Part 31

But there was another thing that made the notion additionally attractive, and this was the position of the country’s finances in respect of the inconvertible paper currency termed “Da-Jo-Kwan Satsu”—notes issued by the Government, which were depreciated, though not to any great extent so far, and it was deemed unwise to keep them floating so long as thirteen years, the period assigned for their redemption. It had been ascertained that the United States had established a National Bank to facilitate the management of the inconvertible notes issued at the time of the Civil War, known as “Greenbacks,” and the similarity of the situation at the moment in Japan to that of America in 1860 struck everyone.

Messrs Inouye and Shibusawa, then together in the Finance Department at Tokio, cordially agreed with the proposals of Ito Hirobumi, as conveyed in his reports from America, and began to take the needful steps for establishing a National Bank of Japan on a small scale. Mr Shibusawa was made Chairman of a Committee of Investigation into the system of national banks, and after careful study the Committee framed regulations which were put into force by the Government under the National Bank Act in November 1872.

The Dai-Ichi Ginko, _lit._: No. 1 Bank, prospectus appeared in December 1872, the proposers—two of them members of the renowned house of Mitsui, two of the firm of Ono, and Minomura Rizayemon, five well-known men, subscribed 2,000,000 yen, and offered 1,000,000 yen for public subscription. It illustrates the change which has come over Japan in more recent years that, notwithstanding every effort, in 1873, when the list closed, only 4408 shares had been taken in the new venture, and the capital of the bank was reduced to 2,440,800 yen, equal at present rates to about £250,000 sterling. The public had not sufficient understanding of the corporation system to be able to appreciate the new enterprise. A few years later the joint-stock concerns were numbered by the hundred. The Dai-ichi Gin-ko began business on the 20th July 1873, in the picturesque block at Nihonbashi, in Tokio, which had belonged to the Mitsui Company, and had been bought from them for 128,500 yen, and it continued thenceforward to transact a general banking business, and to act as accountant of the Finance Department, for at that time every department of the Government had its own accountant and kept its own independent set of accounts.

Mr Shibusawa,—as he was then,—on resigning his post of Junior Vice-Minister of Finance, was elected General Superintendent of the Dai-ichi Gin-ko, and discharged the duties of president.

Speaking some time ago of those early days of banking in Japan, the Baron explained that “It was the 1st day of August 1873 when the First National Bank received the certificate of authorisation. From that time we issued the new bank-notes for circulation, little by little, but there were none who came to make demands for the redemption thereof. It was our idea to have them circulated in the country districts rather than in the cities and open ports. The people of the country districts, although they were very unfavourably impressed by the old Government paper, were now better disposed to circulate the notes issued by a bank under strict Government inspection, and the general public began to put more confidence in these notes than in those which had been issued before. But we were very careful not to put too many of them into circulation, because we were well aware of the possibility of fluctuation in the price of gold and silver that would seriously affect the value. So, at first we kept back a large quantity of the paper in our vaults....” And thus by prudent management the First National Bank passed its first year with a record of 112,000 yen net profit, out of which 11,000 yen were carried at once to a reserve fund.

At the end of 1874 the bank received a severe blow by the failure of the Ono firm, which had been one of the largest shareholders, and owed the bank a considerable sum. At a general meeting it was resolved that the Ono house’s obligation would be met by the shares of 1,000,000 yen which it owned, and consequently the capital was reduced by that amount. Mr Shibusawa was elected first president of the bank, and as the Government had been a little alarmed by the Ono affair, and was determined thenceforward to establish an accountant bureau in each department of State under its own charge, the First National Bank had to hand over all Government moneys left in its control, and seek to extend its business solely among the people. It was believed that no fears need be entertained of the result, and it has, as a matter of fact, done well. In recent years it has been the chief financial organ of the Japan-Korea trade, and has floated loans for the Imperial Household and Government of Korea with complete satisfaction. The Dai-ichi Ginko notes are the recognised medium of circulation in Korea still and are facilitating the commerce of that country.

