by Margi Preus
At one point, he and his friends briefly discussed a plot to assassinate Perry, but, deciding it would do more harm than good, they abandoned the plan. Yoshida came around to espouse his mentor Sakuma’s idea that to “drive off the barbarians, the first thing to do is to learn their ways.”
That belief motivated him and a colleague to travel to Shimoda, where the Black Ships anchored after the treaty was signed in 1854. There they asked to be taken to America. Their written request to the Americans stated, “We have been for many years desirous of going over the ‘five great continents,’ but the laws of our country are very strict; for foreigners to come into the country, and for natives to go abroad, are both immutably forbidden. . . . Happily the arrival of your ships in these waters has revived the thoughts of many years and they are urgent for an exit.”
Perry rejected their application, not wanting to jeopardize the recently signed treaty, and the two men were sent back to shore with a request from Perry that they be treated kindly. Nonetheless, they were arrested and locked in bamboo cages, by which they were transported to prison in Edo. (These are the men whom Yoshi and Jack see as they travel to Edo together.)
One and a half years later, Yoshida was released from prison, after which he continued to work for a transformed government. He was imprisoned again and finally executed in 1859.
Yoshida’s teacher SAKUMA ZOZAN (1811–64), also called Sakuma Shozan, was also highly nationalistic but responded differently to the idea of Western intrusion. He favored opening Japan’s doors in order to gain certain aspects of Western knowledge. “To drive off the barbarians,” he said, “the first thing that must be done is to understand their ways. To understand their ways, the most important thing is to become familiar with their language.” He argued that in those things concerning “morality, benevolence, and righteousness,” among other matters, his countrymen should “follow the examples and precepts of the Chinese sages.” However, in the sciences, construction, and “the art of gunnery,” they should rely on the West. “We must gather the strong points of the five worlds,” he said, “and construct the great learning of our imperial nation.”
Sakuma was killed in Kyoto by an antiforeign zealot in 1864.
AIZAWA SEISHISAI (1781–1863) of Mito was one of the earliest advocates of the policy of “sonno joi” (revere the emperor; expel the barbarians). Aizawa held Japan to be “at the vertex of the earth,” the nation that set the standard for others to follow. He was an influential teacher of many of the loyalists, and he wrote, “Today the alien barbarians of the West, lowly organs of the legs and feet of the world, are dashing about across the sea, trampling other countries underfoot, and daring, with their squinting eyes and limping feet, to override the noble nations. What manner of arrogance is this! . . . Our divine land is situated at the top of the earth. . . . America occupies the hindmost region of the earth; thus, its people are stupid and simple, and are incapable of doing things.”
KAWADA SHORYO also influenced these loyalists. He wrote Hyoson kiryaku, an account of the experiences of Nakahama Manjiro. From his encounters with Manjiro, he became a source of information about the West to young, curious samurai, including Sakamoto Ryoma.
Kawada’s account is available in English, translated by Junya Nagakuni and Junji Kitadai and titled Drifting Toward the Southeast.
FUKUZAWA YUKICHI (1834–1901) became the “outstanding popularizer of Western knowledge in nineteenth century Japan.” He was one of the private servants who served under the commander of the Kanrin Maru. Along with Manjiro, Fukuzawa visited San Francisco in 1860, where they each procured a copy of a Webster’s dictionary. “Once I had secured this valuable work,” Fukuzawa would later write in his autobiography, “I felt no disappointment on leaving the new world and returning home.”
Fukuzawa is the founder of Keio University, the oldest institute of higher education in Japan.
THE GREAT LORDS, DAIMYO, COUNCILLORS, AND OTHER OFFICIALS
TOKUGAWA IEYOSHI (1793–1853) was the twelfth shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate. Shortly after Perry arrived, he died and was succeeded by his son TOKUGAWA IESADA (1824–58).
EGAWA TAROZAEMON (1801–55), chief secretary of the Department of Navigation, Survey, and Shipbuilding, took great interest in Manjiro and let him live on the premises of his yashiki (mansion) in Edo. He was appointed as a sort of “foreign minister” to deal with the Americans and asked that Manjiro be his interpreter. As in this story, however, other high-ranking officials, notably Tokugawa Nariaki and Abe Masahiro (see below), disagreed with this proposal.
