Who killed a young Englishman at Namamugi in 1862?

                                            Characters

                                  ＊Kizaemon Narahara

 He is the first son of Sukezaemon Narahara,who belonged to the lower middle-class samurai. He was born in Kagoshima, June 1831. He always kept calm, so his reputation was very high among especially his colleagues, compared to his younger brother Shigeru. He died at the age of 34 in May 1865. His wife Hiro died in 1862. They had no children.

                         ＊Kihachiro→Kohgoro→Shigeru　Narahara

 Born in Kagoshima, May 1834. He was the second son of Sukezaemon. He climbed up the career ladder, after the Terada-ya(=inn) incident in March 1862. He was one of the best subjects of Hisamitsu, who was the most influential master in Satsuma from the end of Edo era to the early Meiji. He devoted himself to his master as his right -hand man until 1877.

  He served as an official of the Meiji government in 1878. He became a governor of Shizuoka prefecture in 1883-1884. The president of the railroad company from 1884 to 1892. Traveled around Europe from 1888 to 1889. The governor of Okinawa from 1892 to 1908. Received the peerage of a baron in 1896. He was extravagant with his money and he was always in debt, despite making a lot of money-especially in Okinawa. Maybe he spent money for his mistresses. His reputation was awfully bad especially in Okinawa, but it’s hard to hate him, too. There is an autobiography of his which was written while he was living. The details of the Terada-ya　incident are written in it.

　                                 ＊Suga Narahara

　Her date of birth is unknown. She was from the lower middle-class samurai family, the Mohris. She married Shigeru in 1867. She was a daughter of a samurai family, but she didn’t always obey her husband. She rejected a son that was born between Shigeru and a French woman. As a result, Shigeru had him adopted. When her son Sanji divorced his wife, Suga was with him and his girlfriend Yone. Suga left her husband and lived with Sanji and Yone after all. Her younger brother was a vice admiral. She Died in 1929.

                                    ＊Hisamitsu Shimazu

　Born in 1817. He was the illegitimate child of Narioki Shimaｚu, who was the father of Nariakira. He was a younger brother of Nariakira, who was familiar with the western world through the Dutch. When Nariakira died in 1858, he left a will. It said that Hisamitsu ‘s son should be an heir, for he had no son.

  So, Hisamitsu had a supreme power in Kagoshima from the end of Edo to the early Meiji. He was a highly educated man, but very conservative from the political point of view. He received a peerage of a duke in 1884, and died in 1887, at the age of 70.

                                   ＊Toshimichi Okubo

  Born in Kagoshima, 1830. Okubo and Takamori Saigo are said to be the two greatest heroes not only in Kagoshima but all over Japan through the Meiji Restoration. They belonged to the lower-class samurais. Okubo did a great job, mainly as a politician. On the other hand, Saigo did well as the leader of the Meiji Reｓtoration, and he was liked by everybody. Both of them came into conflict with the Korean issue in 1873. Finally, it caused the Seinan-War in 1877. Saigo killed himself at the end of the War. Okubo was assassinated by the dissident ex-samurais next year. When the Namamugi incident happened, Okubo was in the number 2 or3 highest position. He insisted that Satsuma Han should not offer the criminal to either the Bakufu or the British, because Satsuma obeyed the national law and didn’t do anything wrong.

 He went to America and Europe as a vice delegate of the revision for the unequal treaty in 1871. He was the only one delegate that said Japan would be able to catch up with the Western civilization sooner or later. The rest were overwhelmed and stunned by the western civilization, and they couldn’t say a word. That’s why he governed Japan in the early Meiji period.

                                    ＊Takamori Saigo

　Born in 1828. His real name was Takanaga. If you didn’t know this, you couldn’t be an old book shop-owner. He was exiled to an island, when the Namamugi incident occurred. He was the most famous figure through the Meiji Restoration and one of the most popular one even through the Japanese history. He killed himself at the end of the Seinan War.

                                   ＊Nobuyoshi Kaieda

 Born in Kagoshima, 1832. He was the oldest brother of the four. The two of them took part in Mito radical group that assassinated the Tairo(head executive of Edo Bakufu) Naosuke Ii, and both of them died , then. Nobuyoshi was off-duty captain in a procession at Namamugi, when Kizaemon was on duty in it. He was a staff officer of Saigo, who led the army for Edo in 1868, but he always conflicted with the other staff officer Masujiro Omura from Choshu. It is said that he was behind the group who assassinated Masujiro Omura in the eary of Meiji era. He was disliked even by people of Satsuma because he assumed an impudent attitude and he didn’t contribute anything for Kagoshima, after the Seinan War. He received a viscount in 1887, though. He was a colleague of Kizaemon, but he didn’t say that Kizaemon killed Richadson. He said, however, that he himself beheaded Charles Rechardson. He died in 1906.

                                     ＊Masayoshi Matukata

 Born in Kagoshima, 1835. Since the Terada-ya incident occurred, he climbed up the career ladder with Shigeru. He was one of Hisamitsu’s favorite subjects, too. He served as an official of the government from the early Meiji period under Toshimichi Okubo. As he was familiar with the economy and finances, he climbed up the career ladder very quickly. After Okubo was assassinated in 1878, he became one of the most influential figures from Satsuma in the Meiji government. While he was a prime minister in 1892, he appointed Shigeru Narahara to be a governor of Okinawa. Shigeru himself wanted to be the director general in Hokkaido, but he couldn’t.（As he had a illegitimate son in Hokkaido, he wanted ・・・.） Masayoshi became a prime minister twice and he was given a peerage of duke in 1922.

 He died in 1924. There is a biography which was written while he was living.

                                       ＊Sanji Narahara

 Born in Kagoshima, 1876. He moved to Tokyo from Kagoshima with his family next year, because his father Shigeru was fired by Hisamitsu. He is the second son of Shigeru. As his brother Takekuma died from pneumonia in 1893, he became the heir of the Naraharas. He graduated from Tokyo university at the age of 31 in 1908, and he joined the navy as an engineering officer. He married Kio that year. Kio gave birth to Midori(ko) next year. He was elected as one of the members of the committee which planned to do research on the airplanes. He made his first plane in 1910, but he failed to fly, because of the harassment of the army. He resigned from the navy that year and he succeeded in flying his plane next year. It’s the first time in the private sector in Japan. After that, he performed flying shows all over Japan for a while. He retired from the world of aviation, after he divorced his wife Kio in 1913. According to the diary of Otojiro, Sanji didn’t come out of his house and quit making the planes since then. After his father died in 1918, he succeeded to a baron, but he was not able to marry Yone legally. She left his family around 1925 after all. Perhaps his family was badly off for a while, so he went to see Otojiro, who succeeded his business. Otojiro took care of his family, until Sanji and her daughter Midori died.

 Sanji was an inteligent, but a naïve person. His father was able to make money, but he wasn’t. I’m sure that he was a kind of geek, on good meanings or bad ones.