It was in May 1900 that a peerage was conferred on Baron Shibusawa, and it was the first instance in which such a mark of imperial favour had ever been extended to a business man in Japan, the rank being in his case accorded in recognition of his past services to the State. It was on his initiative, supported by Marquis Ito and Count Okuma, that the Tokio Chamber of Commerce was founded in 1878, with himself as its president, an honour which he still enjoys. He has played a distinguished part in connection with the municipal affairs of Tokio, and was mainly instrumental in establishing an Asylum for the Poor. When at a later date the Tokio municipality abolished this useful institution, he took upon himself the work of raising a fund for an asylum to exist purely as a private establishment, and to be maintained wholly independently of official aid. In the end it was taken over by the municipality, with Baron Shibusawa as its president, and he continues to be the head of the institution, which is the largest and best equipped of its kind in the land.

Before he quitted the Government service in 1873 he had taken the first steps to establish a mail steamship service to China and Korea, and around the Japanese coasts. The Company formed to undertake this work was afterwards amalgamated with the Mitsu-Bishi (Three diamonds) Shipping Company, and subsequently, when another concern was started and a fierce competition arose for the coastwise trade, Baron Shibusawa induced the opponents to make terms with each other and unite in one Company which is now among the great Shipping Organisations of the world, and known as the Nippon Yusen Kaisha, or Japan Mailboat Company. He is still one of its directors, and has helped, moreover, very materially to establish a trans-Pacific line,—the Toyo Kisen Kaisha,—which runs mail steamers from Yokohama to Hong Kong and San Francisco.

In the cotton-spinning industry he is prominent, having founded the Osaka and Miye Spinning Mills, and he has either promoted or started numerous undertakings for the supply of gas or electric light, for silk or cotton weaving, hemp and rope manufacturing, brickworks, cement factories, sugar refining, and many other enterprises for the utilisation of the knowledge which modern science has conferred on his fellow-countrymen. He is deeply concerned with railway extension, not only in Japan but in Korea, he is interested in harbour construction, and reclamation works, in farming, the breeding of horses and cattle, the manufacture of artificial manures, hat-making, and a variety of other ventures that need not be particularised. Altogether, including several banks other than the Bank of Japan of which he is president—_e.g._ the Yokohama Specie Bank, the Industrial Bank, and the Japan Credit Mobilier—the Baron is connected with upwards of thirty companies in the capacity of either president or director. He founded the Tokio Clearing-House, the Commercial Agency, and other business institutions, and in Korea he has from the outset taken a leading part, the construction of the railway from Fusan to the Capital, and between Seoul and Chemulpo, having been due principally to his efforts. When the railway development of Southern Manchuria is seriously undertaken this line from Fusan to Seoul, and thence to Wiju, is destined to form a link in the long chain of railway communication which will stretch from London to Tokio, with short breaks at the Straits of Dover and the Straits of Korea which divide Fusan from Shimonoseki in South-west Japan. There are incomplete links, notably between the Yalu river and Liao-Yang, but a military line exists, which needs only to be strengthened, so the permanent establishment of that section should present correspondingly fewer difficulties. Ultimately it is to be expected that England will be brought within a fortnight by rail of Japan.

Baron Shibusawa was nominated by the Emperor as a member of the newly formed House of Peers in 1890, when the Imperial Diet was first opened, but he resigned that post a year later, and afterwards occupied the chair of the Higher Council of Agriculture, Commerce, and Industry, and he has served on many commissions appointed by the Sovereign to make investigations on various subjects of importance to the nation.

In the domain of philanthropy Baron Shibusawa’s exertions have tended materially to the establishment and support of schools, orphanages, reformatories, hospitals, and kindred benevolent institutions designed to confer public benefit, on the directorates of which his name is frequently to be found, for he has ever been an active worker in the cause of charity.

