SIR ERNEST SATOW--1869 56 SIR ERNEST SATOW--1903 56 PAYMENT OF THE INDEMNITY FOR THE MURDER OF RICHARDSON 80 KAGOSHIMA HARBOUR: BOMBARDMENT 90-91 THE STRAITS OF SHIMONOSEKI 106-107 INTERIOR OF A JAPANESE BATTERY AFTER THE LANDING OF THE ALLIED NAVAL FORCES 112 DAIMIO OF CHO-SHIU AND HIS HEIR 184 CHO-SHIU COUNCILLORS 184 GROUP PHOTOGRAPHED DURING A VISIT TO OZAKA 192 NIIRO GIOBU, A SATSUMA COUNCILLOR 272 KATSU AWA NO KAMI 272 _The Design on the Cover of this Book is the Family Crest of the Tokugawa Shôguns._ A DIPLOMAT IN JAPAN A DIPLOMAT IN JAPAN CHAPTER I APPOINTMENT AS STUDENT INTERPRETER AT YEDO (1861) MY thoughts were first drawn to Japan by a mere accident. In my eighteenth year an elder brother brought home from Mudie's Library the interesting account of Lord Elgin's Mission to China and Japan by Lawrence Oliphant, and the book having fallen to me in turn, inflamed my imagination with pictures verbal and coloured of a country where the sky was always blue, where the sun shone perpetually, and where the whole duty of man seemed to consist in lying on a matted floor with the windows open to the ground towards a miniature rockwork garden, in the company of rosy-lipped black-eyed and attentive damsels--in short, a realised fairyland. But that I should ever have a chance of seeing these Isles of the Blest was beyond my wildest dreams. An account of Commodore Perry's expedition, which had preceded Lord Elgin's Mission, came in my way shortly afterwards, and though much more sober in its outward appearance and literary style, only served to confirm the previous impression. I thought of nothing else from that time onwards. One day, on entering the library of University College, London, where I was then studying, I found lying on the table a notice that three nominations to student-interpreterships in China and Japan had been placed at the disposition of the Dean. Here was the chance for which I had been longing. Permission to enter myself for the competition was obtained, not without difficulty, from my parents, and having gained the first place in the public examination, I chose Japan. To China I never wished or intended to go. My age was sufficient by a few hours to enable me to compete. I was formally appointed in August 1861, and quitted England full of joyful anticipation in November of that year.