The First Japanese Mission to England
In 1862 a Japanese official mission visited England, nine years after the re-opening of their country to the world. Carmen Blacker describes how their strange attire and ‘inscrutable reticence’ surprised the mid-Victorian public.
The first Japanese official mission to England arrived in London at the beginning of May 1862 and was accommodated in Claridge’s Hotel. It consisted of about thirty-five persons of samurai rank, from the three feudal lords designated Ministers Plenipotentiary for the occasion, down to cooks, doctors, barbers and interpreters.
The object of the delegation was to secure from the European Powers that had sign§ed the Treaty of Amity and Commerce of 1858 an agreement to postpone the opening of the two ports of Hyōgo and Niigata to foreign trade, and of the two cities of Edo and Osaka to foreign residence. The Treaty had stipulated that these “two ports and two cities” should be opened at the latest by January 1863—but it was not long before the Shogun’s government decided that this clause had been altogether too sanguine.
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