115 results
18 - A Record of Philadelphia
- Kume Kunitake
- Edited by Chushichi Tsuzuki, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, R. Jules Young
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- 16 April 2009, pp 93-96
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July 27th, 1872. Fine.
Today we packed our luggage and left Washington, D.C., on the noon train. After travelling north through Baltimore, we passed to the west of Philadelphia at seven in the evening.
We had accepted an invitation from Mr. Jay Cooke, a wealthy Philadelphia banker. When we reached a small village station some ten miles north of Philadelphia, we were met by carriages of the Cooke family and taken to his country estate. In recent years Mr. Cooke has come to be highly regarded for his enormous wealth and benevolence. On the evening we arrived, he was away on business and had not yet returned. His younger brother welcomed and entertained us.
July 28th. Fine.
Mr. Cooke returned this morning. He had travelled fifteen miles into the mountains the previous day to inspect some mines and had mistaken the departure time of the return train. He apologised for being late. Today we also enjoyed a banquet with his whole family in the grand dining-room. The family welcomed us wholeheartedly at each meal, doing everything possible to entertain us.
July 29th. Fine.
The Philadelphia municipal government had urged us to visit the city and we could not refuse such hospitality, so at nine o'clock in the morning we said goodbye to the Cooke family and left by train for Philadelphia, where we took rooms at the Continental Hotel.
3 - A Record of San Francisco, 1
- Kume Kunitake
- Edited by Chushichi Tsuzuki, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, R. Jules Young
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- 16 April 2009, pp 14-20
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January 15th, 1872. Fine.
At first light this morning the sea fog was so thick that we could not distinguish objects which were only a foot away from us. The entire deck of the America was shrouded in mist. The captain therefore ordered the ship to heave to in the ocean for a while to await the dawn. As the sun rose and the mists began to lift, we could distinguish the mountains of California ahead. They emerged more clearly as the sun rose higher. The America advanced slowly. Directly to the east, two mountains ridges parted to reveal a great natural gateway. Through it we could see steamships passing to and fro with smoke rising from their funnels, making a truly beautiful sight. This was the celebrated Golden Gate.
In our twenty-two-day voyage across the Pacific Ocean this was the first land we had glimpsed east of Japan. Words are inadequate to express our pleasure as we gazed upon this golden gateway, where sea and sky meet directly to the west and coastal mountains rise on both sides.
Today the America steamed into the bay flying the flag of Japan emblazoned with the red sun. The citizens of San Francisco had learnt of the Embassy's visit from newspaper reports, and the news of our actual arrival was telegraphed from the Golden Gate to City Hall and to our consul.
69 - A Record of Sweden, 2
- Kume Kunitake
- Edited by Chushichi Tsuzuki, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, R. Jules Young
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April 26th, 1873. Fine.
At ten o'clock we were taken to the naval dockyards at the express wish of the king. The dockyards are on the coast in the east, and we went first to the docks themselves, which are on the seashore and very basic in construction, for the ships are simply moored directly to the bank. Here we were shown three iron-clads with turrets.
Next we went to the training facilities, where we watched a company of the royal Norwegian guards, more than one hundred men, being drilled. There is only one company of these Norwegian royal guards, and they are apparently accommodated here. The king himself was already present; he took Ambassador Iwakura by the hand, and they observed the proceedings together. Soon after the king's departure we boarded our carriages and returned along the route taken by His Majesty, following on the heels of his carriage, so we saw his military escort. His coach was protected by two platoons of guardsmen at the front and back, and his roofed one-man vehicle was surrounded by guns and helmets moving in a dignified manner. It is a great mistake to suppose that European monarchs are but lightly protected and do not travel in ceremonial procession.
At two o'clock in the afternoon we went to the museum of antiquities [now the National Museum]. The collection of old bronze artefacts from three thousand years ago includes a kind of sword in use at that time which had been found in excavations at various sites in Sweden, Norway and Denmark.
