Part 32
Before he quitted the Government service in 1873 he had taken the first steps to establish a mail steamship service to China and Korea, and around the Japanese coasts. The Company formed to undertake this work was afterwards amalgamated with the Mitsu-Bishi (Three diamonds) Shipping Company, and subsequently, when another concern was started and a fierce competition arose for the coastwise trade, Baron Shibusawa induced the opponents to make terms with each other and unite in one Company which is now among the great Shipping Organisations of the world, and known as the Nippon Yusen Kaisha, or Japan Mailboat Company. He is still one of its directors, and has helped, moreover, very materially to establish a trans-Pacific line,—the Toyo Kisen Kaisha,—which runs mail steamers from Yokohama to Hong Kong and San Francisco.
In the cotton-spinning industry he is prominent, having founded the Osaka and Miye Spinning Mills, and he has either promoted or started numerous undertakings for the supply of gas or electric light, for silk or cotton weaving, hemp and rope manufacturing, brickworks, cement factories, sugar refining, and many other enterprises for the utilisation of the knowledge which modern science has conferred on his fellow-countrymen. He is deeply concerned with railway extension, not only in Japan but in Korea, he is interested in harbour construction, and reclamation works, in farming, the breeding of horses and cattle, the manufacture of artificial manures, hat-making, and a variety of other ventures that need not be particularised. Altogether, including several banks other than the Bank of Japan of which he is president—_e.g._ the Yokohama Specie Bank, the Industrial Bank, and the Japan Credit Mobilier—the Baron is connected with upwards of thirty companies in the capacity of either president or director. He founded the Tokio Clearing-House, the Commercial Agency, and other business institutions, and in Korea he has from the outset taken a leading part, the construction of the railway from Fusan to the Capital, and between Seoul and Chemulpo, having been due principally to his efforts. When the railway development of Southern Manchuria is seriously undertaken this line from Fusan to Seoul, and thence to Wiju, is destined to form a link in the long chain of railway communication which will stretch from London to Tokio, with short breaks at the Straits of Dover and the Straits of Korea which divide Fusan from Shimonoseki in South-west Japan. There are incomplete links, notably between the Yalu river and Liao-Yang, but a military line exists, which needs only to be strengthened, so the permanent establishment of that section should present correspondingly fewer difficulties. Ultimately it is to be expected that England will be brought within a fortnight by rail of Japan.
Baron Shibusawa was nominated by the Emperor as a member of the newly formed House of Peers in 1890, when the Imperial Diet was first opened, but he resigned that post a year later, and afterwards occupied the chair of the Higher Council of Agriculture, Commerce, and Industry, and he has served on many commissions appointed by the Sovereign to make investigations on various subjects of importance to the nation.
In the domain of philanthropy Baron Shibusawa’s exertions have tended materially to the establishment and support of schools, orphanages, reformatories, hospitals, and kindred benevolent institutions designed to confer public benefit, on the directorates of which his name is frequently to be found, for he has ever been an active worker in the cause of charity.
In 1902 he again visited England, and was entertained by the London Chamber of Commerce, his speech on that occasion containing the happiest allusions to the growth of commercial relations between Japan and Great Britain. He was able to point with satisfaction to the existence in his own country of no fewer than 2534 banks possessing an aggregate paid-up capital of £35,000,000 sterling. After the Chino-Japan war the number of joint-stock companies rose, as he explained, with phenomenal rapidity, for in 1900 the total number was not less than 6176, and their paid-up Capital amounted to 440,476,000 yen, or over £44,000,000 sterling. The volume of the export and import trade, as he was able to assure his audience, had risen from 50,000,000 yen in 1877 to 138,330,000 in 1890, and 506,160,000 in 1901. Though Japan has since been at war with Russia the volume of her trade for the year 1905 will in all probability show a very appreciable increase over any intervening year, and with the immense commercial activity which she has developed subsequent to the conclusion of peace the figures for the fiscal year ending with March 1907 must inevitably exhibit a degree of progress and an expansion of international trade in which her people may justifiably take the utmost pride.
Speaking as a business man to men of business, Baron Shibusawa proceeded to refer in his speech to the then recently concluded Anglo-Japanese Agreement of 30th January 1902. His remarks may be said to apply with equal force to the extended form of that Agreement entered into on the 12th of August 1905.
