Nagasaki Naval Training Center

Last updated • 3 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
The Nagasaki Training Center, in Nagasaki, near Dejima The Nagasaki Naval Training Centre by Jin'nai Shorei.jpg
The Nagasaki Training Center, in Nagasaki, near Dejima

The Nagasaki Naval Training Center (長崎海軍伝習所, Nagasaki Kaigun Denshū-jo) was a naval training institute, between 1855 when it was established by the government of the Tokugawa shogunate, until 1859, when it was transferred to Tsukiji in Edo. [1]

Contents

During the Bakumatsu period, the Japanese government faced increasing incursions by ships from the Western world, intent on ending the country's two centuries of isolationist foreign policy. These efforts cumulated in the landing of United States commodore Matthew Perry in 1854, resulting in the Treaty of Kanagawa and the opening of Japan to foreign trade. The Tokugawa government decided to order modern steam warships and to build a naval training center as part of its modernization efforts to meet the perceived military threat posed by the more advanced Western navies.

History

The training center was established near the Dutch settlement on the artificial island Dejima in Nagasaki, where maximum interaction with Dutch naval technology would be possible. Nagai Naoyuki was appointed the first director with a first class of 37 cadets from the various hatamoto with fealty directly to the Shōgun, and 128 cadets sent from the various feudal han (16 from Satsuma Domain, 28 from Fukuoka Domain, 15 from Chōshū Domain, 47 from Saga Domain, 5 from Kumamoto Domain, 12 from Tsu Domain, 4 from Fukuyama Domain and one from Kakegawa Domain). Katsu Kaishū was director of training under Nagai starting from 1855, until 1859, when he was commissioned as an officer in the Shogunal navy the following year.

Officers of the Royal Netherlands Navy were in charge of education, the first being Pels Rijcken (from 1855 to 1857), and the second Willem Huyssen van Kattendijke (from 1857 to 1859). Western medical science was taught by J. L. C. Pompe van Meerdervoort. The curriculum was weighed towards navigation and Western science. The training institute was also equipped with Japan's first steamship, Kankō Maru given by the King of the Netherlands in 1855. [2] It was later joined by the Kanrin Maru and the Chōyō.

The Nagasaki Naval Training Center provided not only samurai students but also local domain students with opportunities to pursue systematic Western-style naval training. The students gradually overcame language and other barriers and learned various modern naval skills and marine technology and organization . [2] Under the guidance of Dutch instructors, the Shogunate built a factory for the repair of naval ships as a part of the School's supporting facilities. This was the first modern factory in Japan utilizing imported European machinery.

The number of cadets from various domains proved unwieldy, and the second class of 1856 was reduced to only 12 cadets, all from the hatamoto in Edo. In 1857 another naval training academy was opened at Tsukiji in Edo. The director of the center Nagai moved to the new center, and Kimura Kaishū was promoted to director of the Nagasaki center. The third class of 1857 has 26 cadets. The future Admiral Enomoto Takeaki was one of the students of the Nagasaki Training Center. The Training Center was closed in 1859, and all education transferred to the Tsukiji Naval Training Center, where the Kankō Maru was also sailed by a Japanese-only crew. [2]

The decision to terminate the School was made for political reasons, arising from the Japanese side as well as from the Dutch side. While the Netherlands feared that the other Western powers would suspect that they were helping the Japanese accumulate naval power to repulse Westerners, the Shogunate became reluctant to give samurai from traditionally anti-Tokugawa domains opportunities to learn modern naval technology.

Although the Nagasaki Naval Training Center was short-lived, it had considerable direct and indirect influence on future Japanese society. The Nagasaki Naval Training Center educated many naval officers and engineers who would later become not only founders of the Imperial Japanese Navy but also promoters of Japan's shipbuilding and other industries.

See also

Notes

Related Research Articles

<i>Bakumatsu</i> 1853–1867 final years of the Edo period of Japan

Bakumatsu was the final years of the Edo period when the Tokugawa shogunate ended. Between 1853 and 1867, Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy known as sakoku and changed from a feudal Tokugawa shogunate to the modern empire of the Meiji government. The major ideological-political divide during this period was between the pro-imperial nationalists called ishin shishi and the shogunate forces, which included the elite shinsengumi swordsmen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Imperial Japanese Navy</span> Naval branch of the Empire of Japan

The Imperial Japanese Navy was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender in World War II. The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) was formed between 1952 and 1954 after the dissolution of the IJN.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enomoto Takeaki</span> Japanese samurai and admiral (1836–1908)

ViscountEnomoto Takeaki was a Japanese samurai and admiral of the Tokugawa navy of Bakumatsu period Japan, who remained faithful to the Tokugawa shogunate and fought against the new Meiji government until the end of the Boshin War. He later served in the Meiji government as one of the founders of the Imperial Japanese Navy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katsu Kaishū</span> Japanese noble, statesman and naval engineer (1823–1899)

Count Katsu Yasuyoshi was a Japanese statesman and naval engineer during the late Tokugawa shogunate and early Meiji period.

<i>Hatamoto</i> Japanese title

A hatamoto was a high ranking samurai in the direct service of the Tokugawa shogunate of feudal Japan. While all three of the shogunates in Japanese history had official retainers, in the two preceding ones, they were referred to as gokenin. However, in the Edo period, hatamoto were the upper vassals of the Tokugawa house, and the gokenin were the lower vassals. There was no precise difference between the two in terms of income level, but a hatamoto had the right to an audience with the shogun, whereas gokenin did not. The word hatamoto literally means "origin of the flag", with the sense of 'around the flag', it is described in Japanese as 'those who guard the flag' and is often translated into English as "bannerman". Another term for the Edo-era hatamoto was jikisan hatamoto (直参旗本), sometimes rendered as "direct shogunal hatamoto", which serves to illustrate the difference between them and the preceding generation of hatamoto who served various lords.