TOKUGAWA NARIAKI (1800–60), Lord of Mito, was fanatically antiforeign and, with family ties to both the Tokugawa family and the emperor, a powerful leader.
The Lord of Mito had many negative things to say about the West, including this: “The barbarians have been watching our country with greedy eyes for many years . . . If we are frightened now by their aggressive lying strategies and give them what they ask for . . . they will manage bit by bit to impoverish the country; after which they will treat us just as they like; perhaps behave with the greatest rudeness and insult us, and end by swallowing up Japan. If we don’t drive them away now, we shall never have another opportunity.”
He argued in favor of war with the Americans, saying, “If we put our trust in war the whole country’s morale will be increased and even if we sustain an initial defeat we will in the end expel the foreigner.” He also said, “In these feeble days men tend to cling to peace; they are not fond of defending their country by war.”
In arguing against Manjiro being an interpreter at the treaty signing, Nariaki wrote: “There was once a dragon tamed and domesticated that one day drove through wind and cloud in the midst of a hurricane and took flight. Once that man changed his mind and was taken away on an American ship it would be to repent too late.”
ABE MASAHIRO (1819–57), chief senior councillor of the shogunate, also expressed an opinion regarding Manjiro’s reliability, saying, “I do not think that Manjiro has any thoughts of treason, but upon getting on board that ship, there is no telling what might happen. Considering the fact that Manjiro was taken to America by that foreigner, we do not know what method he might use in talking to the men on the ships.”
II NAOSUKE (1815–60), daimyo of Hikone, was in favor of signing a treaty with Perry to avoid military conflict. He believed that forestalling the foreigners was the best method of “ensuring that the Bakufu will at some future time find opportunity to reimpose its ban and forbid foreigners to come to Japan.” He was a supporter and sponsor of the delegation to America, but he was assassinated shortly after the delegates sailed in 1860. His murder signaled a surge of antiforeign sentiment.
The imperial family, including EMPEROR KOMEI (1831–67), whose lineage extended to the “dawn of time,” had not had any meaningful ruling power in Japan since 1603, when the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu united the country under his rule.
The arrival of the Black Ships and the chaos that ensued—and the obvious inability of the shogun to expel them—gave the emperor a perfect opportunity to assert his authority. The loyalist faction believed that reinstating the emperor on the throne was needed to get the country back on the right track. The emperor took advantage of the antiforeign feeling to make statements aimed at embarrassing the shogun. He said that “friendship with foreigners will be a stain upon it [Japan], and an insult to the first Mikado. It will be an everlasting shame for the country to be afraid of those foreigners, and for us to bear patiently their arbitrary and rough manners; and the time will come when we shall be subservient to them.”
THE ARTISTS
Although the artist, Ozawa, is a fictional character, the artist whose story he tells, SESSHU TOYO (1420–1506), was one of the greatest Japanese artists of his era. As a boy, he studied Zen Buddhism at a temple where the story of the rats (or mice, or cats) was born. A variant of the story was written in English by Lafcadio Hearn in 1897 and is also told in more recent picture books, The Boy Who D
rew Cats, by Margaret Hodges, and another by Arthur A. Levine with the same title.
Two famous wood-block artists of the time who are still well-known today are Ando Hiroshige (1797–1858) and Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849), both of whom traveled the country making pictures of everyday life on the Tokaido and in Edo. Much of the art depicted in this book was created by artists who were alive during this period; some may even have witnessed the events described here.
THE REAL PEOPLE ON THE EXPEDITION
Many of the statements by characters in the chapters “On the Susquehanna,” “The Comet,” and “The Lark” are taken from the journals and letters of the following members of the expedition:
WILLIAM B. ALLEN: a cabin boy
LIEUTENANT SILAS BENT: in regard to bowing, the lieutenant expressed his determination “that no such obsequiousness should be shown on the deck of an American man-of-war, and under the flag of the United States, to anything wearing the human form . . .”
