Namamugi Incident

The , also known as the Kanagawa incident and Richardson affair, was a political crisis that occurred in the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the ''Bakumatsu'' on 14 September 1862. Charles Lennox Richardson, a British merchant, was killed by the armed retinue of Shimazu Hisamitsu, the regent of the Satsuma Domain, on a road in Namamugi near Kawasaki.

Richardson's murder sparked outrage among Europeans for violating their extraterritoriality in Japan, while the Japanese argued Richardson had disrespected Shimazu and was justifiably killed under the ''Kiri-sute gomen'' rule. British demands for compensation and failure by the Satsuma to respond resulted in the Bombardment of Kagoshima (or Anglo-Satsuma War) in August 1863.

Course of events

On 14 September 1862, four British subjects – the Shanghai-based merchant Charles Lennox Richardson, two Yokohama-based merchants, Woodthorpe Charles Clark and William Marshall, and Marshall's sister-in-law Margaret Watson Borradaile – were travelling on the Tōkaidō road in Japan en route to visit the Kawasaki Daishi temple near Kawasaki. Richardson had recently announced his retirement, and was visiting the temple with his friends en route back to England. The party had departed the treaty port of Yokohama at 2:30 pm by boat, crossing Yokohama harbour to Kanagawa village, to join their horses which had been sent ahead. They were travelling north through the nearby village of Namamugi (now part of Tsurumi Ward, Yokohama) when they encountered the large, armed retinue of Shimazu Hisamitsu, the regent and father of Shimazu Tadayoshi, the ''daimyō'' of the Satsuma Domain.

Shimazu was heading in the opposite direction to Lennox and his party, who continued to ride along the side of the road without dismounting until they reached the main body of the procession, which occupied the entire width of the road. Richardson, leading his party, rode close to Shimazu's procession and did not dismount despite being gestured repeatedly to do so. Richardson was subsequently slashed and mortally wounded by one of the Satsuma bodyguards. Clark and Marshall were also severely wounded by the Satsuma but Borrodaile was not harmed, and the three rode away as fast as they could. Richardson fell from his horse and Shimazu gave the order for ''todome'' — the coup de grâce — to be given, with several samurai proceeding to hack and stab at Richardson with swords and lances. A post-mortem examination of Richardson's body showed ten mortal wounds, and he was buried in the Yokohama Foreign General Cemetery, between the later graves of Marshall and Clark.

Consequences of the Namamugi Incident

The Namamugi Incident caused a new political crisis in Japan during the ''Bakumatsu'', the period after the ruling Tokugawa Shogunate had ended its historic isolationist foreign policy known as ''sakoku'' and allowed the entry of foreigners. Japanese and Westerners were outraged by Richardson's death, with these groups almost unanimously supportive and opposed to the killing, respectively.

Japanese reports accused Richardson of continuing to ride in the middle of the road, and trying to get between Shimazu's litter and his bodyguards. In Japan, the ''samurai'' had a legal right known as ''kiri-sute gomen'' which allowed them to kill anyone of a lower class for perceived disrespect, which would have justified the killing by Shimazu's retinue. The Japanese instanced Eugene Van Reed, an American who had dismounted and bowed before a ''daimyō''s train, as evidence that the insolent attitude of Lennox and his party as having caused the incident. Van Reed's conduct had appalled the Western community, who believed that Westerners should hold themselves with dignity before the Japanese, being at least the equal of any Japanese person. There were also later suggestions that Richardson had acted in a similar manner towards Chinese people while horseback riding in China, and according to the ''Japan Herald "Extra"'' of Tuesday 16 September 1862, he had been heard to say just before the incident, "I know how to deal with these people". Richardson's uncle was reportedly not surprised about his nephew's demise, but blamed him for being reckless and stubborn. Frederick Wright-Bruce, the British envoy to China, remembered Richardson as an "arrogant adventurer".

The incident sparked a scare in Japan's foreign community, which was based in the Kannai district of Yokohama. Westerners argued that Lennox was protected in Japan by extraterritoriality under the Anglo-Japanese Friendship Treaty and were exempt from Japanese cultural requirements, meaning Richardson's death under ''kiri-sute gomen'' was illegal. Many Western traders appealed to their governments to take punitive action against Japan. The British government demanded reparations from the ''Bakufu'' and from the ''daimyō'' of Satsuma, together with the arrest, trial and execution of the perpetrators.

Bombardment of Kagoshima

By mid-1863, the British had become impatient that the reparations demands for the Namamugi Incident were still unmet. In July, the ''Bakufu'' reluctantly paid the British the sum of £100,000 (one-third of their annual revenue) in compensation, though this was mainly due to fear of naval bombardment against the Tokugawa capital city of Edo. The Satsuma Domain continued to ignore the British demands and refused to apologize for Richardson's death.

On 15 August, a Royal Navy squadron entered the waters of Kagoshima, the capital city of the Satsuma Domain, to extract the demanded reparations for the Namamugi Incident by force. Meeting further prevarication, they seized several Satsuma ships as bargaining chips for future negotaitons, but were unexpectedly fired upon by Satsuma coastal batteries. The squadron retaliated by destroying the Satsuma vessels and bombarding Kagoshima, which had been evacuated. The Satsuma batteries were gradually silenced, but the British ships were unable to sustain the bombardment and retreated two days later. Ultimately, the battle resulted in 5 killed on the Satsuma side, and 11 lives among the British (including, with a single cannon shot, both the captain and commander of the British flagship HMS ''Euryalus'').

Satsuma's material losses were substantial, with around 500 houses destroyed in Kagoshima, and three Satsuma steamships were sunk. The engagement caused much controversy in the British House of Commons, but Acting Vice Admiral Augustus Leopold Kuper's conduct was eventually commended by the House. Kuper was advanced to Knight Commander of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath in 1864 "for his services at Kagoshima". Shimazu Hisamitsu was subsequently given the court title of ''Ōsumi no Kami'' (大隅守).Edmond Papinot: Historical and Geographical Dictionary of Japan. volume 2, p. 571.

The military stalemate resulted in a renegotiation between the British and Satsuma regarding the Namamugi Incident. The Satsuma admired the superiority of the Royal Navy and sought a trading relationship with Britain as a result. Later that year, the Satsuma paid the £25,000 () in compensation demanded by the British government with money borrowed from the ''Bakufu''. The Satsuma never repaid the £25,000 to the ''Bakufu'' because the Tokugawa Shogunate would be overthrown in the Meiji Restoration five years later, and British demands for the Shimazu's bodyguards that had killed Richardson to be brought to trial were unfulfilled. The Bombardment of Kagoshima became known in Japan as the Anglo-Satsuma War (薩英戦争, ''Satsu-Ei Sensō'').

In popular culture

The Namamugi Incident was the basis of James Clavell's novel '' Gai-Jin''.

See also

* Anglo-Japanese relations
*Anglo-Satsuma War

Notes

References

Further reading

* De Lange, William. ''The Namamugi Incident: The Murder that Sparked a War'', Toyo Press (2020).
*
* Rennie, David. ''The British Arms in North China and Japan''. Originally published 1864. Facsimile by Adamant Media Corporation (2001)
* Satow, Ernest. ''A Diplomat in Japan'', Tuttle (1921).

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1862 in Japan
Diplomatic incidents
Bakumatsu
Foreign relations of the Tokugawa shogunate
Yokohama
History of Kanagawa Prefecture
Japan–United Kingdom relations
September 1862 events
1862 murders in Japan