The Iwakura Mission or Iwakura Embassy (岩倉使節団, Iwakura Shisetsudan) was a diplomatic journey around the world, initiated by the oligarchs of the Meiji era. Although it was not the only such "mission", it is the most well-known and possibly most important for the modernization of Japan. It was first proposed by Guido Verbeck.

Composition

The mission was named after and headed by Iwakura Tomomi in the role of extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador, assisted by four vice-ambassadors, three of which (Okubo Toshimichi, Kido Takayoshi, and Ito Hirobumi) were also ministers in the Japanese government. The historian Kume Kunitake was the official diarist, keeping a detailed log of all events and impressions. Also included were a number of administrators and scholars, totalling 48 people.

In addition to the mission staff, about 60 students were brought along. Several of them were left behind to complete educations in the foreign countries, including five young women who stayed in U.S.A. to study, among them the then 7-year old Tsuda Umeko who after returning to Japan founded (in 1900) the renowned school now called the Tsuda College.

Kaneko Kentaro was left in the U.S.A. too as a student and later met Theodore Roosevelt in university. They became friends and their relationship resulted later in Roosevelt's mediation at the end of Russo-Japanese war and the Treaty of Portsmouth.

Nakae Chomin, who was a member of the mission staff and the Ministry of Justice, stayed in France to study the French legal system. Later he became a journalist, thinker and translator and introduced French thinkers like Jean-Jacques Rousseau into Japan.

Itinerary

On December 23, 1871 the mission sailed from Yokohama, bound for San Franscisco. From there it continued to Washington, D.C., then to Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Russia, Prussia, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Italy, and Switzerland. On the return journey, Egypt, Aden, Ceylon, Singapore, Saigon, Hong Kong, and Shanghai were also visited, although much more briefly. The mission returned home September 13, 1873, almost two years after setting out.

Purpose and results

The purposes of the mission were twofold:

1. To renegotiate the unequal treaties with the U.S.A., Great Britain and other European countries that Japan had been forced into during the previous decades.
2. To gather information on education, technology, culture, and military, social and economic structures from the countries visited in order to effect the modernization of Japan.

Of these two goals, the first one failed universally, prolonging the mission by almost a year, but also impressing the importance of the second goal on its members. The attempts to negotiate new treaties under better conditions with the foreign governments led them to go beyond the mandates set by the Japanese government, which caused friction between the mission and the government. The failures and their prolonged stay became useless at this point, which put Okubo and Kido on bad terms politically. On the other hand, members were impressed by modernization in America and Europe, which made them take initiatives to modernize Japan later.

References

• The official report of the Mission compiled by Kume was published in 1878, entitled Tokumei Zenken Taishi Bei-O Kairan Jikki (特命全権大使米歐回覧実記). It is available in English as A True Account of the Ambassador Extraordinary & Plenipotentiary's Journey of Observation Through the United States of America and Europe, ISBN 4901617001.
• Li Narangoa, Japan's Modernization – The Iwakura Mission to Scandinavia in 1873
• The Iwakura Mission in Britain, 1872 London School of Economics STICERD discussion paper IS/98/349 (March 1998)
• The Iwakura Mission to America and Europe: A New Assessment, edited by Ian Nish, published by Routledge/Curzon; 1st edition (October 23, 1998) ISBN 1873410840

External links

• Illustrations from the Jikki (Japanese)
• About Tsuda Umeko
• Images from the mission – "Japan discovers Europe" (German)