In 1902 he again visited England, and was entertained by the London Chamber of Commerce, his speech on that occasion containing the happiest allusions to the growth of commercial relations between Japan and Great Britain. He was able to point with satisfaction to the existence in his own country of no fewer than 2534 banks possessing an aggregate paid-up capital of £35,000,000 sterling. After the Chino-Japan war the number of joint-stock companies rose, as he explained, with phenomenal rapidity, for in 1900 the total number was not less than 6176, and their paid-up Capital amounted to 440,476,000 yen, or over £44,000,000 sterling. The volume of the export and import trade, as he was able to assure his audience, had risen from 50,000,000 yen in 1877 to 138,330,000 in 1890, and 506,160,000 in 1901. Though Japan has since been at war with Russia the volume of her trade for the year 1905 will in all probability show a very appreciable increase over any intervening year, and with the immense commercial activity which she has developed subsequent to the conclusion of peace the figures for the fiscal year ending with March 1907 must inevitably exhibit a degree of progress and an expansion of international trade in which her people may justifiably take the utmost pride.

Speaking as a business man to men of business, Baron Shibusawa proceeded to refer in his speech to the then recently concluded Anglo-Japanese Agreement of 30th January 1902. His remarks may be said to apply with equal force to the extended form of that Agreement entered into on the 12th of August 1905.

“It is true,” he said, “our manners and customs are so different from yours that it would be impossible to make them common to both nations; but, as judging from past experience we are getting ever nearer to and assimilating with each other, and especially as there is no racial or national distinction in economic affairs, I firmly believe that the future development of commerce and industry in our country must be cosmopolitan in its character, that is to say, we should freely invite the co-operation of knowledge, experience, and capital from the most advanced nations of the West, not only for the further development of industry and commerce in Japan, but also for the opening up of the great natural resources of China and Korea. Our country is geographically so near to these countries and has so much of literature and art in common with them that we can understand the manners and desires of their people much better than you do, and your country has the advantage of being rich in capital as well as in the knowledge and experience of modern scientific appliances. There is no reason, it seems to me, why we should not co-operate in the Far East to our mutual advantage, since we have so many interests in common, and especially now that we are so closely knit together by the Anglo-Japanese Agreement of Alliance.

“Just as I was planning to leave Japan on my present tour, the United Chambers of Commerce were holding their General Meeting in Tokio, and they passed a resolution requesting me to convey their unanimous desire to bring the business world of Japan into closer relation with that of Europe and America, and to reach a better understanding of the real business conditions of each other’s countries. Vague as such a resolution must sound, its ultimate aim can be no other than what I have stated,—the co-operation of Japanese and foreign capitalists for the industrial and commercial development of the Far East,—and I trust that if there be anything in our business methods and customs which will obstruct the realisation of this happy union, our people will not spare their utmost efforts to remove it. I sincerely hope that not only will your Chamber take note of this desire on the part of the Japanese business world, but that it will kindly help to convey this desire to all other Chambers of Commerce in your country as well as to the business world at large. It is more than thirty years since I first visited your land, as a petty government official, but I now am here as a business man, and I cannot but admire the wonderful development of industry and commerce which is here exhibited. May the Anglo-Japanese Alliance be the means of realising the richest results in the pacific expansion of commerce and industry in the Far East, and may it thus be a source of inestimable blessing to the nations of the world!”

The wish to which Baron Shibusawa gave utterance in 1902 is one that finds its echo in the hearts of the people of both nations to-day, and one with which this humble effort to spread a knowledge of Japan and her affairs may fittingly conclude.