95 - The Voyage Through the Red Sea
- Kume Kunitake
- Edited by Chushichi Tsuzuki, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, R. Jules Young
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- 16 April 2009, pp 493-497
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July 27th, 1873. Beautifully clear; not a cloud in sight.
At half past four in the morning we weighed anchor and set sail. We passed through three [four] lakes: Lake Menzala, [Lake Ballah], Lake Timsah, and the Bitter Lakes. At half past four in the afternoon we reached the port of Suez, where we dropped anchor for a while. We had covered eighty miles. At eight o'clock we left the harbour and put out into the Gulf of Suez.
It is only four years since it became possible to travel by ship from Port Said to Suez through the Isthmus of Suez. For this we must thank the French engineer [Ferdinand] de Lesseps. The construction of a great canal through this neck of land a hundred miles wide was the fruit of long years of dedication on his part. It was an immense undertaking. This hundred-mile stretch of land blocked communications between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea and hindered trade among the continents of Europe, Asia and Africa. For thousands of years people had either to brave the stormy seas off the Cape of Good Hope or cross the red desert and dusty yellow wastes of Egypt on foot. The plan to make communications more convenient by removing this obstacle severely tested human knowledge and endurance.
43 - A Record of Paris, 2
- Kume Kunitake
- Edited by Chushichi Tsuzuki, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, R. Jules Young
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December 20th, 1872. Fine.
Today we went for a tour of the city. There are so many places to see in Paris that it is difficult to enumerate them all, but there is one sight in particular which visitors arriving for the first time marvel at. This is an exhibition hall of oil-paintings known as the ‘Panorama’. Located on the western side of the Champs-Elysées near the Arc de Triomphe, it is a low, circular construction set among superb multi-storey buildings. On paying a fee of one franc and entering, we saw a street before us which resembled one of the boulevards. When we looked more carefully, we noticed that this was a battlefield, with projectiles flying in all directions, soldiers running about, an old man with blood pouring from a wound in his forehead, and weeping ladies and terrified housemaids making their escape on carts laden with household goods. To our amazement, it was not until we noticed that this was a depiction of the scene of the Prussian army's siege two years previously that we realised it was actually one of the paintings on display.
December 22nd. Cloudy.
Today we were told by the British chargé d'affaires that a telegraph had arrived informing us of the adoption of a new calendar in Japan and reforms in dress regulations.
December 26th. Cloudy.
At two o'clock this afternoon Mr. Conches and Mr. Mallard, the officials who had been charged with welcoming the Embassy, arrived to meet our party, while Captain de Noailles appeared at the head of two platoons of cavalry, together with carriages provided by the government.
17 - A Record of Washington, D.C.: Epilogue
- Kume Kunitake
- Edited by Chushichi Tsuzuki, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, R. Jules Young
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June 22nd, 1872. Fine.
It was mid-summer when we returned to Washington, and the heat steadily increased. Congress (which had risen before we left for our northern trip) was still in recess. The president and the cabinet officers had left the city, and politicians and other celebrities had all gone in search of cooler climes. With the city's residents dispersed to various parts of the country, half of the businesses in Washington were closed (since commerce in the capital is heavily dependent on government officials). The streets and avenues were deserted, and the only people strolling in the parks were poor white and black people. It seemed a completely different city from the one we had seen earlier, before our tour of the northern states. Because Mr. Fish, the secretary of state, had also gone to Boston and then to his summer home near West Point to escape the heat, diplomatic business was almost at a standstill. All we could do during the day was try to keep cool by taking carriage rides to see various sights. We did little worth recording.
Because the purpose of gathering senators and congressmen in Washington is to bring together representatives who understand conditions in the various states, politicians spend half the year in Washington and the other half in their own districts. Thus, they gain experience in administration and at the same time become familiar with the affairs of the people.
87 - A Record of Lyons and Marseilles
- Kume Kunitake
- Edited by Chushichi Tsuzuki, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, R. Jules Young
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- 16 April 2009, pp 461-463
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July 15th, 1873. Fine.