                                        ＊Kio Narahara

　Born in Kagoshima, 1887. She was a daughter of Shigemochi Togo. He was a colleague of Shigeru, who was a butler of Shimazu. She was adopted into the Naraharas,when she was 16. She married Shigeru’s son Sanji in 1908, and she gave birth to a daughter Midori(ko) next year. She got divorced in 1913. She remarried next year, but she died two years later in Korea.

 

                                      ＊Kichinosuke Narahara

　Born in 1883. He was adopted into one of Shigeru’s relatives who moved to Hokkaido as the farmer-soldier in 1885. Although Kichinosuke’s foster father was poor, Kichinosuke was the only kid who went to a private high school in Tokyo. The reason was that Shigeru paid his school expenses. After Kichinosuke graduated from high school, he was employed by the railroad company in Hokkaido. He smoothly climbed up the career ladder and brought up three sons and two daughters.

 There is no room for doubt that he was a child between Shigeru and a western (French)woman. One of his descendants told me that there had been a picture which showed both Shigeru and a French woman. He died at the age of 78, 1960.

                                      ＊Mitsugu Narahara

 Born in Hokkaido, 1921. He was the third son of KIchinosuke Narahara. As he was a very good baseball player in high school, he entered into non-professional baseball team at Hakodate at first, but he was drafted at the age of 21. He was wounded in the Chinese battle line, so he was sent back to Japan in February 1945. While he was under medical treatment in Tokyo, he met his father Kichinosuke, who happened to come to Tokyo as a director of the railroad mutual aid association. After Mitsugu was healed, they lived together until the end of the Pacific War. Then, his father went back to Hokkaido, but Mitsugu stayed in Tokyo. It is said that he ran a grocery shop, until he met Yone Fukushima. He disclosed the truth that Shigeru killed Richardson to the press on August 22, 1984, 20 years after Yone died. He passed away at the age of 76 in 2000.

 Historians in Yokohama often say that he was eccentric and untrustworthy, but they misunderstand. They don’t know anything about both the Naraharas and the history of Kagoshima.

                                         ＊Yone Fukushima

　Born in Tokyo, 1891. Her mother was a mistress of a viscount. They say that Yone met Sanji, when she was a geisha girl at Shinbashi, Tokyo. Sanji was a university student, then. They lived together, even after Sanji got married. Yone is the first woman that flew over the sky in Japan, though she didn’t hold the control stick. It made Shigeru get angry, for his son’s mistress appeared in public. Sanji   got divorced soon after that. Sanji’s mother Suga wanted her son to marry Yone, but the relatives of the paternal side resisted it fiercely. They couldn’t marry, even after Shigeru died. They broke up around 1925. Yone ran a social gathering inn and helped Sanji’s family to live on, until the reunion of Otojiro Ito.

 A lot of celebrities came in and out of the Yone’s social gathering house. She lived with a count who was related to the emperor’s family for a while, so she built a strong connection with the politicians, business leaders and even the right-wing activists before the Pacific War. She became a kind of fixer after the Pacific War, as she had hidden power toward the politicians. She was not only beautiful, smart, but was as tough as a man. She died in 1964. A lot of politicians and big names of rightists attended her funeral.

                                       ＊Otojiro Ito

 Born in Osaka, 1891. He yearned to be an aviator, when he read in the newspapers that Sanji Narahara made the airplane for the first time in Japan. After Sanji flew for the first time in May,1911, Otojiro joined Sanji’s crew members as an apprentice at 19. He became independent in 1914, for Sanji withdrew from the world of aviation. He designed and made his first　airplane and he flew from Inage(Chiba) to Tokyo next year. He also designed and made a seaplane in the same year. He succeeded in the night flight for the first time in the private sector in 1917. He produced a lot of great planes since then, however, he couldn’t keep it up. As he didn’t have rich financiers, his company was declining little by little. His company was merged into a bigger one before the Pacific War began.

 He moved to the country after the war was over because the Allied Forces ordered to stop manufacturing the planes in Japan. He planned to make the monument in order to praise Sanji Narahara   and the early aviators in the private sector at Inage, Chiba. He died in 1971, after he accomplished it. He devoted himself to Sanji Narahara all through his life. He was honest, sincere and a hard worker. He kept writing a diary from 1908 to 1944.

                                 ＊Rutherford Alcock

 Born in England, 1809. Died in1897. He became a surgeon in 1830, and the army surgeon in 1832. He suffered from rheumatism; however, he gave up being the surgeon. He was employed by the foreign ministry after that. He was appointed a consul in Fushun, 1844. Since then, he was engaged as a consul in China for 15 years. During a consul in Canton, he insisted on using military force if Britain need more land in China, so he sent a letter to the prime minister Palmerston about it. As a result, it caused the Arrow War-the Second Opium War-. He was appointed to be the first general consul in Japan, 1859. He was not in Japan, while the Namamugi incident happened in 1862, for he was in London on leave. After he came back to Japan in 1864, he knew that the circumstances about Japan changed a lot. He didn’t seem to have an interest in the Namamugi incident, but he intervened in the Choshu issue. That made the foreign minister Russel get angry. Consequently, Alcock was dismissed and was called back to England. After Russel admitted his misunderstanding, he told Alcock that he should go back to Japan, but he refused it. Instead, he went to Beijing　as a minister in China. After he retired in 1869, he wrote a book which was titled, “The capital of Tycoon”.

                                 ＊Harry S. Parkes

 Born in London, 1828. Died in Beijing, 1885. His grandfather was a parish minister and father an owner of the ironworks. He lost his mother at 4, and his father at 5. Harry and his sisters were brought up by his uncle, but he also died when Harry was nine. He was in a boarding school until he finished primary education. (I omit his career in China here.) He stayed in Japan as a minister plenipotentiary from 1865 to 1883. He supported the side of Satsuma and Choshu from the first, because he had heard Alcock say that the Bakufu of Edo was falling into a decline and losing the power to govern Japan. He was a hard-liner in China, but he seemed to restrain himself in Japan. On the other hand, French diplomatic corps backed up the Bakufu, though. He was attacked by thugs on his way to the Imperial palace in 1868, but he was saved by a guard from Satsuma.

                                     ＊Charles Lenox Richardson

　Born in London, 1833.　He boarded　a ship bound for Shanghai on May 20, 1858.　Rutherford Alcock, who finished two years- leave in London, also happened to be on board. As soon as Richardson arrived at Shanghai that year, he started up a business.

 He managed to earn money there, so he decided to go back to England 4 year later by way of Japan. He came to Yokohama in July,1862. He met a friend named Wood Thorpe Clarke there. They would often play pool in Shanghai. Here in Yokohama, Richardson came to know William Marshal, who was a friend of Clarke. One day, they, including a woman named Mrs. Margrett Borradail, planned to go on a picnic to Kawasaki with horses on. It was on Sunday September 14 (August 21 in the lunar calendar).