INDEX

Abdication of Shogun, 82

Academies of Bakufu, 96

Accumulation of specie, 291

Ama-no-terasu, goddess, 11

Ancient sword on Takachiho-miné, 203

Ancient shrine in Hiuga, 203

Adams, William, vi, 67, 68

“Advance, Japan,” xv

_Adzuma_ ironclad, 302

Aidzu clan, 25, 29, 84, 86

Alcock, Sir Rutherford, xv, 16, 80

Arisugawa, Prince Taruhito, 3, 4, 49

Arisugawa, Prince Takehito, 4, 144

“Ashigaru” rank, 66

Ashikaga Shogunate, 55, 57

Anglo-Japanese relations, 68, 80

Attachment to throne, 6

Attempt on Sir H. Parkes’ life, 32

Awa bay, battle of, 30, 89, 300

Awa, Count Katsu of, 29

Awaji island, 11, 30

Bakufu (Shogunate), 76, 77

Bank of Japan established, 289

Barons’ revenues, 61

_Barrosa_, H.M.S., 122, 123

Battle of Awa bay, 30, 89

— Fushimi, 31

— Shimonoseki, 123

— Shinagawa, 90

Biddle, Commodore, vii

Biwa lake, 74

Bizen men run amok, 32

Bombardment of Kagoshima, 78

Buddha (Daibutsu) at Kamakura, 55

Buddhism, viii

Cabinet, first, 140; changes, 45, 46

“Charter oath,” 46

Choshi, port, 97

Choshiu clan, 16, 17, 69, 76, 79, 173, 175

— defeated, 17

— victorious, 174

Clement, E. W., xv

Cocks, Captain, 68

Codes, civil and criminal, 44

Columbus, 9

Commodore Perry, 12

Constitution promulgated, 135

Coronation oath, 21

Council, first, 28

— of Local Governors, 45

— Privy, 140

_Coup d’état_ at Kioto (1868), 28, 83

Crown Prince, 49

Dai-jo-dai-jin, 27

Dakiu (polo), 94

Decree on accession, imperial, 50

Degrees of nobility, 139

Deliberative assembly promised, 21

Deshima, 68

Diet, the, 45, 135

Douglas, Admiral, 314

Douglas, Sir R. K., xv

Drill, foreign, 17

Dual control, 19

Dyer, Professor Henry, 133

Early visitors to Japan, vi

East India Company, 68

_Eclipse_ of Boston, vi

Embassy under Prince Iwakura, 128, 131

Emperor, personal name, 1; portrait (_frontispiece_); address to army and navy, 51; menage, 51; decree on accession, 50; grants Constitution, 44; at Hiroshima, 48; diligence, 51; sympathy, 52; Commander-in-chief, 52; education, 20; equestrianism, 20; poetry, 21, 52; coronation, 33; coif, 34, 36; first public appearance, 35; costume, 36; opens railway, 36; marriage, 34; magnanimity, 22, 25, 43; message to Diet, 47; reviews fleet, 311

Emperor Komei, 1, 4, 75, 80

— Ninko, 4, 103, 114

_Emperor_ yacht, 30, 89

Empress Haruko, 1; marriage, 34; travels to Yedo, 34; first sees foreigners, 35; supports Red Cross Society, 48

Enomoto, Admiral Viscount, 87; portrait, 299; aboard _Kaiyo Maru_, 300; Hakodate, 301; fight at Hakodate, 303; head of Colonisation Department, 304; makes treaty with Russia, 304; in Cabinet, 304

“Eta,” 66

Etajima naval college, 312

Etiquette at Shogun’s Court, 95

Expenditures reduced, 47

Expulsion of foreigners, 19, 65, 69, 77

Fillmore, President, 12

Fire at palace, 38

Foreign drill, 17

Formosa expedition, 39, 40

French graves at Moji, 123, 172

Fudai rank, 62

Fujita Toko, 97, 99, 100

_Fujiyama_ steamer, 30

Fuki-age gardens, 34

Fushimi, battle, 3, 31, 62, 86, 87

Fukusawa, Yukichi, portrait, 268; founds _Jiji Shimpo_, 268; at Teppodzu, 269; teaches Dutch, learns English, 269; sails for America, 270; for Britain, 270; influence, 271; establishes his famous college, 271

Gates, nine, of Kioto, 25

Geisha, origin of, 55

Geishiu province, 26

Gen-ro-in Assembly, 45

Gessho, priest, 205

Giyobukiyo, Prince Keiki as, 82

Glover & Company, 120

Golownin visits Japan, vi

Go-ro-ju Assembly, 94

Goto, Shojiro, Count, 28, 32, 195; consulted by Shogun, 195; carries prince’s letter to him, 196; adviser to new Government, 197; defends Sir Harry Parkes, 198; sword from Queen Victoria, 200; active in field, 200; Cabinet with Sanjo, 200; visits Europe with Itagaki, 201; portrait, 195