Japanese warship <i>Shōhei Maru</i> Japanese frigate

Shōhei Maru (昇平丸) was a sailing frigate constructed on orders of the Tokugawa shogunate of Bakumatsu period Japan by Satsuma Domain in response to the Perry Expedition and increasing incursions of foreign warships into Japanese territorial waters. She was built from 1853 to 1854 at Sakurajima in what is now Kagoshima Prefecture. Shōhei Maru should not be confused with the World War II passenger/cargo vessel of the same name, sunk by the submarine USS Spadefish off of Korea.

Kanrin Maru First Japanese screw-driven steam corvette

Kanrin Maru(咸臨丸, Unyielding) was Japan's first sail and screw-driven steam corvette. She was ordered in 1853 from the Netherlands, the only Western country with which Japan had diplomatic relations throughout its period of sakoku (seclusion), by the shōgun's government, the Bakufu. She was delivered on September 21, 1857, by Lt. Willem Huyssen van Kattendijke of the Dutch navy. The ship was used at the newly established Naval School of Nagasaki in order to build up knowledge of Western warship technology.

<i>Rangaku</i> Japanese study of Dutch tech (1639–1867)

Rangaku, and by extension Yōgaku, is a body of knowledge developed by Japan through its contacts with the Dutch enclave of Dejima, which allowed Japan to keep abreast of Western technology and medicine in the period when the country was closed to foreigners from 1641 to 1853 because of the Tokugawa shogunate's policy of national isolation (sakoku).

Japanese barque <i>Kankō Maru</i>

Kankō Maru was Japan's first steam-powered warship. It was presented to the Tokugawa shogunate ruling Japan during the Bakumatsu period as a gift from King William III of the Netherlands to assist Janus Henricus Donker Curtius, head of the Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij in Japan in his efforts to establish formal diplomatic relations and the opening of Japanese ports to Dutch merchant vessels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nagai Naoyuki</span>

Nagai Naoyuki, also known as Nagai Genba or Nagai Mondonoshō, was a Japanese hatamoto under the Tokugawa of Bakumatsu period Japan.

Japanese warship <i>Asahi Maru</i>

Asahi Maru (旭日丸) was a western-style sail frigate, constructed on orders the Tokugawa shogunate of Bakumatsu period Japan by Mito Domain in response to the Perry Expedition and increasing incursions of foreign warships into Japanese territorial waters. She was built from 1854 to 1856 on land adjacent to Mito Domain’s Edo residence at a site which later became IHI Shipyards, i.e. Ishikawajima island, at the mouth of the Sumida River, in Tokyo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Janus Henricus Donker Curtius</span>

Jan Hendrik Donker Curtius was the last Opperhoofd of the Dutch trading post in Japan (1852-1855), located at Dejima an artificial island in the harbor of Nagasaki. To negotiate with the Japanese government for a treaty, he received the title "Dutch Commissioner in Japan" in 1855.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Willem Huyssen van Kattendijke</span>

Willem Johan Cornelis, Ridder Huijssen van Kattendijke was a career officer of the Royal Dutch Navy and a politician. As an officer, he reached the rank of Commander. He was Dutch Naval Minister from 1861 to 1866, and interim Dutch Foreign Minister in 1864.

Japanese warship <i>Chōyō Maru</i>

Chōyō Maru was an early sail and screw-driven steam corvette. She was ordered by the Tokugawa shogunate ruling Japan during the Bakumatsu period from the Netherlands and served as a training vessel, and subsequently served with the nascent Imperial Japanese Navy during the Boshin War. She was lost in combat during the Naval Battle of Hakodate Bay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pels Rijcken</span> Dutch Navy officer and politician

Gerhard Christiaan Coenraad (Gerrit) Pels Rijcken was a career officer of the Royal Dutch Navy and a politician. As an officer, Pels Rijcken reached the rank of Vice-Admiral. He was Dutch Navy Minister from 1866 to 1868.

Gunkan-bugyō (軍鑑奉行), also known as kaigun-bugō, were officials of the Tokugawa shogunate in Edo period Japan. Appointments to this prominent office were usually fudai daimyō. Conventional interpretations have construed these Japanese titles as "commissioner", "overseer" or "governor".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inaba Masami</span>

Inaba Masami was daimyō of Tateyama Domain during late-Edo period Japan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kobe Naval Training Center</span> Japanese naval training institute

The Kobe Naval Training Center was a naval training institute in Bakumatsu period Japan, established by the Military Commissioner of the Tokugawa shogunate, Katsu Kaishū in May 1864.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bankichi Matsuoka</span> Tokugawa era Japanese naval officer (1841-1871)

Bankichi Matsuoka was a Japanese naval officer in the Tokugawa Navy during the Boshin War, serving as Captain of the Japanese warship Banryū during the Battle of Hakodate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kimura Kaishū</span> Japanese admiral (1830–1901)

Kimura Kaishū, also known as Kimura Yoshitake (木村喜毅), was a Japanese admiral known for being the commander of the Japanese Embassy to the United States in 1860, Japan's first foreign embassy mission after the end of sakoku, sailing aboard the Kanrin Maru. He was also the governor of Settsu Province, which covered parts of modern-day Osaka prefecture and Hyogo prefecture.

References

32°44′42.12″N129°52′24.53″E / 32.7450333°N 129.8734806°E / 32.7450333; 129.8734806