Iwakura Mission

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Iwakura Mission (岩倉使節団)
Leaders of the Iwakura Mission photographed in London in 1872. L-R: Kido Takayoshi, Yamaguchi Masuka, Iwakura Tomomi, Itō Hirobumi, Ōkubo Toshimichi
AmbassadorIwakura Tomomi

The Iwakura Mission or Iwakura Embassy (岩倉使節団, Iwakura Shisetsudan) was a Japanese diplomatic voyage to the United States and Europe conducted between 1871 and 1873 by leading statesmen and scholars of the

Grand Embassy of Peter I
.

The aim of the mission was threefold; to gain

unequal treaties with the dominant world powers; and to make a comprehensive study of modern industrial, political, military and educational systems and structures in the United States and Europe.[2]

The Iwakura Mission followed several such missions previously sent by the

Second Japanese Embassy to Europe
in 1863.

Participants

The mission was named after and headed by

ministers in the Japanese government. The historian Kume Kunitake
as private secretary to Iwakura Tomomi, was the official diarist of the journey. The log of the expedition published in 1878 in five volumes as Tokumei Zenken Taishi Bei-O Kairan Jikki (特命全権大使米欧回覧実記), provided a detailed account of Japanese observations on the United States and rapidly industrializing Western Europe.

Yamakawa Sutematsu
, later Princess Ōyama Sutematsu.

Itinerary

United States

On 23 December 1871 an expedition of 100 Japanese leaders, government officials, and students, set sail for the West, (from Yokohama), on the SS America (1869), bound for San Francisco. Arriving in San Francisco on 15 January 1872, the group travelled by train via Salt Lake City and Chicago eventually reaching Washington, D.C., on 29 February. The mission was to investigate Western nations to understand their socio-economic, political, and economic developments. Japan, like many other nations, was on the precipice of change. Industrialization ushered in technological innovation. It was a period of modernity that Japan embraced. The mission's stay in the United States was extended with an attempt to negotiate new treaty rights, a task that necessitated two members of the party to return to Japan to obtain necessary letters of representation.

Members of the Iwakura Mission were keenly interested in observing schools and learning more about educational policy. Tours to schools, universities and industrial locations in Boston, New York and Washington, D.C., were made as a result. While in Washington, D.C., the Japanese delegation visited Howard University, a Historically Black College and University. As a result, they came away with an external, non-white or non-black, analysis of race, education, and class in the United States.

Unsuccessful in their attempts to renegotiate the existing unequal treaties the party eventually set sail for the United Kingdom in August 1872.

United Kingdom

On 17 August 1872 the Iwakura Mission arrived at

Highlands of Scotland, Edinburgh, the Yorkshire Dales and the industrial centers of Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle upon Tyne and Bradford
.

Iwakura Tomomi led the Manchester-Liverpool delegation. A visit that culminated on 7 October in a civic reception and banquet where toasts highlighted the leading role of the region in world manufacturing, technology and municipal administration. In Glasgow, as guests of Lord Blantyre, the delegation stayed at Erskine House and given tours of shipbuilding and steel fabrication facilities on banks of the River Clyde.

In

Bakufu mission had visited the town, but as a direct result of the visit significant new export orders were obtained for ships and armaments from Tyneside factories.[4]

The gentlemen were attired in ordinary

morning costume
and except for their complexion and the oriental cast of their features, they could scarcely be distinguished from their English companions.

— Newcastle Daily Chronicle, 23 October 1872

They visited the

Chamber of Commerce arranged a river trip on the Tyne, taking in the High Level Bridge, the Tharsis Sulphur and Copper Company Hebburn
and the Jarrow Chemical Works.

From

Sir Titus Salt and Sir John Crossley for their workers.[5]

A visit to

Stoke on Trent and Chester
.

The delegation was presented at an official audience with Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle on 5 December 1872. Another audience with the Prince of Wales took place at Sandringham on 9 December. The party finally left for France on 16 December.

France, Germany, Italy (and a few other parts of Europe) followed by their return to Japan

Saigon, Hong Kong, and Shanghai
were also stopping points en route, although visits in these locations were much shorter. The mission eventually reached Yokohama on 13 September 1873, almost two years after first setting out.

Purpose and results

Of the initial goals of the mission the aim of revision of the unequal treaties was not achieved, prolonging the mission by almost four months, but also impressing the importance of the second goal on its members. The attempts to negotiate new treaties under better conditions with the foreign governments led to criticism of the mission that members were attempting to go beyond the mandate set by the Japanese government. Members of the mission were nonetheless favorably impressed by industrial modernization seen in America and Europe and the experience of the tour provided them a strong impetus to lead similar modernization initiatives on their return.

Commemoration events

  • In 1997 a special celebration marked the 125th anniversary of the mission's visit to the north-west of England. Led by the Centre for Japanese Studies at the University of Manchester in collaboration with the Osaka Chamber of Commerce, a delegation of over 70 leading industrialists visited the Manchester Region. A Civic Banquet was held in Manchester Town Hall replicating the 1872 Reception. The Lord Mayor attended and received Ambassadors together with a citation from the Japanese Foreign Minister. A Civic Plaque commemorating the anniversary of the Iwakura Mission to Manchester was also inaugurated at the site of the original Manchester Town Hall.
  • On 24th April 2023, Senior business leaders and political figures from the UK and Japan attended the Japan-UK Symposium, celebrating the 150 years of the Iwakura Mission at Japan House London in Kensington High Street, organised by the Institute of Directors’ Japan Business Group in partnership with the Embassy of Japan, the Department of International Trade, Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industries (JCCI), Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO), Japan Society, Japan Exchange Group (JPX), Shimadzu UK Ltd and others. Speakers include The Rt Hon Nigel Huddleston MP, Minister of State for International Trade; The Rt Hon Greg Clark, MP Trade Envoy to Japan; The Rt Hon Anne-Marie Trevelyan MP, Minister of State in the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office; Hon. Rajesh Agrawal, Deputy Mayor of London for Business; and His Excellency Hajime Hayashi, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to the UK.

See also

Citations

  1. ^ Saburō, Izumi (7 June 2019). "The Iwakura Mission: Japan's 1871 Voyage to Discover the Western World". nippon.com. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  2. ISBN 0-203-98563-X
    . Retrieved 3 February 2016.
  3. ^ Baron Kaneko and the Russo-Japanese War, 2009, Part One, Chapter Four
  4. ^ Checkland, Olive (1998). The Iwakura Mission, industries and exports (PDF) (Discussion Paper ed.). London: The Suntory Center. p. 28. Retrieved 3 February 2016.
  5. ISBN 978-0-521-73516-2
    .
  6. ^ The Iwakura Embassy to the USA and Europe 1871-1873, Kume Kunitake, p.226-227

General references

Further reading

External links

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