Shades of the Past Read online

  SHADES OF THE PAST

  By the same author:

  TALES OF THE FOREIGN SETTLEMENTS

  IN JAPAN

  FOREIGNERS IN MIKADOLAND

  SHADES OF THE PAST

  or

  INDISCREET TALES OF JAPAN

  by

  HAROLD S. WILLIAMS

  Decorations by

  JEAN WILLIAMS

  CHARLES E. TUTTLE COMPANY

  Rutland, Vermont & Tokyo, Japan

  Representatives

  Continental Europe: BOXERBOOKS, INC., Zurich

  British Isles: PRENTICE-HALL INTERNATIONAL, INC., London

  Australasia: BOOK WISE (AUSTRALIA) PTY. LTD.

  104-108 Sussex Street, Sydney 2000

  Published by the Charles E. Tuttle Company, Inc.

  of Rutland, Vermont & Tokyo, Japan

  with editorial offices at

  Osaki Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 141-0032.

  © 1958 by Charles E. Tuttle Co., Inc.

  All rights reserved

  Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 38-11102

  International Standard Book No. 978-1-4629-0501-0 (ebook)

  First edition, 1958

  Fourth printing, 1984

  PRINTED IN JAPAN

  To

  my Wife

  who gave me much encouragement

  in the writing of this book

  and to

  my Children

  who pursued the safer course of awaiting

  its reception

  Opportunity may also be had to sail over to Japan where Christian men Jesuits of many countries of Christendom and perhaps some Englishmen are, at whose hands you may have great instruction and advice for our affairs in Hand.

  JOHN DEE, 1580, in his letter of instruction to the Masters of the "Quinsay Haven" about to sail for China.

  PREFACE

  The articles in this book were compiled from notes and material gathered over three decades and originally appeared in The Mainichi newspaper in Japan, during 1953 to 1958, in a series entitled "Shades of the Past." Since then they have been revised and partly rewritten.

  With the exception of some hearsay which enters into "The Burning of the S.S. 'America'" and "Mr. Carew's Tombstone," all are believed to be historically accurate in every detail.

  Japanese names are usually written with the family name (corresponding to our surname) followed by the given name (corresponding to our Christian names). This is the order which I have maintained in most instances. In some cases, such for example as Tamaki Miura, the Japanese prima donna of prewar days, I have reversed the names and followed the order by which the person is generally known to Westerners. Even in Japanese there are exceptions to the general rule, especially in ancient and aristocratic names, artistic and professional ones, and posthumous appelations, where the subject becomes a labyrinth of complexities, as indeed do most Japanese studies.

  Throughout this book Japanese words have been reproduced in the more familiar and more rational Romanised form known as the Hepburn System, such for example as Fuji-san (Mount Fuji), rather than the official but eccentric form where the same word is reproduced as Huzi-San, which travellers are expected to recognise and pronounce as Fuji-San, but never do.

  In a few exceptional cases, alternative or Anglicised forms have been used, for example: ricksha, rickshaw or rikishaw for rikisha, which is the contraction of the greater mouthful of jinrikisha.

  Although Japanese nouns have no plural form, I have, for the convenience of non-Japanese readers and clarity of meaning, in some instances such as Shogun and Tokugawa, treated them as subject to English laws of grammar, and used the plural forms of Shoguns and Tokugawas. In doing so, I am well aware that I shall be criticised by the purists.

  Grateful acknowledgments are made to my wife for the decorations, to Mr. F.D. Burrows and Mr. L.J. Nuzum for furnishing photographs, and to Mr. T. Philip Terry, the author of Guide to Japan—one of the most readable and comprehensive of all guide books—for permission to quote his description of the Yoshiwara in nighttime and in daytime.

  Finally acknowledgments are made to that legion of men, commencing with Marco Polo, and including scholars, merchants, missionaries, editors, men of letters, and men of the sword, but for all of whose writings, these accounts of "Shades of the Past" could never have been written.