We left the city of Geneva and travelled to the station of Bellegarde in France, arriving there at half past five. We rested briefly while waiting for the customs inspection to be completed, then departed. At seven o'clock the mountains on either side fell back and level land opened before us. By now it was growing dark, and night fell before we arrived at Lyons. We stayed at the Grand Hotel de Lyon.
July 16th.
Lyons is renowned for silk-weaving. The city stands at the confluence of the Saône and the Rhône. All the streets are paved with flagstones, and there are many spacious gardens. Trees are planted everywhere, as luxuriant as any forest, and their leafy shade provided relief from the summer heat. In the early evening the people of the city take leisurely strolls beneath the trees. When night falls, gas-lamps are lit and glitter like stars.
Sericulture began in Europe during Roman times. Mulberry trees do not survive in cold climates but thrive in the warm southern parts of Europe. As a result, all the countries which had such southerly regions subsequently developed sericulture. It was the silk yarn of Italy and France, however, which achieved the highest reputation. In the 1550s, when civil strife in Italy drove people from their homes, Francis I of France took advantage of the situation to acquire the secrets of silk-weaving by inviting master weavers from the Italian city of Genoa to come to France.
65 - A Record of St. Petersburg, 3
- Kume Kunitake
- Edited by Chushichi Tsuzuki, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, R. Jules Young
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April 10th, 1873. Snow fell during the night; cold rain in the morning.
At twelve o'clock we had an audience with Grand Duke Nicholas. He is the emperor's younger brother and a general in the army.
At twenty past two we took carriages to a military clothing factory which supplies uniforms and footwear for all the regular soldiers in Russia. It is under the supervision of army officers and employs poor men and women from the city, although women are few. The uniform worn by Russian soldiers consists of a black tunic with grey breeches; since the country is a cold one, there is also a greatcoat, which is made from a rough kind of woollen cloth. On their feet they wear boots, and everything is made here. The tunic and breeches are changed every two years, the greatcoat every three years and the boots usually twice a year. For the welfare of the soldiers it was essential to establish this factory.
We then went to the Museum of Mining, which is located on the north bank of the Neva. The four leading countries in Europe in terms of mineral resources are Britain, Belgium, Prussia and Russia. Russia has the largest territory in the world, much of it consisting of cold, desolate, barren steppes, but it has substantial mineral resources. On account of transportation difficulties, however, these resources have yet to bring much profit.
40 - A Record of London, 4
- Kume Kunitake
- Edited by Chushichi Tsuzuki, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, R. Jules Young
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November 15th, 1872. Cloudy; rain.
As we were travelling, we had been unable to celebrate Emperor Meiji's birthday last month, so this evening we held a celebratory dinner at our hotel. We invited Sir Harry Parkes, General Alexander and Mr. Stewart of the Oriental Bank. Japanese government officials and other Japanese of importance all attended. After dinner there were speeches.
November 20th. Fine.
At six o'clock in the evening we attended a dinner given by the London Goldsmith's Company. We returned to our hotel at half past ten.
November 25th. Cloudy in the morning; in the afternoon it began to rain.
At twenty to ten in the morning we left our hotel for Paddington Station, in the north of the city. We boarded a special train and departed at ten o'clock for the town of Reading, which we reached at eleven o'clock after a journey of thirty-five miles. It is known for the manufacture of biscuits and the production of seeds. There are many biscuit manufacturers in Britain, but it is recognised that the Reading firm leads the field.
The Reading factory belongs to the family firm of Huntley and Palmers. Thirty years ago, the Huntleys had been a local family in humble circumstances, whose entire wealth would not have amounted to much. They scraped a living baking biscuits, employing only three or four workers.
1 - The Voyage across the Pacific
- Kume Kunitake
- Edited by Chushichi Tsuzuki, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, R. Jules Young
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December 21st, 1871. Winter solstice.
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Europe and the United States Iwakura Tomomi and Vice-Ambassadors Kido Takayoshi, Ōkubo Toshimichi, Itō Hirobumi and Yamaguchi Naoyoshi, with a retinue of councillors and officials from various ministries, totalling forty-eight in all, left Tokyo for Yokohama, where they stayed at several inns.