 Before long they happened to meet the procession of satsuma Han, but they didn’t know how to deal with it. So, they went on through the procession for a while. They had to stop, however, in front of lines of pages who guarded the palanquin of Hisamitsu. As the road was narrow and furthermore, many samurais shouted, “Go back, go back.”, they were going to turn around. It was too late, though.　As Richardson was at the head of a line, he was slashed the most heavily. Charles Clarke and William Marshal were slashed as well, but they were able to run away from that place. Only Richardson fell off his horse on the way back and was killed at last. Mrs. Margrett Borradail was the only one that wasn’t hurt at all, and she was able to come back to Yokohama safely. The English and other foreigners who lived there were angry and they were going to fight against Satsuma Han, but Edward St. John Neale, the deputy minister in Britain, persuaded them to stay calm. So, nothing happened on that day and the next day. From then on, Satsuma Han didn’t offer the true criminal and didn’t pay any compensation, despite being demanded by the British. Consequently, the British seven warships headed for Satsuma next year. Richardson was buried at the “the cemetery for foreigners” in Yokohama.

                                    ＊William Marshal

　Born in England,1827. Died in Yokohama,1873. He married   Straychan Maclean in London,1855. Margrett Borradail was a sister of Straychan Macleen. He was a co-owner of a trading company in Yokohama, at that time. He often played pool with Wood Thorpe Clarke. He received a slight wound in his side and back at Namamugi. He and Clarke took refuge in Honkakuj temple where American consulate　was located. His grave is in Yokohama.

                                 ＊Wood Thorpe Charles Clarke.

 Born in England,1834, died in Yokohama, 1867. He was a clerk in Hard trading company in Yokohama and he came to know   Richardson at Shanghai. He got a deep wound in his back at Namamugi, but he took refuge in the American consulate as well. He died 5 years later. His grave is in Yokohama, too.

                                   *Margrett Borradail

 Her date of birth and death are unknown. She married Thomas S. Borradail in 1860. Thomas was a successor of Borradail trading company which was notable. They headed for Hongkong that year. After she gave birth to a son next year, she took holidays and went to see her sister in Yokohama. As she wasn’t hurt at all, she was able to come back to Yokohama safely. It is unknown when she went back to Hongkong.

 

 

                                                                                                         

                               

Who killed a young Englishman at Namamugi in 1862?

            The relation between Satsuma Han and Harry S. Parkes

  There is one more thing that I’d like to say repeatedly, in relation to Kizaemon. As you know, he died in May 1865, three years after the Namamugi incident. At that time, a new minister of Britain was scheduled to come to Japan, as the former minister Rutherford Alcock was dismissed for having caused the Shimonoseki War in １８６４. His successor was Harry S. Parkes. Alhough I already told you about his personal history before, I will repeat and emphasize the importance of his career.

 He was born in England. When he was young, his parents passed away. So, he moved to China where his two sisters lived. He was 13 years old, just after finishing primary school. It was in 1841.

He was employed as an interpreter by the British consulate in Amoi,when he was 16. He became a consul in Amoy at the age of 26, and he came across the Arrow War—the Second Opium War—as a consul in Canton in 1856. Parkes, who was once working under Rutherford Alcock in Canton, was a hawk like his boss. He dealt with the Second Opium War strongly, so he finally became a consul in Shanghai in 1864, and a minister extraordinary and plenipotentiary of Japan next year.

 He arrived at Nagasaki on May 5,1865, and he met some diplomats of Satsuma and Choshu. He left Nagasaki on May 9 and dropped at Shimonoseki in Choushu next day. He was supposed to meet the influential figures like Kogoro Katsura, Shunsuke(Hirobumi) Ito and so on. After their meetings, Parkes left there and dropped in Hyogo(near Kobe), Osaka and finally he reached Yokohama on May 16.

 As I repeated many times, Kizaemon died on May 18. Is it just a coincidence? No, at least, I don’t think so.

 The leaders of Satsuma Han like Toshimichi Okubo had a precise information of what Harry Parkes was like. He was a young, brilliant, and self-made diplomat and he was a hard- liner in China. If he had brought up the topic about the Namamugi incident again, what should Satsuma do? They just sent 19 young students to England a few months ago. Satsuma Han had to build a good relationship with a new minister, no matter what it cost.

 There was a suitable man who just arrived at Kyoto from Kagoshima three month ago--or he might have been called to Kyoto in advance. It was Kizaemon, who was just in charge of a procession. He was persuaded to be sacrificed by the executives and he accepted it without bad feelings. He was an old -typed samurai who lost his wife three years ago and had no children and he was one of traditional and graceful samurais.

 After Parkes arrived at Yokohama, Satsuma Han reported the details to him. He was invited to Kagoshima by the lord and Hisamitsu next year. Hisamitsu himself seemed to avoid talking about the Namamugi incident, and Parkes said nothing, either. He reported about it to the Foreign Minister in Britain later.

 Historians in general are not interested in minor matters like I mentioned, so they don’t care who killed an English merchant. They are only interested in a major stream of history like politics, economics, the causes of war and so on. They don’t believe anything such as a family legend at all, for they were not written in the materials. It’s all right, but the case of the Naraharas is different from other cases. If there is only a family legend, I wouldn’t believe what Mitsugu Narahara said in the papers, either.　

 Now we had other two pieces of evidence which were written in the historical materials, even if there was only one name of Kizaemon.

 I’ve been collecting the materials of the Naraharas as much as possible from the descendants. Every time I read those documents; I couldn’t help feeling something wrong kept going on in the Naraharas. I could say, “a kind of tragedy”, if I had to say something. Kizaemon Narahara sacrificed himself for his brother Shigeru. Shigeru didn’t or couldn’t say anything about it, while he was living.

 A lie toward the community and the society corrodes any family little by little. That’s why his descendants had to pay for something unreasonable, something unbearable.

 So, I believe a family legend that Shigeru’s grandson Mitsugu told us.

                                            EPILOGUE

  When the incident happened at Namamugi, where was Shigeru？

　According to the book “The history of the navy in Satsuma Han” which was published in 1928, Kizaemon was on-duty captain. It means that he oversaw a procession. So, he was on the right side of the “Palanquin”. I think it’s natural because he had to guard Hisamitsu first. There was off-duty captain whose name was Nobuyoshi Kaieda as well, but he was walking ahead in a procession. As to Masayoshi Matsukata, he was beside the palanquin. This is no problem, either. He also became almost in the same position as Kizaemon after the Terada-ya incident.

 Where was Kihachiro (Shigeru), then? There wasn’t his name at all in “that book”. I don’t know why. This chapter of the book, however, was written mainly by the story that Matsukata told. As I mentioned before, Matsukata was once a loyal subject of Hisamitsu. So was Shigeru. Shigeru was in the same position as his brother Kizaemon at that time. If so, he was not far from the palanquin of Hisamitsu.　At least, he was not with Kaieda.

 Perhaps, he was in front of the lines of pages who guarded the palanquin. In short, he was close to the English merchants who were riding on horses. Yes, I’m sure that he was at the nearest place where the English merchants were turning around.