  H. S. WILLIAMS

  SHIOYA, JAPAN

  CONTENTS

  Official Secrets 17

  St George for Merrie England 28

  Trading under Difficulties 37

  Queen Victoria's Present 51

  Vortical Atoms and Crackpots 62

  The Mutiny of the "Cyprus" 74

  The President's Letter 80

  Black-Eyed Susan 89

  Murder near the Daibutsu 94

  Some Christmas Days of Long Ago 99

  Hara-kiri in Kobe 106

  The Sakai Massacre 113

  A Forgotten Road 123

  The Loss of the USS "Oneida" 129

  The Case of the "Maria Luz" 140

  The Burning of the SS "America" 145

  Sam Patch 159

  An Emperor's Grief 168

  The Forgotten Medals 177

  The Carew Case 184

  Mr Carew's Tombstone 200

  Life and Strife in the Foreign Concessions 210

  The Yoshiwara Ladies and Pinup Girls 223

  The Tourists Looked Around 229

  Pilgrims Ancient and Modern 238

  Gold, Gold, Gold 247

  Photograph Albums 258

  Japan's National Anthem 266

  A Traitor was Executed 272

  They came to Osaka 277

  Beyond the Reef 288

  Antics in the Nude 294

  Mesdames Chrysanthemum and Butterfly 306

  Let's Climb Fuji 312

  We Buried Our Dead Here 323

  About the Author 339

  Chronological Table 341

  Glossary 345

  Index 353

  ILLUSTRATIONS

  (Following page 176)

  PLATE I. Zempukuji in Yedo in 1859. Temple where the first U.S. Legation was located during the sojourn of Townsend Harris, first American envoy in Japan. (Courtesy of F.D. Burrows, Esq.)

  PLATE II. Tozenji in Yedo in 1859. Temple where the first British Legation was located. (Courtesy of F.D. Burrows, Esq.)

  PLATE III. Mansion of the Daimyo of Satsuma in Yedo, 1859—typical of the homes in which members of the families of provincial governors lived as hostages in Yedo during the Tokugawa era. (Courtesy of F.D. Burrows, Esq.)

  PLATE IV. Tokaido in 1860's near the former post town of Moto-Hakone. (Courtesy of F.D. Burrows, Esq.)

  PLATE V. Tokaido at Kanagawa, showing barrier gates and guardhouse about 1860. (Courtesy of F.D. Burrows, Esq.)

  PLATE VI. Eleven monuments at Hojuji Temple, Sakai, of the eleven Tosa men who were executed in connection with the Sakai massacre. See chapter, "The Sakai Massacre."

  PLATE VII. Head of Mamiya Hajime on view at Yokohama after execution. See chapter "Murder near the Daibutsu." (Courtesy of L.J. Nuzum, Esq.)

  PLATE VIII. A courtesan (generally referred to in Japanese publications as a "beauty" or "entertainer") by Utamaro. See chapter, "The Yoshiwara Ladies and Pinup Girls."

  SHADES OF THE PAST

  OFFICIAL

  SECRETS

  With constabulary duties to be done, to be done, The policeman's lot is not a happy one.

  "The Pirates of Penzance"

  In an article which was published recently, I commiserated with the consuls in Japan of nearly a hundred years ago, who, in addition to their regular consular duties, often had to play the parts of a judge, accountant, assessor, magistrate, arbitrator, coroner
, jailer and turnkey.

  Surprise having been expressed in some quarters at my statement, and doubts in others as to its accuracy, I felt sufficiently impelled to embark upon a more detailed research into those fabulous days. I soon had evidence that some consuls performed all those functions, plus a few more, for example during times of stress and emergency, and in the absence of adequate staff, even more bizarre duties such as inspector of brothels and nuisances, postmaster, and "Right Hose."

  The last mentioned duty was of an extra-curricular nature, and referred to the consul's position on the local fire-cart!

