabled right hand and was a chemist, but he was a person of great sincerity and integrity. Professor Williamson guided the group to a place called Bedford on July 29. In Bedford at the time, there was a large factory called the Britannia Iron Works. Here, they were making the Champion steam cultivation machine with the world's most advanced technology and exporting it all over the world, including America.

I actually went to visit the site of the Britannia Iron Works, but the factory was not left at all, and only the gate remained as a monument. Their appearance there is in a newspaper called The Bedford Times & Bedfordshire Independent.

"Last Saturday, a group of Japanese sent by Japanese lords to gain knowledge regarding the agriculture and industry of the British Empire visited the Britannia Iron Works. They were led by Professor Williamson of London University and the Professor of Natural Philosophy at Glasgow University and other prominent scientists, and followed their instructions in their inquiry. The Japanese, with their unusual physiques, drew considerable interest, and their Mongolian-style features were impressive, but they showed great interest in the machinery and the processes of operation in the factory. Above all, they seemed to understand each detail with surprising speed. Upon leaving the factory, they showed a very reluctant air to part, but especially upon seeing the operation of the latest model steam cultivator, the approximately 15 Japanese rushed to the machine, in such a state that there was truly no place to step. And it was a truly interesting scene to see them joyfully going this way and that in the wide courtyard while observing. After spending about three hours at the factory, the group attended lunch with our beloved Mayor (Mr. James Howard), and after that, went to see a demonstration of a steam plow at the Howard family's Clapham farm. There, their surprise reached its peak. This was because they discovered that the operation of the machine was far easier than they had imagined. Moreover, they instantly mastered the operation of the reaper working there and operated it skillfully. Incidentally, they went to visit the Charles Howard farm in Biddenham to see the famous shorthorn cattle and sheep, and after that, had dinner again at Mayor Howard's residence and returned to London on the last train" (Hayashi translation).

In other words, they instantly mastered and drove around the steam plow, which was the world's most advanced machine at the time. Seeing that excellent intelligence and scientific way of thinking, the British had a somewhat special feeling toward the Japanese. And the fact that the Satsuma Domain and Britain were bound by a special friendship had a very large meaning in the subsequent development of the Meiji Restoration.

About 30 years after the Restoration, before the Russo-Japanese War, the Anglo-Japanese Alliance was concluded between the two countries (1902). The Anglo-Japanese Alliance was, so to speak, a naval alliance. In the Meiji government, the navy was made by Satsuma and the army was made by Choshu. Britain was also the first to agree to treaty revision (1894). At that time, it is not difficult to imagine that these Satsuma Students played a large role as so-called technocrats, both behind the scenes and in the open.

Such things are a bit different from the work of the so-called Meiji statesmen, so they don't often appear in TV dramas and the like. However, for example, Yoshinari Hatakeyama was the first principal of Tokyo Kaisei School, the predecessor of the University of Tokyo. Also, Hatakeyama concurrently served as the director of the Tokyo Museum (now the National Museum of Nature and Science) and the Tokyo Shosekikan (Library), the predecessor of the current National Diet Library.

When people think of the Meiji Restoration, they only look at statesmen like Takamori Saigo and Toshimichi Okubo, but in reality, the Meiji government was being operated by technocrats represented by the Satsuma Students. There was a man named Yozo Yamao, one of the "Choshu Five," and when he came to Britain, he wanted to go to Glasgow to study industry, but they had no money. So when the Satsuma people arrived in London and heard that Yamao wanted to go to Glasgow but had no money, everyone gave one pound each and sent him to study industry. Later, this Yamao was called the father of Japanese industry and became the Minister of Public Works, but that happened because the Satsuma Students happily cooperated and sent him to Glasgow.

There is a movie called "Choshu Five," and that movie apparently says things like the five from Choshu and the Satsuma students had a fight in a pub, but that is a big lie; the truth is that three days after the Satsuma students arrived, the Choshu students asked for a meeting. The one who mediated that was Holme of the Glover Company. It is said that Ryoma Sakamoto made the Satsuma-Choshu Alliance, but before the Satsuma-Choshu Alliance was made, the young men of Satsuma and Choshu were joining hands in London and studying for the future of Japan. I think this is something that must not be forgotten.

Time has passed. I will stop here for today. Thank you very much.

(This text is based on a lecture given at the "713th Mita Public Speaking Event" held on December 4, 2024.)