 According to “that book” which was generally accepted theory, Kizaemon began to rush toward the group of the English from where he was standing, and he ran among 20 or 30 pages. As we often see the scene on the cheap Japanese TV dramas, he slashed Richardson. I’m really fed up with this scene because this is the scenario that made Kizaemon the true criminal.

 Imagine that the street was very narrow, in addition, the samurais were crowded. It’s impossible for him to reach the place before they turn around and run away. So, I can imagine it in a different way. Well, Kihachiro noticed that his brother was coming toward them, so he thought he was able to kill impolite foreigners and he pulled the sword quickly toward them. I think it is very reasonable.

 As I wrote it once, there was the definite testimony of the man who carried the palanquin on his shoulder. He witnessed Shigeru do it.

 

 

Who killed a young Englishman at Namamugi in 1862?

                       Yone and Shigeru’s grandson, Mitsugu

  As I mentioned a little earlier, Yone had a good connection with politicians and fixers who used to come to a social gathering house.

 Soon after the war was over, Japan was a very poor country, and the government needed more budget to feed not a few people. So, government launched public gambling places like a horse racing, and got some income. Some people said, however, that there was not enough revenue. Yone was one of them and she stated her opinion at a public hearing. She was not a woman who stayed only behind the men.

 One day, there was a campaign party for a popular minister from Kagoshima. Yone went there and was introduced to Mitsugu Narahara, who was a supporter of a minister, too. As soon as she saw his face, she soon noticed that he was a grandson of Shigeru and a French woman. She knew everything about the Naraharas,　because she had heard of it all from Sanji’s mother Suga.

 Suga was born and brought up in Kagoshima, and she came from middle class family. She was not always the type of obedient woman, though she endured living with her husband who had a lot of mistresses for a long time. Finally, she got separated from Shigeru, after Sanji left their house and lived with girlfriend Yone. Suga took her granddaughter Midori to their house and lived with them. Suga and Yone had a good relationship, so Suga told everything about the Naraharas to Yone. She said naturally that Shigeru flirted with a lot of women and had a few children. One of them was Mitsugu’s father to whom a French woman gave birth. That’s why she noticed that Mitsugu was Shigeru’s grandson. He didn’t look like any ordinary Japanese. Today, we call a person like him “half”　in Japanese. He was “a quarter”, though.

            Yone talks to Mitsugu about the secret of the Naraharas

 Since Mitsugu met Yone for the first time around 1960, he would often go to her house. And he heard about the secrets of the Naraharas. Mitsugu knew that his father was a son of Shigeru, because his father told him the fact, but he didn’t know that Kizaemon sacrificed himself as a criminal in the Namamugi incident instead of his younger brother Shigeru. As I said before, Yone heard about it from Suga, but Suga told Yone to be silent. She didn’t break the silence until she saw Mitsugu, who was one of blood relations.

 So, Yone told the truth　before she passed away in 1964.

                       Mitsugu talks to people about the true criminal

 Mitsugu kept silent for a while even after her death, and he moved from Tokyo to Yokohama where Charles Richardson was buried, saying that it’s close and convenient to visit Richardson’s grave every month in the papers. Finally, he told the family legend of the Naraharas in the papers, 20 years after Yone died.

 About 20 years ago, I happened to read a magazine about a talk between Mitsugu Narahara and a historical novelist named Kenjo Tsunabuchi. Kenjo was very interested in the strangeness of the Namamugi incident. So, he proposed to interview with Mitsugu through the publisher, and Kenjo believed what Mitsugu told him. Then, Kenjo promised that he would investigate it historically, but his works never came out, because he died soon after that.

 When I read this article, I lived in Kagoshima and I had a lot of old books, because I owned a second- hand bookshop there. So, I began to do research into the Namamugi incident by myself.

 In conclusion, frankly, I couldn’t find the most decisive evidence. It means that who slashed Richardson first badly in the historical documents. There are more pieces of circumstantial evidence, however, that Shigeru did much more than Kizaemon did.

                                  In case of Shigeru

Let’s take up a few pieces of evidence that Shigeru did it.

 The first one was a letter that was written by Shingo Nasu. He was one of three masterless samurais who assassinated the executive of Tosa (=Kouchi prefecture) Han. They were harbored by Satsuma Han, and they were in Satsuma residential quarters in Kyoto, when Hisamitsu and his retainers came back from Edo. So, Shingo and the other two heard what happened in Namamugi directly from the samurais involved there. I think, one of them was Nobuyoshi Kaieda, because he himself invited them to the Satsuma residential quarters and he knew the truth of the incident. Shingo wrote to his father and brother that Kihachiro did it, not Kizaemon.

 The second one was the testimony of a big man who carried Hisamitsu’s palanquin. It wasn’t too far at the scene. I guess it’s about 20 meters or so. That’s why he was able to see who slashed Richardson--and the horse Richardson was riding, too--from where he stood. He exactly said that Kohgoro did it, after he moved to the country where he used to live. Obviously, he knew that Kihachiro changed his name into Kohgoro later.

 This testimony was very significant, because the names of Kizaemon and Kihachiro were often misused, such as diaries and letters even among their colleagues. And, in fact, Richardson’s horse was slashed badly as well.

 Moreover, the carrier of the palanquin didn’t belong to the samurai class. Therefore, he was able to tell the truth without any hesitations.

                                 In case of Kizaemon

 Well, then, isn’t there the name of Kizaemon in the historical material? Yes, there was only one document which was written by Tatewaki Komatsu. He was at the highest position in a procession at that time, and he surely knew everything.

 When he came back to Kyoto with Hisamitsu, he had to report to the lord, Tadayoshi in Kagoshima. He wrote to him that Kizaemon did it. I thought at first that it might be true, but it was odd, because they had decided not to put a criminal out, obtaining the approval of Hisamitsu. Komatsu knew the feelings of Hisamitsu that he didn’t want to lose Shigeru. So, Komatsu reported that Kizaemon did, for Kizaemon oversaw a procession that day and the lord himself was manipulated by his father Hisamitsu. When Komatsu finished writing this document, he signed the wrong date. Maybe, he had lost his calmness.

 

Who killed a young Englishman at Namamugi in 1862?

                                       A heroin appears

 Sanji took his girlfriend Yone to many places where he and his staff performed flying shows. One day, when they came back to Inage --their stronghold near Chiba city--, Sanji hit upon an idea that Yone should get on the plane with the pilot. Because an aviator from America announced that he would fly with a girl in the newspaper. As a result, Yone became the first woman to fly over the sky in Japan, even if she had not flown as a pilot. The newspaper said so the next day. It was in October 1912.

                              Sanji gets a divorce from his wife Kio

 That brought Shigeru an anger because his son disgraced himself in public. Shigeru, who was a baron and a senator then, couldn’t allow his son to do so. Of course, Shigeru had many mistresses, but he didn’t disgrace himself in public. That’s the way he did.