Graves of French sailors, 123, 172

Gregorian calendar adopted, 36

Hachiman temple, 54

Hagi, 16, 120

Hakodate, 13, 26

Hama-go-ten palace, 35, 37

“Hans’” liabilities, 285

Harris, Mr Townsend, 13

Haruko, Empress, 1, 34, 35, 48

_Hatamoto_ and _Hatamochi_, 66

Hayashi, Jussai, 102

Hayashi, Viscount Tadasu, xiv, 81, 125, 131, 187, 272

Hearn, Lafcadio, xv

Heiki, Tatewaki, 32

Hemi village, 68

Hibiya parade ground, 38

Hidetada, Shogun, 58, 64, 67

Hideyoshi, Shogun, 15, 58, 64

Higashi Fushimi-no-miya, 86

Higashi Kuze, Baron, 91

Hikoné, 74

“Hi-nin,” 66

Hiogo, 14

Hirado, 65, 67, 68

Hirosé, Commander, 311

Hiroshima, 2

Hitotsubashi, Shogun (see under S)

Hiuga, old shrine in, 203

Hizen, 25, 69

Hokkaido, 15

Hostility to strangers, 19, 71

Hotoké-Iwa, 64

Ibaraki Ken, 97

Idzu promontory, 13

Ii-dani in Totomi, 74

Ii Kamon-no-Kami, 63, 70-74, 98, 189, 204

Imai, S., xv

Imperial decree, 24

“Imperial message,” the, 51

Imperial oath, 146

Industrial progress, 43

Inland Sea, 9

Inouye, Count Kaoru, ix, 28, 70, 121; military service, 170; on _Barrosa_, 171; at Shimonoseki, 173; arranges loan, 175; finance, 176, 178; foreign minister, 179; treaty revision, 179, 180; lord-in-waiting, 181; influence, 183; portrait, 170

Interpreters, vii

Inuboye, Cape, 97

Itagaki, Count Taisuke, 28; portrait, 279; commands division, 279; Sangi, 280; organises Jiyuto, 281; urges grant Constitution, 281; wounded, 282; in Europe, 282; joins Okuma, 282

Ito, Marquis Hirobumi, 28, 32, 45, 119, 121, 125, 129, 144, 147, 148, 150, 151, 153; portrait, 119