“It is true,” he said, “our manners and customs are so different from yours that it would be impossible to make them common to both nations; but, as judging from past experience we are getting ever nearer to and assimilating with each other, and especially as there is no racial or national distinction in economic affairs, I firmly believe that the future development of commerce and industry in our country must be cosmopolitan in its character, that is to say, we should freely invite the co-operation of knowledge, experience, and capital from the most advanced nations of the West, not only for the further development of industry and commerce in Japan, but also for the opening up of the great natural resources of China and Korea. Our country is geographically so near to these countries and has so much of literature and art in common with them that we can understand the manners and desires of their people much better than you do, and your country has the advantage of being rich in capital as well as in the knowledge and experience of modern scientific appliances. There is no reason, it seems to me, why we should not co-operate in the Far East to our mutual advantage, since we have so many interests in common, and especially now that we are so closely knit together by the Anglo-Japanese Agreement of Alliance.
“Just as I was planning to leave Japan on my present tour, the United Chambers of Commerce were holding their General Meeting in Tokio, and they passed a resolution requesting me to convey their unanimous desire to bring the business world of Japan into closer relation with that of Europe and America, and to reach a better understanding of the real business conditions of each other’s countries. Vague as such a resolution must sound, its ultimate aim can be no other than what I have stated,—the co-operation of Japanese and foreign capitalists for the industrial and commercial development of the Far East,—and I trust that if there be anything in our business methods and customs which will obstruct the realisation of this happy union, our people will not spare their utmost efforts to remove it. I sincerely hope that not only will your Chamber take note of this desire on the part of the Japanese business world, but that it will kindly help to convey this desire to all other Chambers of Commerce in your country as well as to the business world at large. It is more than thirty years since I first visited your land, as a petty government official, but I now am here as a business man, and I cannot but admire the wonderful development of industry and commerce which is here exhibited. May the Anglo-Japanese Alliance be the means of realising the richest results in the pacific expansion of commerce and industry in the Far East, and may it thus be a source of inestimable blessing to the nations of the world!”
The wish to which Baron Shibusawa gave utterance in 1902 is one that finds its echo in the hearts of the people of both nations to-day, and one with which this humble effort to spread a knowledge of Japan and her affairs may fittingly conclude.
INDEX
Abdication of Shogun, 82
Academies of Bakufu, 96
Accumulation of specie, 291
Ama-no-terasu, goddess, 11
Ancient sword on Takachiho-miné, 203
Ancient shrine in Hiuga, 203
Adams, William, vi, 67, 68
“Advance, Japan,” xv
_Adzuma_ ironclad, 302
Aidzu clan, 25, 29, 84, 86
Alcock, Sir Rutherford, xv, 16, 80
