, also known as , was a Japanese admiral known for being the commander of the

Japanese Embassy to the United States The was dispatched in 1860 by the Tokugawa shogunate (bakufu). Its objective was to ratify the new Treaty of Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation between the United States and Japan, in addition to being Japan's first diplomatic mission to the ...

in 1860, Japan's first foreign embassy mission after the end of ''

sakoku is the most common name for the isolationist foreign policy of the Japanese Tokugawa shogunate under which, during the Edo period (from 1603 to 1868), relations and trade between Japan and other countries were severely limited, and almost all ...

'', sailing aboard the ''

Kanrin Maru was Japan's first sail and screw-driven steam corvette (the first steam-driven Japanese warship, ''Kankō Maru'', was a side-wheeler). She was ordered in 1853 from the Netherlands, the only Western country with which Japan had diplomatic rela ...

''. He was also the governor of

Settsu Province was a province of Japan, which today comprises the southeastern part of Hyōgo Prefecture and the northern part of Osaka Prefecture. It was also referred to as or . Osaka and Osaka Castle were the main center of the province. Most of Settsu's ...

(), which covered parts of modern-day

Osaka prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Osaka Prefecture has a population of 8,778,035 () and has a geographic area of . Osaka Prefecture borders Hyōgo Prefecture to the northwest, Kyoto Prefecture to the north, Nara ...

and Hyogo prefecture.

Biography

Early career

Kimura was born in 1830 into a

Hatamoto A was a high ranking samurai in the direct service of the Tokugawa shogunate of feudal Japan. While all three of the Shōgun, shogunates in History of Japan, Japanese history had official retainers, in the two preceding ones, they were referred ...

family, part of the samurai class in direct service to the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...

. As a teenager and young man, he held several minor posts within the shogunal bureaucracy. In 1856 he was appointed as director of the

Nagasaki Naval Training Center The was a naval training institute, between 1855 when it was established by the government of the Tokugawa shogunate, until 1859, when it was transferred to Tsukiji in Edo. During the Bakumatsu period, the Japanese government faced increasing ...

after the previous director,

Nagai Naoyuki , also known as or , was a Japanese hatamoto under the Tokugawa of Bakumatsu period Japan. His great-great-grandchild was Yukio Mishima. Naoyuki's adopted son, Iwanojō Nagai, was the father of Natsu, who was Mishima's grandmother. Iwanojō's ...

, moved to the new

Tsukiji Tsukiji (築地) is a district of Chūō, Tokyo, Japan. Literally meaning "reclaimed land", it lies near the Sumida River on land reclaimed from Tokyo Bay in the 18th century during the Edo period. The eponymous Tsukiji fish market opened in 193 ...

Naval Training Center in

Edo Edo (), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the '' de facto'' capital of Japan from 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogu ...

. During this time, Kimura learned about the latest naval technology from Dutch instructors Pels Rijcken and Willem Huyssen van Kattendijke. With the closure of the Nagasaki training center in 1859, Kimura returned to Edo and was promoted to a newly created position, magistrate of warships (), often translated as "Admiral". At this time, he had a home in the Shinsenza district of

(modern-day Hamamatsucho).

The Embassy of 1860

After the Harris Treaty of 1858, Japan was required to send ambassadors to the United States to ratify the treaty. These ambassadors travelled on the USS Powhatan, and this vessel was accompanied by the Japanese ship ''

'', purchased from the Dutch a few years previously, intended as a showcase of Japanese mastery of Western technology. Due to his experience with modern naval technology, Kimura was made commander of the mission, putting him in charge of organising the transport, and, if the ambassadors had been unable to make it to Washington, Kimura would have been deputised to complete the mission in their place. As commander, Kimura was able to personally select some members of the mission, including

Katsu Kaishū Count , born , best known by his nickname , was a Japanese statesman, naval engineer and military commander during the late Tokugawa shogunate and early Meiji period. Kaishū was a nickname which he took from a piece of calligraphy (Kaishū S ...

, former head instructor at the Nagasaki training centre, who he appointed as captain of the ''Kanrin Maru''; Nakahama "John" Manjiro, one of the few Japanese people to speak good English at the time, as translator and interpreter; and a young

Fukuzawa Yukichi was a Japanese educator, philosopher, writer, entrepreneur and samurai who founded Keio Gijuku, the newspaper ', and the Institute for Study of Infectious Diseases. Fukuzawa was an early advocate for reform in Japan. His ideas about the or ...

as an attendant. The ''Kanrin Maru'' set sail from Uraga on 9 February 1860, and arrived in San Francisco 37 days later, well ahead of the Powhatan, as the other ship had made a stop in the

Kingdom of Hawaiʻi The Hawaiian Kingdom, also known as the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi ( Hawaiian: ɛ ɐwˈpuni həˈvɐjʔi, was an archipelagic country from 1795 to 1893, which eventually encompassed all of the inhabited Hawaiian Islands. It was established in 1795 w ...

. This meant that they were the first Japanese government representatives to set foot in the US, and as such were given a warm and elaborate welcome by the Americans, despite not being the official ambassadors. As the highest-ranking Japanese on the ship, Kimura represented the embassy at the functions, via Nakahama's English–Japanese interpretation. Kimura's insistence on proper etiquette regarding issues such as disembarkation and the order of toasts given at a reception were remarked on by the American press. While he was there, Kimura bought a black Western-style umbrella, different from those made in Japan. The official embassy arrived in San Francisco aboard the Powhatan on 29 March, and were received with similar acclaim, but left for

Washington D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

on 7 April, while the ''Kanrin Maru'' was still undergoing repairs. Kimura had intended to remain in San Francisco until they heard news from Washington about the embassy, but the rudimentary transcontinental communication meant this was not forthcoming, so the ''Kanrin Maru'' set off back to Japan from San Francisco on 8 May, and arrived in Uraga on 24 June, having stopped in Hawaiʻi.

Later life

After returning to Japan, Kimura returned to his duties as magistrate of warships for the ''bakufu'', pushing for modernising reforms to the structure of the Navy. Leading up to and during the

Boshin War The , sometimes known as the Japanese Revolution or Japanese Civil War, was a civil war in Japan fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and a coalition seeking to seize political power in the name of the Impe ...

, Kimura held several different roles on the side of the ''bakufu''. He remained close with Fukuzawa Yukichi in the years after the voyage, the latter spending so much time at Kimura's Shinzenza residence that he was "almost like a member of the household". Despite having fought for the now-deposed ''bakufu'', after the

Meiji restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

Kimura was offered positions in the new government, but he turned them down. During his retirement, he wrote books such as the "Thirty Year History" (). Kimura died in 1901.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kimura, Kaishu 1830 births 1901 deaths Members of the Japanese Embassy to the United States Hatamoto Imperial Japanese Navy officers Samurai