 Well, Sanji got divorced by agreement in 1913. Kio had to leave a daughter at her husband house.

                                         Family feud continues

  Now, the problem came out between Shigeru and his wife Suga this time. They began to live apart from each other, though they didn’t get divorced. Shigeru went back to his hometown Kagoshima to live with another mistress. Suga took her granddaughter Midori to Sanji’s home and began to live together around 1914. Since then, Sanji wasn’t engaged in aviation for a long time.

                                        Sanji’s pupil Otojiro

 How did I learn about Sanji’s family feud? Well, there was a man who kept writing a diary almost every day for over twenty years. I read it all, concerning the Naraharas, and I’d like to share Narahara’s family story with you from now.

 A person who wrote a diary is Otojiro Ito. He　longed for an aviator when he read the article of Sanji in the newspaper. He joined Sanji’s staff as an apprentice at first, soon after Sanji succeeded in the first flight. He was 19 years old, then. He was a sincere, curious, and hard-working young man. That’s the main reason why he was able to keep a diary for a long time. Moreover, he succeeded both as an aviator and as a businessperson who manufactured hundreds of planes, gliders and so on.

                                        The independence of Otojiro

  Although Sanji shut himself at his home, Otojiro moved forward. He set up a manufacturing company of planes with his colleagues in 1915. He made his first plane next year and he flew from Inage, --the seashore of Chiba city--, to the Tokyo area. At the same time, he made a seaplane for the first time in the private sector in Japan. In January 1917, he succeeded in the night flight. This was the first time as well, except for the armed forces. Since then, he also became a very famous aviator and an excellent manufacturer of planes. There was no one who didn’t know his name around the world of aviation.

                                        Yone leaves Sanji’s family

 What was Sanji doing, when Otojiro was doing a great job? Sanji knew that his pupil was a great success, but he couldn’t go out into the outer world. Because his family discord continued. He and his girlfriend Yone were in a common-law marriage for a while.

 After Shigeru died in 1918, Sanji succeeded to a baron, but Yone could not get the title of baroness, in spite of the great help of Sanji’s mother Suga. The relatives of patarnal side said that Yone was just a geisha girl. That's why they kept opposing to their marriage. The truth was, however, that Yone's mother was a mistress of a viscount, and she gave birth to Yone, who couldn't get acknowledgement. Yone was a beautiful, vivid and smart girl. Maybe,  that's why her mother mae Yone a geisha. On the other hand, Sanji was an indecisive and powerless baron. 

 So, he was not the type of a man who was able to earn money. He was a sort of a geek who was deeply absorbed in making something like airplanes. So, Yone made money by running a social gathering house which was provided by Suga.

 They broke up with each other, after all. Yone left Sanji’s family around 1925. After that, we don’t know where and how Sanji’s family lived. There is a record that Sanji’s daughter Midori joined a famous theatrical company in 1927, but I’m not sure if she became an actress or not. Personally, I don’t think that she kept acting, for she was a sickly girl.

 It was 1929 that Sanji appeared in Otojiro’s diary, since he visited Sanji last time in 1921.

                                    Sanji goes to see Otojiro                                                    Sanji called on the Otojiro’s office to show his design of a gyrocompass which was supposed to use with a helicopter. Otojiro was very delighted to see him, because Sanji still had a passion for making something. Since then, Otojiro rent a house for Sanji’s family and hired him as a sort of advisor and the principal of flight school. Sanji was 53 and Otojiro was 37 years old. Sanji was likely to be sick thereafter, but Otojiro always supported him. As the world warⅡ was approaching, Otojiro had a difficulty of managing his company, and it was acquired by a larger company which belonged to a military industry after all. Even so, Otojiro didn’t desert Sanji. They worked together until Sanji died in 1943.

                      Yone’s life after leaving Sanji’s family

 Yone succeeded to a social gathering house for which Suga got ready. Probably, Yone supported Sanji’s family for some time. Since Sanji visited Otojiro’s office, however, Otojiro supported his family instead of Yone.

 After Yone was independent, her social gathering house flourished more and more. According to her descendant, she met a count who was very notable and influential, and lived together for some time. That’s why she became an influential woman in a channel of politics. She was really something.

                                       Otojiro’s life after the war

 After the Pacific war was over in 1945, the airplane industry was destroyed by the U.S. Forces. Consequently, Otojiro had to move to the country and be a farmer to support his family and Sanji’s daughter Midori, but Midori died next year. She was likely to be sick   like her father. She was 36 years old. Otojiro lived long until 80. Before he died in 1971, he erected a monument at Inage where Sanji, Otojiro and others made an airport for the first time in a private sector. Ironically, the place where Otojiro moved and lived after the war became Narita international airport later.

Who killed a young Englishman at Namamugi in 1862?

                   Shigeru and his colleague, Masayoshi Matsukata

 By the way, the Namamugi incident had been forgotten for a long time, until the two volumes of the book about the history of Satsuma navy was published in 1928. And there was a chapter about the Namamugi incident in it.

 Then, how was it ｗritten in that chapter? Well, it was Kizaemon that slashed Richardson first with his sharp sword. What was its source? Well, well, it was just based on the tales which Masayoshi Matsukata told, when he was a marquis--a duke a few years later. He was a colleague of Shigeru Narahara since the Terada-ya incident, but he climbed up the ladder much higher than Shigeru did after the Meiji Restoration. So, he was always concerned about Shigeru as a former colleague. For instance, after Toshimitchi Okubo was assassinated, Matsukata became the boss of Shigeru. That’s why Shigeru didn’t lose his job at that time. Moreover, Matsukata appointed Shigeru as a governor of Okinawa when he was a prime minister in 1892. If it had not been for Matsukata, Shigeru couldn’t have kept his career through the Meiji era.

                      Kizaemon is described as a criminal

 Eleven years after that book came out, the most authorized history book was published in Kagoshima. It was a compilation of Kagoshima’s history, and what Matsukata said was accepted as it was in that book, though there was no decisive evidence. Since then, the person who killed Richardson became Kizaemon, not his brother Shigeru, who had much more circumstantial evidence than Kizaemon.

       

            Testimony of Mitsugu Narahara, the grandson of Shigeru

 Forty five years passed, since the name of Kizaemon was inscribed in the authorized book. No one cared about such a minor thing, until the grandson of Shigeru appeared. His name was Mitsugu 　Narahara. He said that the criminal who killed Richardson was his grandfather Shigeru, not Kizaemon　in the newspaper in Yokohama . It was in August 22 1984.　He also said that he moved to Yokohama from Tokyo to visit Richardson’s grave every month, since he knew the fact that his grandfather killed an English merchant, Charles Richardson.

                                       My research begins

 I wondered why he had to say about such a family matter now, after I read that interviewed article much later. Then I thought about it again and again. Was he a pious, just an eccentric or a show-off old man? Was he a true grandson of Shigeru? Why did he have to tell us, as it were, about his family feud?