Arisugawa, Prince Taruhito, 3, 4, 49
Arisugawa, Prince Takehito, 4, 144
“Ashigaru” rank, 66
Ashikaga Shogunate, 55, 57
Anglo-Japanese relations, 68, 80
Attachment to throne, 6
Attempt on Sir H. Parkes’ life, 32
Awa bay, battle of, 30, 89, 300
Awa, Count Katsu of, 29
Awaji island, 11, 30
Bakufu (Shogunate), 76, 77
Bank of Japan established, 289
Barons’ revenues, 61
_Barrosa_, H.M.S., 122, 123
Battle of Awa bay, 30, 89
— Fushimi, 31
— Shimonoseki, 123
— Shinagawa, 90
Biddle, Commodore, vii
Biwa lake, 74
Bizen men run amok, 32
Bombardment of Kagoshima, 78
Buddha (Daibutsu) at Kamakura, 55
Buddhism, viii
Cabinet, first, 140; changes, 45, 46
“Charter oath,” 46
Choshi, port, 97
Choshiu clan, 16, 17, 69, 76, 79, 173, 175
— defeated, 17
— victorious, 174
Clement, E. W., xv
Cocks, Captain, 68
Codes, civil and criminal, 44
Columbus, 9
Commodore Perry, 12
Constitution promulgated, 135
Coronation oath, 21
Council, first, 28
— of Local Governors, 45
— Privy, 140
_Coup d’état_ at Kioto (1868), 28, 83
Crown Prince, 49
Dai-jo-dai-jin, 27
Dakiu (polo), 94
Decree on accession, imperial, 50
Degrees of nobility, 139
Deliberative assembly promised, 21
Deshima, 68
Diet, the, 45, 135
Douglas, Admiral, 314
Douglas, Sir R. K., xv
Drill, foreign, 17
Dual control, 19
Dyer, Professor Henry, 133
Early visitors to Japan, vi
East India Company, 68
_Eclipse_ of Boston, vi
Embassy under Prince Iwakura, 128, 131
Emperor, personal name, 1; portrait (_frontispiece_); address to army and navy, 51; menage, 51; decree on accession, 50; grants Constitution, 44; at Hiroshima, 48; diligence, 51; sympathy, 52; Commander-in-chief, 52; education, 20; equestrianism, 20; poetry, 21, 52; coronation, 33; coif, 34, 36; first public appearance, 35; costume, 36; opens railway, 36; marriage, 34; magnanimity, 22, 25, 43; message to Diet, 47; reviews fleet, 311
Emperor Komei, 1, 4, 75, 80
— Ninko, 4, 103, 114
_Emperor_ yacht, 30, 89
Empress Haruko, 1; marriage, 34; travels to Yedo, 34; first sees foreigners, 35; supports Red Cross Society, 48
Enomoto, Admiral Viscount, 87; portrait, 299; aboard _Kaiyo Maru_, 300; Hakodate, 301; fight at Hakodate, 303; head of Colonisation Department, 304; makes treaty with Russia, 304; in Cabinet, 304
“Eta,” 66
Etajima naval college, 312
Etiquette at Shogun’s Court, 95
Expenditures reduced, 47
Expulsion of foreigners, 19, 65, 69, 77
Fillmore, President, 12
Fire at palace, 38
Foreign drill, 17
Formosa expedition, 39, 40
French graves at Moji, 123, 172
Fudai rank, 62
Fujita Toko, 97, 99, 100
_Fujiyama_ steamer, 30
Fuki-age gardens, 34
Fushimi, battle, 3, 31, 62, 86, 87
Fukusawa, Yukichi, portrait, 268; founds _Jiji Shimpo_, 268; at Teppodzu, 269; teaches Dutch, learns English, 269; sails for America, 270; for Britain, 270; influence, 271; establishes his famous college, 271
Gates, nine, of Kioto, 25
Geisha, origin of, 55
Geishiu province, 26
Gen-ro-in Assembly, 45
Gessho, priest, 205
Giyobukiyo, Prince Keiki as, 82
Glover & Company, 120
Golownin visits Japan, vi
Go-ro-ju Assembly, 94
Goto, Shojiro, Count, 28, 32, 195; consulted by Shogun, 195; carries prince’s letter to him, 196; adviser to new Government, 197; defends Sir Harry Parkes, 198; sword from Queen Victoria, 200;
## active in field, 200;
Cabinet with Sanjo, 200; visits Europe with Itagaki, 201; portrait, 195
Graves of French sailors, 123, 172
Gregorian calendar adopted, 36
Hachiman temple, 54
Hagi, 16, 120
Hakodate, 13, 26
Hama-go-ten palace, 35, 37