Iwakura, Prince, 21, 28, 35, 128, 131, 152-162; portrait, 152

Iwami province, 9

Iwasaki, Baron, 139

Iyemochi, Shogun, 15, 16, 18, 53, 71, 79

Iyesada, Shogun, 15, 53, 69, 71

Iyeyasu, Shogun, 12, 16, 58, 63, 67, 95

Iyeyoshi, Shogun, 70

Izanagi and Izanami myth, 11

Jamisen, 56

Jardine Matheson & Company, 120

Jimmu Tenno, 9, 10, 202-203

Jiyuto party, ix, 69, 71

Jo-I party, ix, 69, 71

Junks sail far, 68

Kagoshima, xi, 15, 31, 23, 42, 43, 78

Kai-koku, 69

_Kaiyo Maru_ frigate, 30, 31, 89, 299

Kamakura, 54

Kanagawa, 108

Kanin, 3, 48

Kasumi-ga-ura, 97

Kato Takaaki, Mr., 144

Katsu, Awa-no-kami, Count, 29

Katsura, General, 3, 144

Kawaguchi, 87

Kawamura, Admiral, 43

Kazu, Princess, 75

Keiki, Prince Tokugawa, 18, 23, 53, 81, 85

_Kiang-Su_, 30

Kido, Marquis Koin, 28, 99, 273-278

Kioto, 10, 14, 31, 43

Kiri-shima-yama, 203

Kishiu, 59

Kita Shirakawa, Prince, 7, 49

Knighthood of Japan, 66

Kobé, 14, 78, 125

Komatsu of Satsuma, 28

Komatsu, Prince, 49

Komei, Emperor, 1, 4, 14, 16, 19, 75, 80

“Ko-mon,” 62

Konoye, Emperor, 54

Kublai Khan invades Japan, 55

Korea, 41

_Kowshing_, 307

Kubota Sentaro, 80

Kuge, Court nobles, 21

Kujo, Prince, 1

Kumagé, in Choshiu, 119

Kunozan, Mount, 63

Kuper, Admiral, 23, 78

Kuroda family, 59

— Count, 141

Lancashire Fusiliers, 81

Liao-tung, convention, 142

— evacuation, 143

Lighthouses, 133

Li Hung Chang, 142

London police, 87

Loo-Choo isles, 56

_Lotus_ steamer, 30

Maizuru, 308

Manchuria, 2

Marco Polo, 3, 8

Massacre at Sakai, 31, 32

— of Christians, 65

Matsudaira, 58, 59

Matsukata, Count, xv, 284-297

Matsushiro, 101

Matsushita, 114

Mexico, junks sail to, 68

Mendez, Pinto, 9, 58

Mikado, title explained, 2

Mikawa, 58

Minamoto, 54, 58

Mint established, 285

Mitford (Lord Redesdale), 16, 80

Mito clan, Mito town, 53, 59, 60, 71, 81, 97

Mori, Baron, xii, 16, 17, 75, 114, 122, 173, 275

Mutsuhito, Emperor, xiii, 1, 18, 22, 24, 25, 33, 34, 92

Nafa, 56

Nagasaki, 13

Nakai Kozo, 32

Naosuke, Ii Kamon-no-kami, 70

Nariaki, Prince of Mito, 71, 81, 98

National Assembly decreed, 45

Nijo Castle, Kioto, 28, 95

Nikko shrines, 58, 63, 95

Ninko, Emperor, 4, 103, 114

Ninnaji-no-miya, 86, 92

Oiso, 151

Okubo, Viscount, 28, 75, 184-194

Okuma, Count, xiv, 28, 246-254

Oriental Banking Corporation, 175

Osaka, 24

_Osaka Mainichi Shimbun_, xv

Otori Keisuke, Baron, 27, 33

Owari, 59

Oyama, Marquis, 255-267

Parkes, Sir Harry, 16, 22, 31, 80, 87, 91

Peace treaties, 142

Personal name of Emperor, 1

_Phaeton_ cruiser, vi

Pinto, Mendez, 9, 58

Polo (dakiu), 20, 94

Port Arthur, 143, 309-311

Ports closed, 65

Portuguese, arrival of, 57, 67

Prince Higashi Fushimi, 48, 86

— Komatsu, 49

— Kita Shirakawa, 7, 49

— Kujo, 1

— Sanjo Sanetomi, 21, 28, 163-169

— Shimadzu Saburo, 15, 22, 28

— Yoshi-hito, 1, 49

Princess Sadako, 1

— Kazu, 75

Privy Council, 141

Public Works Department, 133

Railway, first opened, 47

Ranks of Samurai, 66

Rebellion in Satsuma, 42

Redesdale, Lord, 16, 80

Reed, Sir E., xvi

Regent (Tairo), 70

Religions, 57

Resanoff, vi

Revenues of barons, 60, 61

Rice, State trade in, 290

Richardson killed, ix, x

Roches, M., 31

Rome, Church of, 58

“Ro-nins,” 70

Russia and Liao-tung, 143

Sa-dai-jin, 28, 39

Sadako, Crown Princess, 1

Saga insurrection, 41

Saigo, Marshal Takamori, 25, 28, 42, 66, 75, 86, 99, 202-217

— Marquis, 39

Sa-in, 44

Saitama Ken, 316

Sakai massacre, 31, 32

Sakuma Shozan, v, 12, 101-115

Sakurada gate, 70

Samurai principles, 66

Sanjo Sanetomi, Prince, 21, 35, 163-169

Saris, Captain John, vi, 67

Sato Issai, 102

Satow, Sir Ernest, 16, 31, 80

Satsuma, clansmen, 22, 39, 41, 69

— rebellion, 42, 66, 78, 79

— allied with Choshiu, 69

_Scotland_ sunk, 30

Sei-yu-kai, 145, 283

Sekku festivals, 73

Senate, 44

Shantung, 2

Shibusawa, Baron, 315-324

Shidzuoka, 24, 67, 92, 93