A submission to the September 2011 J-Festa with the theme “Events in Japan“.
The Namamugi Incident was a samurai assault on foreign nationals in Japan on September 14, 1862, which resulted in the bombardment of Kagoshima in 1863, during the Late Tokugawa shogunate. It started out with a samurai attack on British nationals, ended up with the British engaging war on a province of Japan and has an interesting side piece on how the Japanese national flag was adopted.
Body of Charles Richardson, 1862
Charles Lennox Richardson, a British merchant and his three companions were travelling along the Tōkaidō road through the village of Namamugi. On the road they passed a 1,000 man procession of the daimyō (feudal lord) of the province of Satsuma, Shimazu Hisamitsu. The custom at the time was to stop and dismount when passing a daimyō as it was not permissible to overtake somebody with such a high status. Richardson and his crew apparently ignored the custom and refused orders. This was viewed as disrespect of the daimyō so the party were attacked by Shimazu’s guards. Richardson was killed and two of his companions seriously injured.
Monument at the site that Charles Lennox Richardson was murdered
In response, the British government protested and demanded restitution for the attack on British nationals from both the Government and from the Daimyō of Satsuma including the arrest and trial of the perpetrators of the outrage. The Shogunate were quick to capitulate and indemnified Britain for the loss paying a large bounty. However, the daimyō remained defiant refusing Britain’s demands. He argued that under Japanese custom disrespect to a daimyō was sanctioned by the immediate death of those showing disrespect. Legally, this claim was invalid, as foreigners in Japan benefited from extraterritoriality (the state of being exempt from the jurisdiction of local law) meaning that Japanese customary law did not apply to foreigners.
Portrait of Hisamitsu Shimazu
This sparked what is often referred to as the Anglo-Satsuma war. After protracted and fruitless negotiations with Satsuma, a squadron from the British Royal Navy, trying to exact a payment from the daimyō of Satsuma following the Namamugi Incident, engaged the province of Satsuma a year later in a naval bombardment of the city of Kagoshima on August 15, 1863.
The bombardment claimed just five lives among the people of Satsuma, and 13 lives among the British. Material losses were more considerable with around 5% of Kagoshima’s urban area ravished by fire and a number of Satsuma’s steamships destroyed.
Each side recorded the result as a victory. Satsuma’s claim was that the British did not land troops or seize cannons. Nevertheless, the show of British military prowess appeared to impress Satsuma as following the conflict Britain and Satsuma developed closer relations and became major allies.
Bits and pieces
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Namamugi, meaning “raw wheat”, is a neighbourhood of Yokohama. These days the township of Namamugi plays host to the Kirin Brewery Yokohama and raw wheat is, of course, an ingredient of beer.
During the Bombardment of Kagoshima the Satsuma fleet fought under a flag with the hinomaru design. Hinomaru, meaning “sun disc”, has a white background with a large crimson red circle set in the middle. The British who saw the flag assumed it was the Japanese national flag. Word spread and the flag became internationally recognised as the flag of Japan.
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The 1993 historical fiction novel by James Clavell, Gai-Jin, is loosely based on the Namamugi Incident.
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“Nama-mugi, nama-gome, nama-tamago” (raw wheat, raw rice, raw egg) is a famous Japanese tongue twister.
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Great read! What about The Last Samaurai? Does that refer to a real situation?
Scotty, other than it referring to the real situation of your fascination for Tom Cruise, for what it’s worth, The Movie Blog has it listed at #7 in it’s article 10 Most Historically Inaccurate Movies saying:
“The Japanese in the late 19th century did hire foreign advisers to modernize their army, but they were mostly French, not American. Ken Watanabe’s character was based on the real Saigo Takamori who committed ritual suicide, or “seppuku,” in defeat rather than in a volley of Gatling gun fire. Also, it’s doubtful that a 40-something alcoholic Civil War vet, even one with great hair, would master the chopsticks much less the samurai sword.”
he can be my wing-man anytime!
You can’t handle the truth!
Very cool knowledge bomb!! Thanks
That was a great read and so interesting. I love this kind of stuff! Love the side piece on how the Japanese national flag was adopted as well.
Japan Australia
“Richardson and his crew apparently ignored the custom and refused orders.”
I’m glad you mentioned this. A lot of histories I’ve read in English that mention the incident portray it, unconsciously often, as if it was solely a demented and hate-filled attack on foreigners, completely unprovoked and out of nowhere. While it was rash, sad and Shimazu Hisamitsu in particular was particularly arrogant, the show of disrespect came about within the context of wider tensions between foreigners and Japanese elites at the time. If memory serves me correct the retinue were coming back from Edo after having tense negotiations with the bakufu about the situation in the country. It all actually turned out quite well for Satsuma!
hi sig, thanks for dropping by. it’s a fascinating piece of history. i also wonder the perception if you add to the mix the legitimacy (or illegitimacy) of imposed unequal treaties which extended the extraterritoriality to foreign residents. possibly a justified attack based upon local law/custom? james clavell’s portrayal of richarson’s character in his book gai-jin (john canterbury) implies that richardson’s death was simply part of a political game for the european powers to call out as an example in order to ensure that the observance of the unequal treaties was reinforced.
Huh! No kidding, eh..? I wonder what brought on the design during Japan’s imperial years?
Namamugi, namagome, namatamago!
I typed that super fast just now~~
I should remember to quote my sources so that you can decide for yourself the validity of the statement. Apparently the Nisshōki design with the Hinomaru motif has been around for a couple of centuries. It has seemingly had a rough run to get itself official only being formally designated as the national flag effective on August 13, 1999 (according to Wikipedia). I think that the Battle of Kagoshima just gave it some legs for recognition on the international stage.
Type “Namamugi, namagome, namatamago” ten times straight and let me know how you go.
I still don’t see how the British lost more lives during a naval bombardment than the Japanese. No wonder it was a short engagement. There’s definitely a lot of good history in this era. Very interesting, and in some ways we can see the (indirect) germ of the Japan of today in what happened in this short period.
Good point about the loss of lives. It must have been the special operations force – the Ninja SEALs who did all the damage.
Never knew there was a war between the British and Japanese
Me neither man!