 I became interested in Mitsugu Narahara and the incident that happened at Namamugi in 1862 little by little, and I began to look into the case, when I was in Kagoshima as an old book shop owner.

　　　　　　

                              Narahata familiy

 First, I studied the Narahara family there. As you already know, Kizaemon died in 1865, but his wife Hiro died three years earlier than her husband. She died in October 1862, three months after the Namamugi incident happened. I found out that date on their grave in Kagoshima. And I guessed that they have no son, because Shigeru succeeded to the Narahara clan, after the Meiji Restoration. If they had had a son, he would have succeeded to the head family. Kizaemon had enough reason to be sacrificed in this way.

 The next question was about Shigeru’s family. He got married to a samurai’s daughter whose name was Suga　in 1867, just before a year of the Meiji era. They had two sons and two daughters, but three children died of tuberculosis in their twenties. Only the second son survived, and he became famous as an aviator who made an airplane for the first time in Japan. Now, before I will tell you about him, I will tell you other children that were born between Shigeru and other women. There was no doubt that there were two boys and a girl in total, and one of them was an illegitimate child who was adopted to his relative. Because his mother was a French woman who lived in Yokohama or in Tokyo. His name was Kichinosuke Narahara. He had three sons, and the third one was Mitsugu, who said that his grandfather was the true criminal of the Namamugi incident.

　　　　　　　　　　　　

                   About Shigeru'sson,Sanji 

 Now I tell you the reason why Mitsugu found out the fact.

 Before that, I have to tell Sanji,　who succeeded to his father’s peerage.

 As I said earlier, Shigeru had four children, and three of them died of tuberculosis in their twenties. The second son Sanji got tuberculosis as well, but he managed to survive. He was under medical treatment from 18 to 25 years old. That’s why he entered high school at the age of 25 in 1902. When he was in the senior year, the Russo-Japanese War broke out. Since then, he was interested in the balloon which the warships were using, when they made their way through the fog. He studied about it for a while under his uncle-his mother’s brother- who was a vice admiral, but Sanji heard that the airplane which was invented in Europe later. As almost everyone knows, the Wright brothers succeeded in flying an airplane driven by an engine for the first time in the world on December,1903, nevertheless, people in Japan were informed of Europeans’ success at first. So, he changed his mind and began to study about the airplane, after he entered Tokyo university. He graduated from there at the age of 31 in 1908, and he joined the navy as an engineering officer, maybe through his uncle’s connection. He was elected as one of the members regarding the research and development of the planes next year. It was the joint committee of the army and the navy, though the army took the initiative from the first. As it is well known that Choshu mainly occupied important positions in the army, and so Satsuma did overwhelmingly in the navy, since the early stage of Meiji era.

　　　　　　　

                               Sanji resigns from the navy

 Early next year, the joint committee sent the two army officers to France and Germany to make them learn how to fly a plane. They came back to Japan in the fall that year with their planes that they had been training. On the other hand, Sanji Narahara designed and made his first plane by himself and at his own expense around the summer. He felt pressured, because he wanted to fly at first in Japan, but he was not permitted to fly soon. Somehow the committee permitted him to fly at last at 25th of October, but his engine was restricted within a 25-horsepower. As he feared, he was not able to fly, because of the harassment of the army. After all, both army officers succeeded in flying next month and they became the first aviators together in Japan. It was a farce that the army played.

 Sanji resigned from the navy at the end of that year.

                   Sanji flies with his own plane for the first time

  After he left the navy, he started up a manufacturing company of planes. And he succeeded in flying with the plane which was designed by Sanji himself and was made by his staff. As to the category of a private sector, it was the first time in Japan, even if the engine had been imported. It was May 5 in 1911, and that was eight years after the Wright brothers flew in America.

  After the first success, he stopped flying, because flying was so dangerous that his family persuaded him to quit. Of course, he didn’t stop designing planes and went on making his staff fly and performed flying shows all over Japan. In May 1912, His plane which was called the Otori(=the holy bird)-- the Narahara Ⅳ--flied in front of the Crown Prince, other princes and high officials of the Meiji government. It was his heyday, but it didn’t last long, because of his domestic discord.

                                               Family feud begins

 He married a woman whom his father Shigeru adopted 5 years ago, soon after he graduated from the university in 1908. A daughter was born next year. It seems that there is no problem, but the fact was that he had a girlfriend, since he was a university student.They loved each other very much, so Sanji didn’t want to marry a woman whom his father forced him to do, but Sanji had no choice, then.

 Perhaps he might have owed money to Shigeru, when he was making his first airplane, or he might have been told that his girlfriend was not the right woman for a would-be Baroness. It was true that she was a geisha girl.

 Consequently, however, he lived with his girlfriend in the other house, after he resigned from the navy. Then he rarely came back to his wife Kio.

Who killed a young Englishman at Namamugi in 1862?

                                Arrival of Harry S. Parkes

 As I said before, after the Satsuma-Anglo War, Satsuma and the British had a good relationship with each other, nevertheless, Satsuma didn’t offer the criminal whom the British demanded. Two years after that, the new minister came to Japan from China. His name was Harry S Parks. He was born in England, but he grew up in China since he was 13. He naturally learned Chinese there, and he was hired as an interpreter in the British consulate. As he was smart and aggressive, he climbed up the career ladder soon. He became the consul at Kanton　at the age of 28, and just then, the second Opium　War （or the Arrow War）happened　in 1856. He acted as a hard-liner during the war. He was a Shanghai consul, before he headed for Japan. He was only 36 years old, then.

                          Satsuma sacrifices Kizaemon

 Satsuma Han had an information of what the new minister was like, and it just sent 19 students to England three months ago. So, the leaders of Satsuma Han wanted to have a good relationship with Parkes. They decided to solve the problem which kept uncertain. In short, they chose Kizaemon as a victim who was just responsible for that procession. It was 18th of May (=leap month in the lunar calendar) in 1865, two days after Harry Parkes reached Yokohama. There was a tacit approval between the two of them about the criminal.　

 If Parks hadn’t been satisfied with this decision, he or the side of the British might have left the diplomatic correspondence, but they didn’t, as far as I searched.

                      The silence of an eyewitness

 When the politics and the society were stable in the Meiji era(1868～1912), people who were involved in Namamugi incident began to talk about it. Among them, there was the man that became a viscount in 1884. His name was Nobuyoshi Kaieda. He was off-duty captain in a procession, and he himself said that he assisted to kill Richardson who was dying, but he said nothing about a true criminal.

 He just said that Kizaemon died from illness in Kyoto, though he had nothing to prove it. I don’t think that Kizaemon died from illness, because he just came back to Kyoto from Kagoshima three months ago, and he had no symptoms of illness at that time. Kaieda probably lied to protect someone who survived until the Meiji era. He was Shigeru Narahara, three years younger than Kizaemon.　I mean, Kizaemon　was killed as a sacrifice instead of his brother Kihachiro.

