Behind the Roundhouse in Chalk Farm in North London there’s a quiet street called Provost Road with at the far end St Saviour’s Church where today they must be celebrating Good Friday. Ever since I came back from my first trip to Japan in the mid 1980s, whenever I’ve passed I always look to see if there’s a blue plaque on number 16 in honour of the Choshu Five, who lived there between 1863 and 1866.
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| The Choshu Five in 1863: Kinsuke Endo, Masaru Inoue, Hirobumi Ito below: Kaoru Inoue, Yozo Yamao |
Here’s their story.
Back in 1863 Japan was in upheaval. Several of the most powerful of the 260 princedoms that made up the country were in open revolt against their overlord, the shogun. Just ten years had passed since the American Commodore Matthew Perry had arrived with gunships to force Japan to agree to a trade treaty and allow foreigners onto its shores, quickly followed by England, France, Holland and Russia.
The most militant of the rebel clans was the Choshu, in the far west of Japan. They were well aware of the overwhelming power of western military might and decided to send five of their most brilliant young students to acquire scientific knowledge for their domain. In those days Britannia ruled the waves and Britain with its vast spreading empire and huge wealth was the obvious place to go.
The snag was that leaving the country was an offence punishable by death.
The five - Hirobumi Ito, Kaoru Inoue, Kinsuke Endō, Masaru Inoue and Yozo Yamao - travelled clandestinely across the country to Yokohama, the first port to be opened to westerners. There they contacted a representative of Jardine Matheson, the first British trading house to open an office. They cut off their samurai topknots, put on western clothes and on June 27th 1863 were smuggled aboard a Jardine’s steamship. They had to hide in the coal bunker till the ship was well out to sea.
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| Alexander William Williamson 1862 |
In Shanghai they changed ships. But then things went wrong. Hirobumi Ito and Kaoru Inoue boarded the SS Pegasus but were mistaken for crew. They were forced to scrub decks, wash dishes and spread sails and were given ship’s biscuits, tea and rainwater to live on. They were horribly seasick and had terrible quarters. But they didn’t speak enough English to be able to explain that they’d paid to travel as passengers. Meanwhile the other three travelled in comfort on another ship.
They were reunited in London after four and a half months at sea. Ito and Inoue ‘looked like hungry crows’, according to Inoue’s account.
In London things looked up. Hugh Matheson introduced them to Alexander William Williamson, the 39-year-old professor of analytical and practical chemistry at University College, London (UCL) on Gower Street. Initially the students had digs at UCL but soon moved into Williamson’s house at 16 Provost Road where they were welcomed by his wife and two small children. The area was a recent development, part of the Chalcot Estate belonging to Eton College. The houses were described in 1848 as ‘highly delightful detached and semi-detached villas’. There was also a new church, St Saviours, just across the road. The spire was added in 1864, the year after the students arrived. The students would have seen the scaffolding and heard the banging of the workers’ hammers.
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| University College, London |
Professor Williamson’s wife, Catherine, settled down to teach them English. After six months they’d learnt enough to be able to skim the paper. One day Ito read in The Times that England, France and Holland were about to send a squadron of nine gunships to attack their domain, Choshu, which refused to allow western ships to pass through the Straits of Shimonoseki, their territorial waters.
They had seen enough of western technology to know that Choshu had no chance against such formidable force and would surely lose. Ito and Inoue packed their bags and rushed back on the first steamship to warn Choshu not to fight. But they were too late. The western powers had already bombarded the domain which was forced to open the Straits.
The other three stayed on in London. They studied chemistry, engineering, maths and physics and visited the Houses of Parliament, the Mint, the British Museum, military facilities and factories. They were particularly interested in the underground railway, which opened the year they arrived.
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| Haiku on monument to the Choshu Five at UCL: 'When distant minds come together, cherries blossom.' |
Today there is an imposing monument to the Choshu Five at UCL, with their names engraved on the polished black granite. There is a haiku carved along the side, reading Haruburu to kokoro tsudoite hana sakaru: ‘When distant minds come together, cherries blossom.’
There is also a letter written by Japan’s current prime minister, Shinzo Abe, in 2013, addressed to Alexander and Catherine Williamson, thanking them for their kindness to his countrymen. It hangs in the entrance lobby of the Department of Chemistry at UCL. In Japan the story of the Choshu Five has been told in books and also in a very dramatic movie.
But there is no blue plaque at 16 Provost Road.
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| 16 Provost Road |
Lesley Downer's new novel, The Shogun's Queen, is published by Bantam. Find more information on her website, www.lesleydowner.com.