WILHEM “WILLIAM” HEINE: the expedition’s artist
JOHN R. C. LEWIS: the master’s mate
LIEUTENANT GEORGE HENRY PREBLE: a deck officer aboard the sloop of war Macedonian
WILLIAM SPEIDEN JR.: the purser’s son and assistant
S. WELLS WILLIAMS: one of the expedition’s interpreters
COMMODORE MATHEW CALBRAITH PERRY (1794–1858) insisted on being called “Admiral” during the negotiations, believing it would heighten his prestige. He avoided direct contact with any but the highest-level Japanese officials, and every public appearance he made a formal ceremony. He was known as the Tycoon, the American Mikado, and probably many less favorable names by the Japanese.
Officially, the expedition’s goal was to establish a trading partnership with Japan; however, this was the era of “Manifest Destiny,” the popular nineteenth-century belief that it was the destiny of the United States to expand its territory over the entirety of North America (and possibly beyond), and Perry may have believed that he was obeying a moral imperative in seeking to bring Japan within the family of nations. In the phrase of the day, “The time of God’s working had come.”
The character of JACK SULLIVAN is inspired (very slightly) by TIMOTHY O’SULLIVAN (1840–82), who became one of the world’s first war correspondents, taking many photographs of the Civil War, and later of the western United States. The famous photographer Mathew Brady was asked to be the official photographer of the 1860 Japanese delegation, and he—or, since his eyesight was failing by this time, one of his camera operators—took the photograph at the Washington Navy Yard (this page). O’Sullivan would have been twenty years old in 1860, making him, like Jack, thirteen in 1853. Even though very little is known about his early life, it is unlikely that he traveled on any navy ship anywhere, including to Japan.
GLOSSARY
JAPANESE TERMS
bushi (or samurai): a warrior
daimyo: the provincial lord; literally, “great name”
daisho: the samurai’s two swords, katana and wakizashi, worn together; katana is the long sword, and wakizashi the short sword (primarily for the purpose of seppuku)
dojo: a practice hall for kendo or other martial arts
dozo: “Please” or “Here you go” or “Help yourself”
Fuji-san: the highest mountain in Japan, located about sixty miles southwest of Tokyo (Edo)
fuki-leaf: the large downy leaf of the giant butterbur, a perennial shrub
kamikaze: literally, “divine wind”; the storms that destroyed invading Mongol fleets in 1274 and again in 1281
katana: see daisho
kendo: “the Way of the Sword”; a Japanese martial art that uses bamboo swords
koban: a gold coin of significant value
lacquer: sap of the lacquer tree, used as a smooth, varnish-like finish for wood or other materials
mikado: the emperor of Japan
ronin: a samurai who no longer served a lord
sake: rice wine
seppuku (or hara-kiri—literally, “belly slicing”): ritual suicide
shakkei: the principle of incorporating background landscape into the composition of a garden
shogun: a commander in chief; literally, “barbarian-suppressing generalissimo”
shoji: a traditional Japanese door, window, or room divider made of paper over a wood frame
soba: buckwheat; buckwheat noodle
sutra: a Buddhist text or prayer
tatami: rice-straw mats used for flooring in traditional Japanese homes
tengu: a goblin or devil that has a bird’s wings or head and a long nose
Tokaido (East Sea Road): the major road in Edo-period Japan, connecting Edo (present-day Tokyo) to Kyoto and running along the coast
wakizashi: see daisho
SHIPBOARD AND MILITARY TERMS
aloft: up in the tops, at the mastheads or anywhere in the higher rigging
avast: “Stop!” “Cease!” in shipboard parlance
battery: a land-based military fortification containing heavy guns
bosun (boatswain or bos’n): the officer responsible for handling the crew and for the ship’s general maintenance; he piped orders to the crew with a pipe or whistle
bulwark: planking around the edge of the upper deck, which stops the sea from washing over the decks and prevents members of the crew from being swept overboard in high seas
capstan: apparatus enabling the anchor to be raised by hand
carbine: a short, light musket (or rifle)
carronade: a short-barreled cannon that fires large shot at short range
“clew up”: to haul the lower corners (the “clews”) of a square sail up to the yard by means of the clew lines.