December 22nd. Fine.
On this day relatives and friends who lived in the capital came to attend farewell parties before the long voyage. At six in the evening a dinner was given at the Yokohama Court House for the consuls and ministers representing various foreign countries.
December 23rd. Fine; rain at night.
The recent fine weather has continued and the cold is not unduly severe. At dawn this morning the frost was especially heavy, and the sun rising over Japan seemed extremely bright. At eight o'clock everyone gathered in the Prefectural Office. We left there at ten and went by carriage to the harbour, where we boarded steam-launches.
At that moment a nineteen-gun salute was fired from the shore battery in honour of the Embassy. That was followed by a fifteen-gun salute to mark the return to the United States of the American minister in Japan, Mr. [Charles E.] DeLong. Smoke from the cannon drifted over the bay and the echoes of the salvos resounded over the waves, with the reverberations continuing for some time.
92 - European Industry
- Kume Kunitake
- Edited by Chushichi Tsuzuki, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, R. Jules Young
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The soil of the European continent is not naturally fertile, so people do not depend on farming alone. Although they supplement crops by raising livestock, they are still not able to make a sufficient livelihood. They have therefore become an acquisitive race, searching for what lies under the earth and mining it. Of all the minerals, the one with the richest benefits is coal. Huge deposits of coal lie in the earth, and there is no country in Europe, large or small, which does not produce at least a small amount. (Holland and Denmark produced extremely small quantities.) It is a cheap fuel and generates three times as much heat as wood.
The mineral second to coal in its benefits and used in conjunction with it is iron-ore. So great is its usefulness that in Europe the amount of iron-ore consumed came to be a measure of a country's level of development. Every type of manufacturing depends upon iron, and in Europe machinery is used on a huge scale. The country which dominates the iron industry is Britain. America ranks second in production, and Germany is the main producer in continental Europe.
The contribution of coal and iron in increasing a country's productive capacity and assisting manufacturing is immense. Of such industries, spinning and weaving are the most important. In terms of value, silk fabrics command the highest prices, but in terms of the quantity produced cotton comes first.
VOLUME II - BRITAIN
- Kume Kunitake
- Edited by Chushichi Tsuzuki, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, R. Jules Young
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64 - A Record of St. Petersburg, 2
- Kume Kunitake
- Edited by Chushichi Tsuzuki, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, R. Jules Young
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April 7th, 1873. Cold and overcast; temperature fell to 38°F; flurries of snow.
We went to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where there was a reception.
At half past one we went to the bank-note printing works, which is larger than that of any other country. The paper manufactured in the printing works is a different colour on each side and contains watermarks. The design, made of copper (in other words, a mesh made of copper wire), is placed on the wooden frame which holds the paper-making screen and then pressure is applied to the screen to make one side of the paper. Then, after removing the mesh, they pour in paper pulp of a different colour; as a result, paper of a different colour is formed in those parts where the screen was covered, leaving the design clearly visible on the reverse. Once the paper is formed, the screen is placed on a flat piece of flannel to deposit the paper; thus, a pile is gradually built up, and steam-power is used to apply pressure to the paper and the flannel and thereby expel the water. The paper is then dried by steam, and after the sheets of paper have been removed the process is completed (by rolling them between two sheets of copper to give them a sheen, and so on). The paper thus produced is pliant and of excellent quality, but it involves a great deal of labour and is therefore costly.
79 - A Survey of Austria
- Kume Kunitake
- Edited by Chushichi Tsuzuki, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, R. Jules Young
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Austria consists of eleven German provinces and two others, each with its own provincial Diet, and a central Diet under the emperor; thus, there is a duplication of debate on political and legislative matters, just as in Germany. Originally, Austria was part of the German Confederation, but later it withdrew and formed the Austrian Confederation.
The Austro-Hungarian lands are more or less rectangular in shape. While Austria is one area of Germany, Hungary is a part of the land of the Huns, so in race and customs they are quite distinct. The topography of Austria-Hungary, put most simply, consists of mountains and valleys in Austria and plains in Hungary.