                          Kihachiro climbs up his carrier

 Let’s go back to the time of 1862. As I mentioned before in detail, Hisamitsu suppressed radical samurais in Kyoto. Eight samurais that used to be the subjects of Satsuma Han were killed almost instantly there. It was called Terada-ya(inn) incident, and it was Kihachiro that acted the most bravely.　So, especially, Hisamitsu praised Kihachiro and he kept using him as a right-hand man since. Kihachiro’s promotion was very fast, and his rank was as the same as his brother Kizaemon, when the Namamugi incident happened four months later. You can remember the fact that Satsuma didn’t give the criminal to the British and the Bakufu then. HIsamitsu couldn’t offer the criminal, for he didn’t want to lose Kihachiro.

                  Kihachiro changes his name into Kohgoro

 About a month and a half after the Anglo-Satsuma War, a political upheaval took place in Kyoto. At that time, Satsuma and Choshu were two major powers against the Shogunate government. They were fighting to take the initiative in the Imperial House. As a result of this battle, Satsuma succeeded in expelling Choshu Han from Kyoto.

It was called　the “coup d’état of August 18th ”. Kohgoro(ex-Kihachiro) played an important role in this “coup d’état” as Hisamitsu’s retainer, and he received an award not only by Hisamitu but also by the Imperial House. Next year in 1864, the Choshu army came to Kyoto, and fought against the Satsuma and Aizu allied forces, but Choshu was defeated again.

 During this war, Kizaemon was the captain who led the local samurais. On the other hand, Kohgoro became an executive of Satsuma Han soon after the war. It meant that he was in a much higher position than Kizaemon, when his brother killed himself by cutting his belly the next year.

            

   Kohgoro changes his name into Shigeru after the Meiji era

 Now I will tell you about Kohgoro. He finally became kind of deputy minister at the end of Edo era, but he was dismissed from his post a few years after the new era—Meiji Restoration--began. The reformist group of Satsuma Han condemned him for his conservative attitude toward the politics, though he made a comeback two years later as a special messenger to Okinawa. In those days, he probably changed his name into Shigeru. Soon after that, he became a head secretary of both ex-lord Tadayoshi, and his father Hisamitu. It was no doubt that he was a beloved retainer of Hisamitsu since the Terada-ya incident occurred in April 1862.

                   

                         Hisamitsu dismisses Shigeru suddenly

There came a turning point in Shigeru’s life. A rebellion against the Meiji government occurred from Satsuma in 1877.It is said that Takamori Saigo, one of the greatest heroes from Satsuma, rebelled against Toshimichi Ohkubo, one of the greatest politicians who presided over the Meiji government. This battle was fought in Kyushu, southwestern part of Japan for about six months, but it caused the most casualties through the Meiji Restoration. It was called the Seinan War.

 Which side was Shigeru Narahara on? Well, he came to see Hisamitsu and asked him for the mediation of the war as one of envoy from the Meiji government. Of course, it meant that he was on the side of Ohkubo. Regarding this war, however, Hisamitsu was sympathetic for Saigo. So, he got angry with Shigeru, because Hisamitsu was asked for the mediation from the Ohkubo’s point of view. As a result, Shigeru was fired from all his post, relating to Shimazu clan. Then, he went up to Tokyo and served under the Meiji government next year.

                  Shigeru becomes an official of the Meiji government

 The first task under the government was the land development at Kohriyama in Fukushima prefecture. As this project was promoted mainly by Ohkubo, Shigeru was sent there as a managerial post in March 1878. Two months later, Ohkubo was assassinated by the discontented former samurais. Shigeru was so surprised and grieved, but he managed to continue his job.

 Finally, he accomplished his task in Fukushima, and came back to Tokyo as a senior government official in 1882. Then, he became a governor of Shizuoka prefecture from 1883 to 1884. After that, he took the post of the president of the company which constructed the railroad from 1884 to 1892, and then a governor of Okinawa for nearly 16 years until 1908. As he was the longest of all the governors in those days, he was even called “the king of Ryukyu (Okinawa)”. Adding these careers, he received a peerage of baron in 1896. When he resigned from the governorship, he was 75 years old, and he lived until 86.

  Well, it is true that he was a womanizer and a bad drinker, but he survived as a successful person through the period of radical change. On the other hand, his brother Kizaemon died 53 years earlier than Shigeru.

 As we all know, “dead men tell no tales”.

 

Who killed a young Englishman at Namamugi in 1862?

      Who killed a young Englishman at Namamugi in 1862? 

                                             PROLOGUE

　The history of the “false accusations” is long, maybe, since an authority began to judge a crime.

 In other words, there has been full of regret caused by the false accusations in this world. Now I would like to clear a piece of regret which a family kept having for 120 years. I would be very grateful if you would read this work and pardon my poor, broken English.

                   The commander Matthew Perry lands in Japan

 During the Edo(=Tokyo) period(1603～1867), the Tokugawa Shogunate government (=Bakufu) prohibited foreign trade toward all the countries, except Netherland, China and Korea. They were permitted to come to Nagasaki only to be engaged in trade with.

  In the middle of 19 century, however, the Russians, Europeans and Americans came to demand that Japan should open the country for trade. Despite the last one to have come to Japan, the Americans   were the most aggressive among them. The commander Matthew Perry, who was the representative of the USA, strongly demanded the opening of Japan. So, the Bakufu signed the treaty with Perry at last in 1854. As a result, Japan opened itself to the world in 1858 with the unequal treaty.

         

                      Satsuma and Choshu against the Bakufu

  Since then, the feudal lords who opposed the Bakufu’s foreign policy got active in Kyoto, for they considered the emperor there as their spiritual pillar.

 There were two strong lords who became hostile to the Bakufu. One of them was Shimazu clan who ruled Satsuma Han (=a kind of independent government). Satsuma was at the south edge of Kyushu, the southwestern island. In 1862, the father of the Satsuma lord was going to take about 1000 soldiers to Edo to demand the reform of the Shogunate government. His name was Hisamitsu Shimazu.The other was Choshu Han. It was located at the southern tip of Honshu, mainland Japan. The Mohri clan ruled it. Choshu and Satsuma fought to take the initiative for a while, but they joined hands with each other and overthrew the Shogunate government after all in 1868. They were both the Outside Daimyo（＝feudal lords outside of the Tokugawa government system).

 Now I am going to tell you about Satsuma Han. Hisamitsu Shimazu was the younger brother of Nariakira, who was one of the very distinguished lords and was trusted by the Bakufu’s ministers(=Roju) as well, but Nariakira died in 1858, and he had no son. So, when he was dying, he said that his heir should be Hisamitsu’s son. That’s why Hisamitsu had the power over Satsuma Han. And he also kept his brother’s will which meant to reform the structure of the Shogunate government.

                                 Hisamitsu goes to Edo

 In April 1862, Hisamitsu left Kagoshima for Edo by way of Kyoto where he needed the approval of the emperor.