companionway: a stairway or ladder leading from the deck to the accommodations below
cutlass: a short, heavy sword with a curved blade used by sailors on war vessels
deadeye: a round or pear-shaped wooden block used in the standing rigging to create purchase for a shroud (rope supporting the mast)
deadlight: a circular piece of thick ground glass inserted into the deck to give light below
gaskets: short lines attached to the yard used to secure a furled sail.
halyard: rope or lines used to hoist or lower sails
marlinspike: an iron pin, about sixteen inches long and tapered to a point; used to separate the strands of a rope when splicing
powder magazine: the storeroom on a man-of-war in which gunpowder and explosives are kept
rail: the upper edge of the bulwarks
ratlines: steps made out of rope or wood attached to the shrouds, that allow the sailors to climb into the rigging
reef (reefing sails): to reduce sail area by gathering up part of the sail
sails: the Black Ships were powered by both steam and sail; the sails mentioned in the story include main topgallant, skysail, and topsails (all topmost sails)
shot: cannon ammunition; kinds mentioned in the story are grape shot (so called because of its resemblance to a cluster of grapes on the vine) and canister shot (small iron shot or lead musket balls contained in a metal can that breaks up when fired)
64-pounder: a muzzle-loading cannon
slush bucket: a bucket containing a mixture of linseed oil and tallow soap, used to grease masts to allow easier movement for the running gear
spar: a long wooden timber or pole used as a yard (see below) or a mast
splicing hammer: a hammer tapered at one end, used in splicing
squilgee: another name for a squeegee, used to push water from the deck surface after it has been cleaned
yard: a horizontal wooden boom (or spar) to which sail is attached
MISCELLANEOUS TERMS
bannermen: the forerunners of a great lord or daimyo who carried the banners imprinted with the family crest in the lord’s processions
Daguerreotype apparatus: an early camera (a large box, sometimes on legs)
fetlocks: cushion-like protection on the back of
a horse’s leg, above the hoof
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Benedict, Ruth. The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Patterns of Japanese Culture. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1946.
Bird, Isabella L. Unbeaten Tracks in Japan. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover, 2005. Originally published in 1911.
* Blumberg, Rhoda. Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun. New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books, 1985.
Bush, Lewis. 77 Samurai: Japan’s First Embassy to America. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1968.
Chamberlain, Basil Hall. Japanese Things: Being Notes on Various Subjects Connected with Japan. Rutland, Vt.: Charles E. Tuttle, 1971.
Craig, Darrell. Iai-Jitsu: Center of the Circle. Rutland, Vt.: Charles E. Tuttle, 1981.
Deal, William E. Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Dock, George, Jr. Audubon’s Birds of America. New York: Arrowood, 1987.
* Dulles, Foster Rhea. Yankees and Samurai: America’s Role in the Emergence of Modern Japan, 1791–1900. New York: Harper & Row, 1965.
Dunn, C. J. Everyday Life in Traditional Japan. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1969.
* Duus, Peter. The Japanese Discovery of America: A Brief History with Documents. Boston: Bedford Books, 1997.
* Earle, David Magarey Earl. Emperor and Nation in Japan: Political Thinkers of the Tokugawa Period. Seattle, Wash.: University of Washington Press. 1964.
Guth, Christine. Art of Edo Japan: The Artist and the City, 1615–1868. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996.
* Hane, Mikiso. Premodern Japan: A Historical Survey. Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 1991.
Hearn, Lafcadio. Japan: An Attempt at Interpretation. Rutland, Vt.: Charles E. Tuttle, 1955. Originally published in 1904.
Hillsborough, Romulus. Ryoma: Life of a Renaissance Samurai. San Francisco: Ridgeback, 1999.
Horan, James D. Timothy O’Sullivan: America’s Forgotten Photographer. New York Bonanza Books, 1966.