On 3 July, University College London event celebrated the five pioneering international students who risked their lives traveling to the UK, and who went on to become the architects of modern Japan.
The anniversary of their arrival was marked by a ceremony supported by the Jardine Matheson Group – the current chairman of Jardine Matheson Holdings, Sir Henry Keswick, is a direct descendent of William Keswick, a major figure in the company’s history. There were speeches by Malcolm Grant provost of UCL, Keiichi Hayashi, the Japanese ambassador, former UK ambassador to Japan Sir David Warren, and representatives of the company. Descendants of the Chōshū Five also attended, too, as well as Mayor Kouji Nomura of Hagi City in Yamaguchi Prefecture, the modern name for the former Choshu Clan Domain. There was also an exhibition of Japanese prints from UCL’s special collections.
The most eminent of the group was Hirobumi Itō (1841-1909), who rose to become four-time prime minister of Japan, the principle writer of its 1889 Meiji Constitution, as well as a key player in the establishing of the University of Tokyo.
In the early 1860s, explained Shin-Ichi Ohnuma, professor of experimental ophthalmology at UCL to Times Higher Education in an interview with the newspaper, “Japan faced serious problems, including a severe economic crisis, difficult relations with foreign countries such as the US and the UK, and political instability. But there were those within the two powerful clans of Chōshū and Satsuma who believed that Japan could learn from the West in many areas.”
The Chōshū Five secretly made contact with William Keswick, a representative of Jardine, Matheson & Co – the first foreign trading house to establish a base in Japan – to secure passage on one of its ships. Due to sakoku (literally “chained country”), the state policy banning overseas travel, this was illegal and put the men and families as well as the men themselves in great danger.
After an arduous 135-day journey, they eventually reached London looking “like hungry crows”.
Hugh Matheson, the head of Jardine, Matheson & Co, contacted UCL, and the Chōshū Five were enrolled at the university and taken under the wing of Alexander Williamson, a chemistry professor who acted as their teacher, adviser and landlord. They also used their time in England to visit military facilities and factories, as well as the Houses of Parliament, the Bank of England, the Royal Mint and the British Museum. They were fascinated by London’s underground railway and focused their educational efforts on chemistry, engineering, mathematics, mineralogy and physics.
According to Prof Ohnuma their experiences were “a turning point in Japanese history…And after returning to Japan, the Chōshū Five did indeed apply what they had learned in London to help transform their country, making them pioneers of modern Japan, both as a group and individually.”
Besides Itō, Masaru Inoue became the founding president of the Japanese Board of Railways; Kinsuke Endo founded the Japanese Mint; Kaoru Inoue became Japan’s first foreign secretary; and Yozo Yamao, the “father of Japanese engineering”, established the country’s first institute of technology.
All were at the heart of a new government responsible for transforming Japan from an isolated, inward-looking state into a global technological power.
Footage from the event can be seen here on the UCL news page for the event