“Hans’” liabilities, 285
Harris, Mr Townsend, 13
Haruko, Empress, 1, 34, 35, 48
_Hatamoto_ and _Hatamochi_, 66
Hayashi, Jussai, 102
Hayashi, Viscount Tadasu, xiv, 81, 125, 131, 187, 272
Hearn, Lafcadio, xv
Heiki, Tatewaki, 32
Hemi village, 68
Hibiya parade ground, 38
Hidetada, Shogun, 58, 64, 67
Hideyoshi, Shogun, 15, 58, 64
Higashi Fushimi-no-miya, 86
Higashi Kuze, Baron, 91
Hikoné, 74
“Hi-nin,” 66
Hiogo, 14
Hirado, 65, 67, 68
Hirosé, Commander, 311
Hiroshima, 2
Hitotsubashi, Shogun (see under S)
Hiuga, old shrine in, 203
Hizen, 25, 69
Hokkaido, 15
Hostility to strangers, 19, 71
Hotoké-Iwa, 64
Ibaraki Ken, 97
Idzu promontory, 13
Ii-dani in Totomi, 74
Ii Kamon-no-Kami, 63, 70-74, 98, 189, 204
Imai, S., xv
Imperial decree, 24
“Imperial message,” the, 51
Imperial oath, 146
Industrial progress, 43
Inland Sea, 9
Inouye, Count Kaoru, ix, 28, 70, 121; military service, 170; on _Barrosa_, 171; at Shimonoseki, 173; arranges loan, 175; finance, 176, 178; foreign minister, 179; treaty revision, 179, 180; lord-in-waiting, 181; influence, 183; portrait, 170
Interpreters, vii
Inuboye, Cape, 97
Itagaki, Count Taisuke, 28; portrait, 279; commands division, 279; Sangi, 280; organises Jiyuto, 281; urges grant Constitution, 281; wounded, 282; in Europe, 282; joins Okuma, 282
Ito, Marquis Hirobumi, 28, 32, 45, 119, 121, 125, 129, 144, 147, 148, 150, 151, 153; portrait, 119
Iwakura, Prince, 21, 28, 35, 128, 131, 152-162; portrait, 152
Iwami province, 9
Iwasaki, Baron, 139
Iyemochi, Shogun, 15, 16, 18, 53, 71, 79
Iyesada, Shogun, 15, 53, 69, 71
Iyeyasu, Shogun, 12, 16, 58, 63, 67, 95
Iyeyoshi, Shogun, 70
Izanagi and Izanami myth, 11
Jamisen, 56
Jardine Matheson & Company, 120
Jimmu Tenno, 9, 10, 202-203
Jiyuto party, ix, 69, 71
Jo-I party, ix, 69, 71
Junks sail far, 68
Kagoshima, xi, 15, 31, 23, 42, 43, 78
Kai-koku, 69
_Kaiyo Maru_ frigate, 30, 31, 89, 299
Kamakura, 54
Kanagawa, 108
Kanin, 3, 48
Kasumi-ga-ura, 97
Kato Takaaki, Mr., 144
Katsu, Awa-no-kami, Count, 29
Katsura, General, 3, 144
Kawaguchi, 87
Kawamura, Admiral, 43
Kazu, Princess, 75
Keiki, Prince Tokugawa, 18, 23, 53, 81, 85
_Kiang-Su_, 30
Kido, Marquis Koin, 28, 99, 273-278
Kioto, 10, 14, 31, 43
Kiri-shima-yama, 203
Kishiu, 59
Kita Shirakawa, Prince, 7, 49
Knighthood of Japan, 66
Kobé, 14, 78, 125
Komatsu of Satsuma, 28
Komatsu, Prince, 49
Komei, Emperor, 1, 4, 14, 16, 19, 75, 80
“Ko-mon,” 62
Konoye, Emperor, 54
Kublai Khan invades Japan, 55
Korea, 41
_Kowshing_, 307
Kubota Sentaro, 80
Kuge, Court nobles, 21
Kujo, Prince, 1
Kumagé, in Choshiu, 119
Kunozan, Mount, 63
Kuper, Admiral, 23, 78
Kuroda family, 59
— Count, 141
Lancashire Fusiliers, 81
Liao-tung, convention, 142
— evacuation, 143
Lighthouses, 133
Li Hung Chang, 142
London police, 87
Loo-Choo isles, 56
_Lotus_ steamer, 30
Maizuru, 308
Manchuria, 2
Marco Polo, 3, 8
Massacre at Sakai, 31, 32
— of Christians, 65
Matsudaira, 58, 59
Matsukata, Count, xv, 284-297
Matsushiro, 101
Matsushita, 114
Mexico, junks sail to, 68
Mendez, Pinto, 9, 58
Mikado, title explained, 2
Mikawa, 58
Minamoto, 54, 58
Mint established, 285
Mitford (Lord Redesdale), 16, 80
Mito clan, Mito town, 53, 59, 60, 71, 81, 97
Mori, Baron, xii, 16, 17, 75, 114, 122, 173, 275
Mutsuhito, Emperor, xiii, 1, 18, 22, 24, 25, 33, 34, 92
Nafa, 56
Nagasaki, 13
Nakai Kozo, 32
Naosuke, Ii Kamon-no-kami, 70
Nariaki, Prince of Mito, 71, 81, 98
National Assembly decreed, 45
Nijo Castle, Kioto, 28, 95
