REAL HISTORICAL FIGURES
Western name order adhered to, even for Japanese figures. Surnames in capitals.
Sir Rutherford ALCOCK (1809-97): Great Britain’s Minister to Japan, 1859-62 and 1864.
Lt. Colonel Edward St. John NEALE (1813-66): Great Britain’s Chargé d’Affaires at Edo/Yokohama, 1862-64.
Sir Harry PARKES (1828-85): British Minister to Japan for eighteen years, from 1865 to 1883. Born in Staffordshire, he was orphaned as a boy and sent at the age of 12 to live with relatives in Macao, becoming a fluent Chinese speaker. After government service in Hong Kong and China he became British Minister to Japan in 1865 at the age of only 38.
Charles Lennox RICHARDSON (1834-62): British Shanghai-based merchant. While in Japan, Richardson was murdered by samurai of the Satsuma clan in what is now known as the “Namamugi Incident”, after the village near the location of the attack.
Takamori SAIGO (1828-77): A Satsuma samurai, Saigo was given control of the Satsuma armed forces in 1864 and led them at the Forbidden Gate Incident of that year in Kyoto. He was perhaps the leading general on the pro-Imperial side during the Meiji Restoration (1868) and subsequent Boshin War (1869). Disillusioned with the new Japan that he himself had helped bring about, Saigo led a rebellion of like-minded samurai in 1877 that culminated in defeat and his own death, the inspiration for the Hollywood film “The Last Samurai”.
Ernest SATOW (1843-1929): Arriving in Japan in 1862 as a student-interpreter at the British diplomatic mission, Satow resided for 20 years in Japan before postings to Thailand, Uruguay and Morocco. He returned to Japan in 1895, serving as Great Britain’s Minister in Japan until 1900, a service for which he was knighted. His memoirs of the period 1862-69 were first published under the title “A Diplomat in Japan” in 1921 and have been in print ever since.
Hisamitsu SHIMAZU (1817-87): Regent of Satsuma and father of Tadayoshi SHIMAZU.
Tadayoshi SHIMAZU (1840-97): 11th Daimyo of the Satsuma province.
Princess Atsuhime TOKUGAWA (1836-83): Wife of Iesada, the 13th Tokugawa Shogun. From an aristocratic family from Satsuma province, in 1856 she was married to Iesada, who had become Shogun three years previously. Iesada died in 1858, leaving her a widow at the age of only 22.
Iemochi TOKUGAWA (1846-66): The 14th Tokugawa Shogun, holding office from 1858 until his death eight years later.
Yoshinobu TOKUGAWA, “Keiki” (1837-1913): Guardian of his younger cousin, the Shogun Iemochi TOKUGAWA from 1862, Keiki became the 15th and final Tokugawa Shogun upon his cousin’s death, reigning from 1866 to November 1867.
Western name order adhered to, even for Japanese figures. Surnames in capitals.
Sir Rutherford ALCOCK (1809-97): Great Britain’s Minister to Japan, 1859-62 and 1864.
Lt. Colonel Edward St. John NEALE (1813-66): Great Britain’s Chargé d’Affaires at Edo/Yokohama, 1862-64.
Sir Harry PARKES (1828-85): British Minister to Japan for eighteen years, from 1865 to 1883. Born in Staffordshire, he was orphaned as a boy and sent at the age of 12 to live with relatives in Macao, becoming a fluent Chinese speaker. After government service in Hong Kong and China he became British Minister to Japan in 1865 at the age of only 38.
Charles Lennox RICHARDSON (1834-62): British Shanghai-based merchant. While in Japan, Richardson was murdered by samurai of the Satsuma clan in what is now known as the “Namamugi Incident”, after the village near the location of the attack.
Takamori SAIGO (1828-77): A Satsuma samurai, Saigo was given control of the Satsuma armed forces in 1864 and led them at the Forbidden Gate Incident of that year in Kyoto. He was perhaps the leading general on the pro-Imperial side during the Meiji Restoration (1868) and subsequent Boshin War (1869). Disillusioned with the new Japan that he himself had helped bring about, Saigo led a rebellion of like-minded samurai in 1877 that culminated in defeat and his own death, the inspiration for the Hollywood film “The Last Samurai”.
Ernest SATOW (1843-1929): Arriving in Japan in 1862 as a student-interpreter at the British diplomatic mission, Satow resided for 20 years in Japan before postings to Thailand, Uruguay and Morocco. He returned to Japan in 1895, serving as Great Britain’s Minister in Japan until 1900, a service for which he was knighted. His memoirs of the period 1862-69 were first published under the title “A Diplomat in Japan” in 1921 and have been in print ever since.
Hisamitsu SHIMAZU (1817-87): Regent of Satsuma and father of Tadayoshi SHIMAZU.
Tadayoshi SHIMAZU (1840-97): 11th Daimyo of the Satsuma province.
Princess Atsuhime TOKUGAWA (1836-83): Wife of Iesada, the 13th Tokugawa Shogun. From an aristocratic family from Satsuma province, in 1856 she was married to Iesada, who had become Shogun three years previously. Iesada died in 1858, leaving her a widow at the age of only 22.
Iemochi TOKUGAWA (1846-66): The 14th Tokugawa Shogun, holding office from 1858 until his death eight years later.
Yoshinobu TOKUGAWA, “Keiki” (1837-1913): Guardian of his younger cousin, the Shogun Iemochi TOKUGAWA from 1862, Keiki became the 15th and final Tokugawa Shogun upon his cousin’s death, reigning from 1866 to November 1867.