  The local volunteer fire brigades were important entities within the structure of the old treaty-port society. One had to be a person of some substance and respectability, quite apart from wind and muscle, to hold office in such an exclusive body as say the Victorian Volunteer Steam Fire Engine Company of Yokohama of ninety years ago.

  A new arrival had to have some "pull"—if you will pardon the pun—to gain office, even such a minor office as "Suction and Split Hose" in that particular lire brigade. After attaining that lowly position, an enthusiast could in course of time gain advancement, becoming in turn "Left Hose," "Right Hose," and finally "Foreman" if he happened to be a born fireman or was one of those persons who just cannot escape getting on in life. The coveted rank of "Foreman" was generally held by a Keswick or some such similar stalwart of one of the princely hongs, provided he had brawn and waist line, and enough wind to run a mile.

  Pulling the firecart was thirsty work, and putting out fires was wet work, which perhaps explains why the annual dinners—stag of course—of the volunteer fire brigades were both strenuous and wet affairs!

  "Begad, Sir, last week at the fire over at that house near Creekside, 'Suction and Split Hose' sploshed so much water over the girls that their kimono clung to their figures like chemises. Poor show! Poor show!" boomed Foreman Keswick of Jardines at one of those annual dinners.

  However to return to the subject of this article, the doubts which were expressed as to whether consuls, and particularly British consuls, ever had to perform the various duties which I had ascribed to them, were a challenge which caused me to search among the papers and records which may still be found at the bottom of old oak chests, in the dusty cellars of some libraries, and in the bookcases of some of those bearded and wheezy antiquarians and bibliophiles who seldom emerge outdoors—a search which extended into two continents.

  In quoting verbatim as I now shall—without permission—from the despatches of Queen Victoria's Consul at Nagasaki in the years 1859-1863, I do not believe I am betraying any very important national secrets. My defence can be that none of those despatches were marked "Top Secret"—for the reason possibly that the expression had not then been invented!

  Consul Morrison at Nagasaki, the second gentleman to hold that post, arrived there on 8th August, 1859, and it is interesting to note that his first four despatches to the Legation in Yedo were on routine matters, after which he promptly got down to drawing attention to "the low rate of salary which is attached to the office I hold " After admitting that fish and fowl were comparatively cheap and drawing attention to his own most abstemious personal habits, he came to the point:

  I would take the liberty to urge that some compensation more than bare subsistence is due, in consideration of an exile to the extremity of the Earth,—of banishment from society and from the relations of Home, and exposure to discomforts and privations difficult to depict and cruel to endure. 7 say nothing of the climate, which is for some months in every year destructive to health and even to property, or of the water we have to use, which at this port is so bad as to be almost poisonous. Neither do I dwell on the important and harassing duties with which a Consul is entrusted....

  To cut a long story short it is good to be able to report that this appeal did not fall on unresponsive ears, and that in due course of time this plain speaking consul received an increase in salary which I have no doubt he well deserved.

  The Consul, among his multifarious duties, was required to perform some of an accountancy nature, a task he does not seem to have always performed to the satisfaction of his superiors in Yedo, to whom on 21st September, 1859, he addressed the following tart despatch:

  I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of your Despatch No. 11 returning the accounts of this Consulate....for correction. I am deprived of the facilities for this work.... I shall not fail, however, to me my best endeavours to put these accounts in a proper state....Allow me to express my gratification at the confidence you entertain that under my supervision the accounts of this Consulate will in future be more satisfactorily rendered.

  The Consul's negotiations with the local Governor and other officials are of course dealt with at length, and we find him echoing sentiments not unlike those which U.S. Consul-General Harris had expressed, although in more restrained tones. In Despatch No. 17 on 21st September, 1859, he informed the Legation in Yedo:

  I have discovered that unhappily no reliance whatever is to be placed on the most solemn assurance of Japanese....

  As was Harris, so also was Morrison exasperated at the uniform fate of his many representations to the Japanese authorities, most of which were pigeonholed on the excuse that instructions from the central government in Yedo would have to be awaited, a slow-motion procedure which rarely reached finality.