Nikko shrines, 58, 63, 95
Ninko, Emperor, 4, 103, 114
Ninnaji-no-miya, 86, 92
Oiso, 151
Okubo, Viscount, 28, 75, 184-194
Okuma, Count, xiv, 28, 246-254
Oriental Banking Corporation, 175
Osaka, 24
_Osaka Mainichi Shimbun_, xv
Otori Keisuke, Baron, 27, 33
Owari, 59
Oyama, Marquis, 255-267
Parkes, Sir Harry, 16, 22, 31, 80, 87, 91
Peace treaties, 142
Personal name of Emperor, 1
_Phaeton_ cruiser, vi
Pinto, Mendez, 9, 58
Polo (dakiu), 20, 94
Port Arthur, 143, 309-311
Ports closed, 65
Portuguese, arrival of, 57, 67
Prince Higashi Fushimi, 48, 86
— Komatsu, 49
— Kita Shirakawa, 7, 49
— Kujo, 1
— Sanjo Sanetomi, 21, 28, 163-169
— Shimadzu Saburo, 15, 22, 28
— Yoshi-hito, 1, 49
Princess Sadako, 1
— Kazu, 75
Privy Council, 141
Public Works Department, 133
Railway, first opened, 47
Ranks of Samurai, 66
Rebellion in Satsuma, 42
Redesdale, Lord, 16, 80
Reed, Sir E., xvi
Regent (Tairo), 70
Religions, 57
Resanoff, vi
Revenues of barons, 60, 61
Rice, State trade in, 290
Richardson killed, ix, x
Roches, M., 31
Rome, Church of, 58
“Ro-nins,” 70
Russia and Liao-tung, 143
Sa-dai-jin, 28, 39
Sadako, Crown Princess, 1
Saga insurrection, 41
Saigo, Marshal Takamori, 25, 28, 42, 66, 75, 86, 99, 202-217
— Marquis, 39
Sa-in, 44
Saitama Ken, 316
Sakai massacre, 31, 32
Sakuma Shozan, v, 12, 101-115
Sakurada gate, 70
Samurai principles, 66
Sanjo Sanetomi, Prince, 21, 35, 163-169
Saris, Captain John, vi, 67
Sato Issai, 102
Satow, Sir Ernest, 16, 31, 80
Satsuma, clansmen, 22, 39, 41, 69
— rebellion, 42, 66, 78, 79
— allied with Choshiu, 69
_Scotland_ sunk, 30
Sei-yu-kai, 145, 283
Sekku festivals, 73
Senate, 44
Shantung, 2
Shibusawa, Baron, 315-324
Shidzuoka, 24, 67, 92, 93
Shikishima, 5
Shimabara, 65
Shimadzu Saburo, Prince, 15, 22, 28, 39, 75, 207
Shimidzu, 64
Shimoda, 13, 108
Shimonoseki, x, 76, 123
Shin-Cho-gumi, 90
Shinnō, 3
Shintoism, viii, 6, 7
Shogun, Tokugawa Keiki, 12, 18, 22, 25, 28, 31, 54, 71, 75, 82, 85, 88, 90, 93, 94, 95
Shogunate Embassy, 78
— troops, 81
Sho-in, 44
Shrines, 8
Siebold, Von, vi
Silk culture, 316
Suruga, 24, 92, 93
Suyematsu, Baron, xv, 144
Tairo (Regent), 70
Takachiho peak, sword on, 202
Takanawa Legation, 70
Takasugi, 119
Tayasu house, 93
Telegraphs established, 38
Temmacho prison, 118
Tempo-san, 30, 87
Tenno, 1, 5
— Jimmu, 9
Ten-shi, 1
Throne, attachment to, 6
Togo, Admiral Heihachi, 306-314
Tokugawa, Prince Keiki, vi, 16, 18, 53, 60, 76, 77
— Prince Iyesato, 24, 93
Toné river, 97
Tosa, 25, 69, 82, 110
To-sama, 62
Treaty, British, 14
— Elgin, 14
— first, 13
Treaties disliked, 19
Tsu deserters, 63, 87
Tsuboi Shindo, 102
Tsugaru straits, 25
Tsukiji, 35
Tsurumi murder, x, 77
“Tycoon,” 24, 53, 92, 95, 103
U-dai-jin, 28
Uraga, 11, 70, 116
Utsunomiya, 33
Uyeno, 43, 92
Victoria, Queen, decorates Goto and Nakai, 32
Wakamatsu, 26
Wakayama, 60
Watanabe Kazan, 102
“What will Japan do?” xv
Willis, Dr., 31, 88
_Worcester_, H.M.S., Togo in, 307
Xavier, Francisco, 9
Yamagata, Marshal Marquis, 18, 29, 76, 219-245
Yamamoto, Admiral, 144
Yamao Yozo, Viscount, 119
Yamato, 9
Yanagawa Seigan, 102
Yashikis, 54, 59, 79
Yedo, 14, 29, 69, 80, 94
_Yeddo_ steamer explodes, 37
Yenomoto, Admiral. See Enomoto
Yeso, 15, 27
Yeto Shimpei, 41
Yodo, Prince of Tosa, 83
— river, 86
Yokohama, 14
Yoritomo, Shogun, 54
Yoshida Torajiro, v, 12, 114, 117
Yoshi-hito, Crown Prince, 1
Yoshinobu Hitotsubashi. See Shogun
“Zipangu,” 67
Zozoji temple, 64
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