A big problem was happening, however, soon after he arrived at Kyoto. The radical samurais and masterless ones who were not satisfied with Hisamitsu’s reformation toward the Tokugawa government gathered at Fushimi Terada-ya( inn) next to Kyoto. They were planning to assassinate Tadayoshi Sakai, who was the administrator of Nijou castle in Kyoto. 　　

 Hisamitsu heard about their plot, and he sent his eight retainers who were good at using their swords. There was Kihachiro Narahara among them and consequently this became a starting point of his success. Anyway, they went to Terada-ya(inn ) and persuaded them to obey Hisamitsu, but Shinshichi Arima, who was the leader of the radical group, would not listen to them at all. Gorobei Michisima, one of retainers, got angry with him and slashed him quickly. The battle started between both sides in the dark, small entrance room. The site of the battle was terribly horrifying. Seven samurais, including Gorobei Michishima, were killed instantly at the scene and some wounded. Before long, the samurais on the second floor heard the noises downstairs, and they came down to see what’s happening. When Kihachiro saw them coming down the stairs, he put his swords on the floor and shouted, “Obey Hisamitsu’s order, or kill me.” Finally, they listened to him, and they surrendered　to Kihachiro.　It was no doubt that Hisamitsu praised the brave deed of Kihachiro.

 As a result, ｓamurais from Satsuma suffered heavy casualties in the fight, but Hisamitsu was praised by the emperor, because he brought peace to Kyoto. Then, he got a guarantee from the Imperial House. He and the Imperial envoy headed for Edo in May.

 After he arrived there, he managed to reform the structure of the Edo Bakufu, though there was much antipathy against him. Because he was just the father of the lord who belonged to the Outside Daimyo. Therefore, as soon as he accomplished his work, he decided to leave for Kyoto. It was early morning of August 21th(September 14^th, according to the solar calendar).

       The Namamugi incident happens in 1862

 At that time, the lord himself was carried in the palanquin(=kago), but his subjects had to walk in a procession. It was about two o’clock in the afternoon. The procession was passing through a village called Namamugi near Yokohama. Then, three Englishmen and a woman were coming from the opposite side. They were riding on horses　from Yokohama,--it was just opened to foreign countries in 1859. They didn’t know how to cope with so called “Lord Procession”. They were just foreign merchants who were unfamiliar with Japanese customs. (The shogunate government informed the British consulate at Yokohama that the Daimyo and the imperial mission were going to pass through a trunk road, but they left before that information reached.)

 .As they were approaching the “palanquin”, however, they couldn’t go forward anymore, because the road was not only narrow to pass through,but samurais were shouting “go back, go back”. They feared so much that they were turning their horses back, but it was too late. They were in a panic, and three men were slashed heavily, especially the one whose name was Charles Richardson, but the others managed to escape from the place. Only a woman was not hurt at all and came back to Yokohama directly.

 Consequently, Charles Richardson was killed, although that was one of many attempted murders which happened in Japan those days. This was the first time for civilians.

 Then, why is this incident drawing a specific attention, despite of many murderous incidents having occurred against foreigners during the last days of the Tokugawa shogunate?

                     Satsuma-Anglo War breaks out

 One was that it caused the Satsuma-Anglo war next year. As a result of this war, both sides were seriously damaged, and they changed their minds with each other. Ｓａｔｓｕｍａ wanted the strong weapons like the British navy used, and the other noticed that Satsuma was strong and the Tokugawa Bakufu was not entirely dependable.   

 After they had peace conferences five times, they agreed with their treaty, but an issue remained unsolved between them.

 Originally, the British sent a fleet to Kagoshima, for Satsuma didn’t offer the Criminal who killed Charles Richardson, and didn’t pay any compensation for it, either. It was true that Satsuma Han paid the compensation for the British through the Bakufu(Satsuma Han paid nothing after all), but Satsuma didn’t offer the criminal, though the British demanded the criminal until the last conference.

                     Satsuma refuses to give a criminal to the British

 Satsuma flatly refused to give the criminal to the British and even to the Bakufu, since the incident had happened.

 This is the beginning of the story in which two brothers were involved. One is a true criminal, but the other isn’t. Their names are Kizaemon and Kihachiro Narahara.  

 Kihachiro was three years junior to Kizaemon, and Kihachiro changed his name two times later, at first, Kohgoro, next, Shigeru. 

 Historically speaking, it has been said that the criminal who slashed Richardson with a sword at first was Kizaemon, but it isn’t true. He was just in charge of that procession. That’s what he died for in 1865. I imagine that he probably cut his belly(harakiri), according to the order of Satsuma Han. There are enough reasons why I can say that.

To the English Readers

The name of William Adams, another name Anjin Miura, is very famous here in Japan historically. Because he was the first Englishman to have come over to

Japan in 1600, and he served Yeyasu Tokugawa, who was one of the most

powerful lords at that time. Even most Japanese hardly know, however, the fact

that the two Japanese men had reached England 12 years earlier than William

Adams landed in Japan. Each of the two Japanese men was called Christopher

and Cosmas, though the Japanese names were unknown. It is said that they

went to Manila in the Philippines, where the Spanish dominated then. After that, they were boarding on the Spanish trade ship for Mexico, maybe, as the smart servants, but they were captured by the English explorer named Cavendish off Mexico. Making a long story short, he took them to England in 1588.

I’m so sorry to be late for introducing myself. I am seventy years old and have

been engaged in the pursuit of the true criminal who killed an English merchant named William Lennox Richardson. He and two other English men and a woman were involved in the accident which happened at Namamugi near Yokohama in September 1862(August 21 at Japan time). It was called “the

Namamugi incident”, and it is a very famous one which occurred in the last days of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Speaking from a political point of view, obviously, this incident had an important role in making the Tokugawa system collapse much more quickly. So, we cannot watch any kind of TV dramas or read historical books without coming out of that scene, but, from another point of view, we may say it is one of the murderous cases which remains a mystery

until today. In other words, it was a “false accusation”. According to the

accepted theory, the criminal who slashed Richardson first was Kizaemon

Narahara, but it wasn’t true. The true criminal was his brother Kihachiro.

Anyway, the details of this incident can be read in the next stage. If there is anyone who is interested in the mysterious incident, please read this historical document, and I’d like you to add a new perspective between the Japan’s history and yours. I mean, at the same time, I’d like you to spread my historical documentary if possible.

P.S I am going to add a story about two young Japanese men thereafter. What

were they doing in England? I’m not sure, but there is a possibility that they had an audience with Queen Elizabeth, because Cavendish left England for Asia, accompanying them as guides in 1591. As you know, Francis Drake, an expert navigator, left Plymouth in 1577 in his ship the Golden Hind and sailed south, because Elizabeth asked Drake to sail across the South Atlantic, attack Spanish galleons and their treasure, at the same time, she wanted him to find new trade routes as well. That’ why I said that two Japanese had an audience with the Queen.

By the way, what happened to the two Japanese after they sailed out? It is said

that they died of coldness and hunger off South America. Cavendish managed

to return to England, however, he killed himself, they say.

Thank you for having my poor English read.

Yours sincerely