Because Austria is such a mountainous country, there is no possibility of river transportation. Furthermore, the terrain is rather steep and difficult for constructing railways, but by 1860 more than 4,800 miles of track had been laid. By 1873 this had already been substantially increased to 9,158 miles. The principal cities, such as Vienna, Pest [Budapest], Prague and Trieste, are all well connected. The Austrian and Prussian governments resolved by law to construct the main lines connecting their countries themselves and to leave branch lines to private companies, but at one time the Austrian government, suffering from financial difficulties, abrogated this law and thereafter all new lines were left to private companies to construct, and even sections due to be constructed by the government were entrusted to them.
44 - A Record of Paris, 3
- Kume Kunitake
- Edited by Chushichi Tsuzuki, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, R. Jules Young
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January 9th, 1873. Fine.
Today Napoleon III died in England after suffering from bladder stones.
January 10th. Fine.
This afternoon we visited a cemetery (we forgot to ask its name), which occupies a forty-acre site on a low hill in the eastern outskirts of Paris [the Père-Lachaise Cemetery]. Inside it there is hardly any room to spare apart from a single wide road for carriages and lanes between the grave-plots. The graves of the poor are marked with wooden crosses painted either black or white, while the middle classes erect headstones and memorials for their dead. Wealthy people construct family vaults of stone about twenty square yards in size with rectangular niches like shelves to store the coffins.
Today there was a funeral for what seemed to be a family of lowly means. A single hearse appeared accompanied by relatives, all on foot, and the wooden coffin was lowered into a grave about six feet deep. To conclude the service, the priest looked down at the coffin and scattered a handful of earth on top. The party was mourning the loss of a young woman, and all eyes were filled with tears, but not one person gave voice to their grief. From our observation of both sexes in the West – from high to low and old to young, even to babes in arms – we found them to be rather placid in temperament.
84 - A Record of Switzerland
- Kume Kunitake
- Edited by Chushichi Tsuzuki, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, R. Jules Young
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- 16 April 2009, pp 442-446
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The country inhabited by the Swiss is called Switzerland. In Germany it is called ‘Schweiz’. It occupies mountainous terrain, interspersed with lowland areas, and is bordered by three countries: France, Italy and Germany. It has a federal system of government. The original twenty-two cantons of Switzerland have now, as a result of subdivision, become twenty-five. They are grouped into three regions. German is spoken in the north-east, French in the north-west and Italian in the south. Under an agreement of 1848, the central government is located in the city of Berne. The office of president is held by one of the seven members of the executive government. The president in the year of our visit was [Paul] Cérésole.
All Switzerland's national policies are determined by three objectives: to safeguard the country's rights; to refrain from interfering with the rights of other countries; and to prevent other countries from interfering with Switzerland's rights. In order to strengthen Switzerland's autonomy, education is encouraged and flourishes particularly in the German speaking region. Because education is so widespread, the people of this country are reputed to be the most civil, the best-informed and the most diligent at their occupations. An unending stream of students come to study at Swiss universities rather than going to those of larger, better known countries.
21 - A Survey of Britain
- Kume Kunitake
- Edited by Chushichi Tsuzuki, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, R. Jules Young
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The country of Britain, which lies in the north-west corner of Europe, comprises two large islands and 5,500 small islands. It is separated from the continent of Europe by a strait called the English Channel, on the other side of which lies Calais, in France. The sea-route across the Channel is no more than twenty-two miles at its narrowest point.
The area of the United Kingdom as a whole is 121,362 square miles, and according to statistics for 1871 its total population was 31,817,108. Its form, location, size and population are very similar to those of Japan. For this reason, the people of Britain are in the habit of referring to Japan as ‘the Britain of the East’. From the point of view of economic power, however, the disparity is immense. Lands belonging to this country are spread across the five continents. In Asia its possessions include most of India, and in the South Seas the Australian continent and New Zealand. In North America, all the vast territory to the north of the United States is British, and Britain also has numerous possessions in South America, including Panama, Guiana and the Antilles Islands. As well as these, in the Mediterranean Britain rules Gibraltar, at the south-west corner of Spain, and the island of Malta, to the south of Italy. It leases Aden, at the mouth of the Red Sea, and Singapore, at the tip of Malacca.
