The Namamugi Incident, as depicted in a 19th century Japanese woodcut print. Charles Lennox Richardson is at the centre of the scene.

The Namamugi Incident (生麦事件, Namamugi Jiken) (also known sometimes as the Kanagawa Incident, and archaically as the Richardson Affair) was a samurai attack on foreign nationals in Japan on September 14, 1862, which resulted in the bombardment of Kagoshima in 1863. In Japanese the bombardment is described as a war between the United Kingdom and Satsuma Province, the so-called Anglo-Satsuma War (Satsu-Ei Senso). Download high resolution version (1059x493, 546 KB)Namamugi Incident, 19th century Japanese woodcut print. ... Download high resolution version (1059x493, 546 KB)Namamugi Incident, 19th century Japanese woodcut print. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... Charles Lennox Richardson was the English merchant from Shanghai who was in Japan and was murdered by the Satsuma retainers of Shimazu Hisamitsu on September 14, 1862. ... Japanese samurai in armour, 1860s. ... September 14 is the 257th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (258th in leap years). ... 1862 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Kagoshima (鹿児島市; -shi) the capital city of Kagoshima Prefecture at the southwest tip of the Kyushu island of Japan. ... 1863 (MDCCCLXIII) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar). ... Satsuma (薩摩国; -no Kuni) was an old province of Japan that is now the western half of Kagoshima prefecture on the island of Kyushu. ... The Anglo-Satsuma War (Japanese Satsu-Ei Sensou) took place in August 1863. ...

Course of events

Four British subjects (a Shanghai merchant named Charles Lennox Richardson, two other men and a Mrs. Borrodaile) were travelling on the Tokaido road through the village of Namamugi (now part of Tsurumi ward, Yokohama) en route to a shrine in present-day Kawasaki. As they passed through the village, the daimyō of Satsuma, Shimazu Hisamitsu, passed through in the other direction with a thousand-man contingent of guards. The Britons did not dismount when ordered to do so, as was the custom when daimyos passed by in Japan, and were attacked for disrespecting Shimazu. Richardson was killed and the two other men were seriously wounded. Richardson's grave is entombed in Yokohama at The Yokohama Foreign General Cemetery. For other uses, see Shanghai (disambiguation). ... Charles Lennox Richardson was the English merchant from Shanghai who was in Japan and was murdered by the Satsuma retainers of Shimazu Hisamitsu on September 14, 1862. ... Tōkaidō (東海道) (literally, East Sea Route) is the name of several things: National Route 1, which links Tokyo and Osaka; The Tokaido Main Line, which links Tokyo and Kobe; One of the Edo Five Routes, which linked Edo (now Tokyo) and Kyoto along the shore (see below); and An ancient... ... Yokohama (Japanese: 横浜市; -shi) is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan. ... A symbol of Kawasaki-shi Temple at Kawasaki. ... Daimyo Matsudaira Katamori visits the residence of a retainer. ... Shimazu Hisamitsu (島津久光) (1817-87) was the daimyo and de facto ruler or regent of the Satsuma domain (now Kagoshima prefecture) in the years immediately preceding the Meiji Restoration of 1868. ...

Consequences of the Namamugi Incident

Entrance to the village of Namamugi, circa 1862.

The incident sparked a scare in Japan's foreign community, which was based in the Kannai district of Yokohama. Many traders appealed to their governments to take punitive action against Japan. Britain engaged Satsuma a year later in the Anglo-Satsuma War, a naval bombardment of Kagoshima which claimed 5 lives among the people of Satsuma, 13 lives among the British (including the Captain of the British flagship) ^[1]. Material losses were important, with around 500 houses burnt in Kagoshima, and three Satsuma steamships destroyed. The conflict caused much controversy in the British House of Commons. Entrance to the village of Namamugi on the Tokkaido, 1862. ... Entrance to the village of Namamugi on the Tokkaido, 1862. ... The Anglo-Satsuma War (Japanese Satsu-Ei Sensou) took place in August 1863. ... Kagoshima (鹿児島市; -shi) is the capital city of Kagoshima Prefecture at the southwest tip of the Kyushu island of Japan. ...

Notes

1. ^ The British victims were caused by Satsuma cannonry as well as accidents due to the usage of Breech-loading guns developed by the English engineer William George Armstrong

Armstrong cannon at the Chulachomklao fort, Samut Prakan, Thailand A Rifled Breech Loader (RBL) is a large artillery piece which unlike the cannon and Rifled Muzzle Loader (RML) which preceded it, has rifling in the barrel and is loaded from the breech at the rear of the gun. ... William George Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong (November 26, 1810 - December 27, 1900) was an English industrialist, the effective founder of the Armstrong-Siddeley manufacturing empire. ...

References

• See the account of the incident in Chapter V, A Diplomat in Japan by Sir Ernest Satow, London, 1921. (Tuttle paperback reprint, ISBN 4925080288)

• The incident was the basis of James Clavell's novel Gai-Jin.

Sir Ernest Mason Satow, G.C.M.G., P.C. (1843-1929), a British scholar-diplomat born to an ethnically German father (Hans David Christoph Satow, born in Swedish-occupied Wismar, naturalised British in 1846) and an English mother (Margaret, nee Mason) in Clapton, North London, and educated at Mill... James Clavell in 1986 James Clavell, British Royal Artillery) (10 October 1924 – 7 September 1994) was a novelist, screenwriter, and World War II POW, who was famous for books such as Shogun, and such films as The Great Escape and To Sir, with Love. ... Gai-Jin (Japanese 外人, Foreigner) is a 1993 novel by James Clavell, chronologically the third book in his Asian Saga. ...

See also

• Anglo-Japanese relations
• Anglo-Satsuma War

This page describes the history of the relationship between the United Kingdom and Japan. ... The Anglo-Satsuma War (Japanese Satsu-Ei Sensou) took place in August 1863. ...

External links

• A historical account