The Iwakura Mission
(Updated in March 2012)
When the last samurai regime of Japan led by the Tokugawa clan fell to be taken over by imperial samurais in 1868, Japan had to accept unequal treaties with the US and other Western Powers.
The new modern government of Japan gave higher priority to diplomatic efforts to revise the unequal treaties. In order to achieve this goal, the new elites of Japan, mainly consisting of former samurai of both the anti-Tokugawa camp and ex-pro-Tokugawa camp, first tried to know in earnest situations in the world as the samurai regime had closed the door to the world for 200 years. For this reason, they sent a big mission consisting of 100 top politicians and bureaucrats to the US and Europe in 1871.
The Iwakura Mission or Iwakura Embassy was a Japanese diplomatic journey around the world, initiated in 1871 by the oligarchs of the Meiji period. Although it was not the only such "mission", it is the most well-known and possibly most important for the modernization of Japan after a long period of isolation from the West. It was first proposed by the influential Dutch missionary and engineer Guido Verbeck and was probably based on the model of the Grand Embassy of Peter I.
The Iwakura mission followed several such missions previously sent by the Shogunate, such as the Japanese Embassy to the United States (1860), the First Japanese Embassy to Europe (1862), and the Second Japanese Embassy to Europe (1863).
The purposes of the mission were twofold:
- To renegotiate the unequal treaties with the United States, Great Britain and other European countries that Japan had been forced into during the previous decades.
- To gather information on education, technology, culture, and military, social and economic structures from the countries visited in order to effect the modernization of Japan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iwakura_Mission
After they returned to Japan one year and ten months after, they had to however face a big turmoil which led to the last civil war in Japan called the Satsuma Rebellion in 1877. So, it was not an easy and smooth process for the new Japanese elites to build a modern and Westernized nation in Japan in the late 19th century.
Anyway several years after the Iwakura Mission, one of its delegates prepared and drew up a report on the Mission which was authorized by the Imperial Government. This report contains various sketches of places and cities the Mission visited in the US and Europe in addition to detailed descriptions of their journey.
http://www.nichibun.ac.jp/graphicversion/dbase/kairan/index.html
http://www.nichibun.ac.jp/graphicversion/dbase/kairan/index.html
http://www.nichibun.ac.jp/graphicversion/dbase/kairan/index.html
http://www.nichibun.ac.jp/graphicversion/dbase/kairan/index.html
http://www.nichibun.ac.jp/graphicversion/dbase/kairan/index.html
http://www.nichibun.ac.jp/graphicversion/dbase/kairan/index.html
http://www.nichibun.ac.jp/graphicversion/dbase/kairan/index.html
http://www.nichibun.ac.jp/graphicversion/dbase/kairan/index.html
http://www.nichibun.ac.jp/graphicversion/dbase/kairan/index.html
http://www.nichibun.ac.jp/graphicversion/dbase/kairan/index.html
http://www.nichibun.ac.jp/graphicversion/dbase/kairan/index.html
http://www.nichibun.ac.jp/graphicversion/dbase/kairan/index.html
http://www.nichibun.ac.jp/graphicversion/dbase/kairan/index.html
What is interesting about the Iwakura Mission is that it included several girls who were officially sent to the US for learning. Some of them contributed progress of modern female education in Japan after they returned to Japan.
Especially one of them eventually married a general of the Imperial Army who led the whole Imperial troops in Manchuria during the Japanese-Russo War (1904-1905). The general Iwao Oyama is the hero of the War on the Imperial Army side while Heihachiro Togo is the hero on the Imperial Navy side.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%8Cyama_Sutematsu
Anyway it is also interesting that the Mission headed for the east to America first without taking the westward route to Europe via South East Asia, South Asia, West Asia and the Middle East though they returned to Japan through the Suez Canal.
http://kabu2kaiba.blog119.fc2.com/blog-entry-948.html
http://www.jcii-cameramuseum.jp/photosalon/photo-exhibition/2004/20040203.html
http://www.pianist-sonobe.com/m/Uryu.html
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http://www.iwakura-mission.gr.jp/sisetudan.htm
(to be continued...)
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Today an earthquake occurred in New Zealand though no victims were reported.
A year ago, a month after a big earthquake in New Zealand, the 3/11 Disaster occurred in Japan. The whole Pacific Rim must be still on alert for a possible big earthquake and accompanying tsunamis.
By the way, Christ Jesus came to this world to talk about the God. The point at issue is today who would like to listen to Christ Jesus talking about the God. If you do not, what can be Xmas for you at all?
Mar 12:18 Then come unto him the Sadducees, which say there is no resurrection; and they asked him, saying,
Mar 12:19 Master, Moses wrote unto us, If a man's brother die, and leave his wife behind him, and leave no children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.
Mar 12:20 Now there were seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and dying left no seed.
Mar 12:21 And the second took her, and died, neither left he any seed: and the third likewise.
Mar 12:22 And the seven had her, and left no seed: last of all the woman died also.
Mar 12:23 In the resurrection therefore, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them? for the seven had her to wife.
Mar 12:24 And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God?
Mar 12:25 For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven.
Mar 12:26 And as touching the dead, that they rise: have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?