36 - A Record of Sheffield
- Kume Kunitake
- Edited by Chushichi Tsuzuki, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, R. Jules Young
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October 28th, 1872. Cloudy.
At half past one in the afternoon we left Bradford and travelled by train forty-two miles south to Sheffield. While we were in Bradford, a leading citizen of Sheffield, Mr. George Wilson, had come personally to invite us to visit that city when we left Bradford, and had, moreover, promised to put us up at his own house. Mr. Wilson and his brother were at the station to meet us with their private carriages to bring us to their houses. Because there were not enough rooms at Mr. George Wilson's house, Vice-Ambassador Itō and the two secretaries stayed at the house of his younger brother, Mr. Alexander Wilson, but were brought each evening by carriage to the house of the elder Mr. Wilson to join the others for dinner. The Wilsons' hospitality was whole-hearted. The atmosphere was most friendly and relations extremely harmonious.
October 29th. Cloudy.
At nine o'clock in the morning we went by carriage to Messrs. Charles Cammell and Company's iron and steel works. This factory occupied an enormous tract of land from which a forest of chimneys, great and small, reached upwards. Smoke from burning coal spread across the heavens like spilt ink, making it look as though a great thunderstorm was about to burst upon us. Even from a distance it was a sight to unsettle the nerves. We never saw such a huge factory either before or after.
67 - A Record of Denmark
- Kume Kunitake
- Edited by Chushichi Tsuzuki, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, R. Jules Young
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As one moves north, the German lands gradually slope downwards to form a huge plain which spreads along both the Baltic and North seas and finally ends in the peninsula which constitutes Denmark [Jutland]. The border between Denmark and Germany is not marked by any mountains, nor are they separated by a river; rather, their territories are simply divided by drawing a line across the plain. However, the difference between the two peoples is obvious even after a thousand years, and it is as if the boundary were a natural one.
Heaven created all the peoples of the world and made them racially distinct according to where they lived, in the same way that birds and beasts and plants and trees came into being. Languages and customs, demarcated perhaps by mountains or rivers, become matters of habit; they formed the character of the people and gave them a feeling of solidarity, and in this sense the tribal differences between native peoples are mostly Heaven's doing. Germany and Denmark share the same continuous plain, and although their borders may move as a result of human agency, the fact that the difference between the two races is still clear after thousands of years must surely be attributed to Heaven. Believers in Christianity say that in the beginning all people were one and shared the same language, and that the differences came later. How is it possible to believe that?
42 - A Record of Paris, 1
- Kume Kunitake
- Edited by Chushichi Tsuzuki, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, R. Jules Young
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December 16th, 1872. Fine.
At half past six in the morning we packed our bags and left the Buckingham Palace Hotel for Victoria Station at a quarter past seven. At this time of year the sun rises at eight o'clock, and on days when light cloud fills the morning sky the waning light of the moon can still be seen filtering through the haze at daybreak, while gaslights in the streets glow dimly in the gloom. This scene of sad city streets bereft of traffic was to be our parting image of London as we left to catch the train.
As usual, a train had been especially arranged for us by the British government, and General Alexander and Mr. Aston travelled with us as far as Dover to see us off. From Dover to the port of Calais, in France, is a distance of twenty-one miles, and although Britain is often misty and the sky overcast, on clear days the coast on the other side of the Channel can be seen. As soon as ships reach the open sea a thick mist may obscure the land and the waves can be high, for this strait is normally rough and it is a notoriously difficult crossing for navigators.
Today, however, the sea was calmer than usual. Our mail-boat was a most beautiful vessel, about two hundred feet in length. There were no cabins on the main deck but there were two or three large saloons on the deck below.