The Namamugi Incident 生麦事件

The Namamugi Incident (なまむぎじけん) took place on August 21st, 1862 on the “Tokaido” (Eastern Sea Route) and was an attack on three Britons by Samurai guards escorting the Daimyo (feudal lord) of Satsuma, Shimazu Hisamitsu.
Four British subjects, Charles Lennox Richardson, a Shanghai merchant, two other men, Messrs. Clark and Marshall, and a woman, Mrs. Borradaile of Hong Kong, were traveling on horseback through the village of Namamugi (now in Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama) en route to Heikenji, a shrine in Kawasaki. It was here they encountered a procession of the Daimyo, going home to what is now Kagoshima Prefecture. It was a long procession of at least 400 with the feudal lord in a palanquin in the middle of the parade. In those days it was customary for commoners/peasants to prostrate themselves and for samurai on horseback to dismount to pay respect. Anyone not following this procedure was liable to be executed on the spot.
The Britons, being almost total strangers to Japan must have thought Japan was no different to China and continued on their way. This enraged the lead-off samurai and he ordered the group to dismount, no doubt issuing the command, “Shita-ni, shita-ni” (“Bow down, bow down”). Unfortunately, they didn’t understand Japanese at all and rode on. As they approached the lord’s palanquin, a few samurai blocked them. The Britons at last noticed that something was amiss and tried to turn their horses back towards Yokohama, but the road was very narrow, only 2 or 3 metres wide, so the horses barged into the procession. Some of the samurai drew their swords and assaulted the three men. They fled towards Hongakuji, roughly 3 kilometres away to the southwest, near Yokohama station. One of the group, Charles L. Richardson, fell off his horse and a pursuing samurai caught him and stabbed him in the neck. The two other men were badly injured but managed to escape and sought refuge in Hongakuji. Mrs. Borradaile, who was unhurt, rushed to the British legation in Yokohama for help. William Wills, a 25 year old British surgeon and graduate of Edinburgh University who had been posted to the British legation a year earlier, was dispatched to the scene. He confirmed Richardson’s death and treated the two seriously wounded men at Hongakuji.

Immediately after the incident, the British government demanded the Tokugawa Shogunate to pay an indemnity of £100,000 and the Kagoshima Daimyo to pay £25,000 and to execute the killer samurai. The Shogunate reluctantly accepted but the Daimyo had no intention of paying, much less to execute the samurai.
In those days, at the height of the Empire, the diplomacy deployed by the British was that of the ‘gunboat’ variety. ‘Britannia’ ruled the waves for sure, and in the ruthless pursuit of wealth and power, the British ruling class was in a league of its own, so it was no surprise that, in July 1863, a fleet of seven British warships entered Kinko Bay in Kagoshima and, with 101 cannons against Kagoshima’s 83, proceeded to bombard the town. The British fleet lost 13 lives, including the Captain and the Commander of the flagship HMS Euryalus, but Kagoshima sustained far greater damage with about 500 houses burned to the ground and three steamships destroyed. The Kagoshima Daimyo realized that their military power was no match for the most powerful navy on earth, and was thus forced to amend their xenophobic policies. Not only did they accept the British demands but also sued for peace and cultivated a close relationship with them.
After the Meiji Imperial Restoration in 1868, in which Kagoshima played a pivotal role, many British systems were scrupulously employed. For example, the Japanese drive on the left-hand side of the road, like Commonwealth countries. The size of all Japanese newspapers measure 32 by 21.5 inches per a sheet of four pages, the standard width in the UK, because Japan imported newsprint from Britain. Also, Surgeon Wills rendered great services for the wounded in the Japanese civil war before the Restoration and contributed to the development of Japanese medical technology.

 

 

Today, a stone monument stands where the Namamugi Incident took place. It’s very easy to miss it as it stands on a very busy road, in the shadow of the Kirin Yokohama Brewery (which is free to tour and worth a visit). At the site, there is a map detailing the location of a nearby small but very interesting museum on the way back to Namamugi station (on the Keihin Kyuko line which runs between Yokohama and Shinagawa, also accessible from Kawasaki station).   

 

 

 

  

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