2001/12/15
Published in "Juku" No. 232, 2001
As a member (hired interpreter) of the Bunkyu Mission to Europe, the young Yukichi Fukuzawa spent half a year traveling through France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Russia, Prussia, and Portugal, eagerly observing the systems, culture, and technology of each country.
It was in France, ruled by Napoleon III, that he took his memorable first steps into Europe.
On January 22, 1862, the Bunkyu Mission to Europe, with Takenouchi Yasunori, the Commissioner of Foreign Affairs and Commissioner of Finance, as its chief envoy, boarded the British warship HMS Odin and departed from Shinagawa. The mission's objective was to negotiate with six European countries for the postponement of the opening of ports and cities in Edo, Osaka, Hyogo, and Niigata. And what Fukuzawa gained from this journey through Europe was immeasurable. In Paris, he was also able to make the acquaintance of a French Orientalist named de Rosny...
The overseas study tour, organized by the Student Affairs Center's "University Life Roundtable," is an overseas trip that actually visits the lands and historical sites that the young Fukuzawa visited as a member of the mission, allowing participants to reflect on that time. This year, the tour visited France for 10 days starting from Friday, September 7. Led by Professor Kosuke Oyama of the Faculty of Law, Teruyoshi Osawa, a teacher at Chutobu Junior High School with deep knowledge of Fukuzawa's achievements, accompanied the tour as a lecturer. This time, we will trace Fukuzawa's footsteps from Marseille to Lyon and Paris, focusing on photographs taken by teacher Osawa.
Marseille
"France is a great country five thousand *ri* to the west of Japan, in the midst of the prosperous nations of Europe" (from *Jōyaku Jūichikoku Ki* [Record of the Eleven Treaty Nations]). After traveling from Hong Kong and Singapore, across the Indian Ocean, through the Red Sea, and overland through Suez and Cairo to the Mediterranean, the Bunkyu Mission to Europe set foot on French soil for the first time on April 3. The journey had taken about two months. The party landed in Marseille, one of the leading port cities on the Mediterranean coast. The Old Port where Fukuzawa and his party arrived is now used as a yacht harbor. Fukuzawa and the mission stayed at the Hôtel des Colonies and on April 5, they headed for Lyon, France's second-largest city, by train.
Lyon
"A place such as Lyon is famous for its textiles and is highly reputed throughout the world" (from *Jōyaku Jūichikoku Ki*). The party, which entered Lyon on April 5, stayed at the Grand Hôtel, located at what is now 16 Rue de la République. Today, the building is no longer in operation as a hotel, but it remains almost as it was at the time. The mission party departed from Lyon-Perrache station on the morning of April 7 and arrived at Gare de Lyon in Paris in the evening. Incidentally, France's high-speed train, the TGV, now runs on this line. Fukuzawa took a great interest in the construction of railways, their company management, and fare systems, and later investigated them in detail. He also seems to have been greatly moved by the scenic rural landscapes of southern France viewed from the train window on the way to Paris, and he described his impressions with a poetic touch that was unusual for him.
Paris
"The capital of France is called Paris. Its beauty is the finest in all of Europe, and it can be called the foremost capital in the world. The houses in the city stand six and seven stories high, and at night, ten thousand lamps illuminate the streets, making no distinction between day and night; its prosperity and splendor are beyond compare. However, its population is just over one million, and the city is smaller than London in England. In Japanese terms, Paris is like Osaka, and London is like Edo" (from *Jōyaku Jūichikoku Ki*).
The mission party stayed in Paris from April 7 to April 29. This was just after the large-scale urban development by Napoleon III, and the famous Opéra Garnier was under construction at the time. Many of the places Fukuzawa and his party visited still have their buildings intact today. The Hôtel du Louvre, where the mission stayed, is one of them. The building of the Fortin Papeterie, where Fukuzawa purchased his *Seikō Techō* (Notebook of the Western Voyage), also still exists. The *Seikō Techō*, in which he recorded his observations during his stay in Europe, can be considered an important record that would later form the basis for writing books such as "Things Western (Seiyō Jijō)". The Fortin Papeterie has since moved to Clichy, a suburb northwest of Paris, and is still in business today as a general office equipment manufacturer.
During this stay in Paris, the mission's Takenouchi Yasunori and others had an audience with Napoleon III to negotiate the postponement of the opening of ports and cities. Fukuzawa, who was an attendant, was busy with preparations for this, but he managed to find time to see Paris. A good guide for him on these occasions was the Orientalist Léon de Rosny. Dispatched by the French government as an interpreter and escort committee member, de Rosny was 25 years old at the time, two years younger than Fukuzawa. As they exchanged knowledge about each other's cultures, the two men of the same generation gradually deepened their friendship. Although de Rosny had learned Chinese at the School of Oriental Languages and had also studied Japanese on his own, their conversations seem to have been conducted with the help of writing. One of the places they visited with de Rosny's guidance was Le Jardin des plantes (the botanical garden) in southeastern Paris. It was opened in 1635 by the renowned naturalist Guy de La Brosse, and in 1732, Buffon created a natural history collection here.
It is said that even after the Bunkyu Mission party left France, de Rosny came to visit Fukuzawa and the others in the Netherlands and even St. Petersburg, Russia. Regarding this inquisitive Frenchman, Fukuzawa wrote with affection in his *Seikōki* (Record of the Western Voyage), "He should be called 'a remarkable man of Europe.'"
On their return journey, after passing through Prussia and Belgium, the mission re-entered Paris on September 22 and this time stayed at the Grand Hotel. They stayed in Paris until October 5. During this time, Fukuzawa visited the Madeleine Church, as well as the Institut de France and the Bibliothèque Nationale (National Library) with de Rosny.
Fukuzawa's tour of Europe, having found an excellent guide in de Rosny, can be said to have become a great source of nourishment for his later wide-ranging activities in modern Japan.