  The consuls were also required to act as judges and arbitrators in commercial disputes, but seemingly Consul Morrison, with due modesty, was unwilling to assume that he was endowed with the wisdom of Solomon, because we find him suggesting to his superior at Yedo that application should be made to the Foreign Office that he be supplied "with such suitable law books as will assist judgement."

  Four days later the overworked Consul saw some prospects of divesting himself of the duties of a turnkey by importing from Shanghai a respectable Englishman as constable. Later, when the Legation in Yedo questioned the wages which he had agreed to pay to the constable, he had the courage to point out to his superiors, for the information of the Queen's Exchequer, that by comparison "a breaker of stones at home is more to be envied than my constable" He then seized the opportunity to elaborate on the high cost of living:

  If considered expensive, it only exemplifies what I have elsewhere pointed out, that excepting in the simplest produce of the place, we are, here at least, in a very expensive country, the burden of which falls not less heavily on our private resources than on the public chest.

  That the Consul's attention was much centred upon the duties of a turnkey is evident from his despatch wherein he plans the building- of a jail, and that of a few days later where he begged approval of the expenditure necessary for "a pair of handcuffs—much needed."

  Consul Morrison's coronial duties were associated mainly with the violent deaths of sailors, whilst his magisterial duties were generally linked with the doings of sailors ashore on pleasure bound.

  It is of interest to note that whilst his superior, Rutherford Alcock in Yedo, had dubbed the foreign community in Yokohama as comprising "the scum of the earth " Consul Morrison had no complaints against the British community in Nagasaki. Said he on 5th January, 1861:

  The existing British community at this port numbers about 25 persons, comprising merchants, smaller traders, compradores, and a butcher, and it is satisfactory to add that it is on the whole a very well ordered Community—showing no want of respect to Her Majesty's authority and giving no occasion for complaint on the part of the Japanese.

  What Morrison may have thought of the non-British community in Nagasaki is not recorded!

  The Consul was looking forward to the time when he would be provided with sufficient funds to engage his own staff of Japanese—or "natives" as was the expression in those days—and so enable him to dispense with the assistants and linguists already made available free by the Japanese authorities. The assistants, he considered, were government spies, and the linguists just learners of English. He was however despondent
over the prospects of being able to engage suitable staff and so relieve himself of some of his multifarious duties, because of the insufficiency of funds allowed:

  The total amount including the linguists does not equal the sum which I myself pay for domestic servants.

  The harassed Consul, anxious to show the flag of his country, had no Department of Works official to handle his building and repair problems. On 4th November, 1859, he devoted an entire despatch to justifying certain repair expenses, which comprised the purchase of a new flagstaff and eighteen boxes of glass. The necessity for both was succinctly explained in the following words:

  It is a long time since the American and Dutch flags have been suitably hoisted—which the British has hitherto flown from a pole projected from a tree top! The glass is necessary as a provision against the cold in winter—in lieu of the paper windows.

  When the necessity for such moderate improvements to the Japanese temple wherein his consulate was located was questioned, he sent the acid reply:

  With regard to the original character of the accommodation provided for this Consulate, I cannot but think, Sir, that you have adopted a rather erroneous impression in its favour.

  It is sad to relate that the despatches of this forthright Consul do not appear to have always met with the approval of his superiors and within a few months of his appointment Her Majesty's Secretary of State cautioned that Mr. Morrison should be "fully alive to the importance of moderation and patience and to the disadvantages of vexatious or useless discussion" —a rebuke which the Consul did not permit to pass without comment.

  There is some reason to believe that Morrison was more historically minded than some of the officials in Her Majesty's Department for Foreign Affairs. Believing that the accommodation of Her Majesty's Consulate in a Japanese temple was a fact which should be recorded for posterity, as also should the appearance of Nagasaki in those early days, he had the imagination to commission a visiting London photographer to take a series of photographs, the total cost of all of which work amounted to the sum of $70 Mex. Those photographs will continue to live long after ministers of state are forgotten.