Edwin Dun (June 19, 1848 – May 15, 1931) was a rancher from

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

who was employed as an '' o-yatoi gaikokujin'' in Hokkaidō by the Hokkaidō Development Commission (''Kaitakushi'') and advised the Japanese government on modernizing agricultural techniques during the Meiji modernization period. He served as United States envoy to Japan from 1893 to 1897. Dun was a native of

Chillicothe, Ohio Chillicothe ( ) is a city in Ross County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. The population was 22,059 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located along the Scioto River 45 miles (72 km) south of Columbus, Ohio, Columbus, ...

and had studied at

Miami University Miami University (informally Miami of Ohio or simply Miami) is a public university, public research university in Oxford, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1809, it is the second-oldest List of colleges and universities in Ohio, university in Ohi ...

. After he inherited his father's ranch, he raised

beef cattle Beef cattle are cattle raised for meat production (as distinguished from dairy cattle, used for milk (production)). The meat of mature or almost mature cattle is mostly known as beef. In beef production there are three main stages: cow-calf opera ...

and race horses, and wrote a number of papers on scientific methods in ranching.

Agricultural adviser

Dun was hired in 1873 by Albert Capron, son of former United States Commissioner of Agriculture Horace Capron, the chief foreign adviser to the

Meiji government The was the government that was formed by politicians of the Satsuma Domain and Chōshū Domain in the 1860s. The Meiji government was the early government of the Empire of Japan. Politicians of the Meiji government were known as the Meiji ...

's Hokkaidō Development Commission. Dun's task was to create a new cattle and dairy industry out of largely undeveloped island of

Hokkaido is the list of islands of Japan by area, second-largest island of Japan and comprises the largest and northernmost prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own list of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō fr ...

. When he came to Japan, he brought with him around 50 head of cattle, 100 head of sheep, and a number of agricultural implements to be used as samples to be copied by local Japanese artisans. He settled initially at an intermediary experimental farm in Tokyo, teaching up to seventy students assigned by the government in

animal husbandry Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, animal fiber, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, management, production, nutrition, selective breeding, and the raising ...

veterinary medicine Veterinary medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, management, medical diagnosis, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, disorder, and injury in non-human animals. The scope of veterinary medicine is wide, covering all a ...

and basic techniques of

selective breeding Selective breeding (also called artificial selection) is the process by which humans use animal breeding and plant breeding to selectively develop particular phenotypic traits (characteristics) by choosing which typically animal or plant m ...

. Dun also married a Japanese woman, Tsuru, in 1875, which led him to extend his contract in Japan several times, despite difficulties such as the Hokkaidō Colonization Office Scandal of 1881. From 1876 until 1883, Dun lived in

Sapporo is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in Hokkaido, Japan. Located in the southwest of Hokkaido, it lies within the alluvial fan of the Toyohira River, a tributary of the Ishikari River. Sapporo is the capital ...

, where he engaged in a number of pursuits, including the establishment of farm horse and race horse ranches, including the first two thoroughbred stallions in Japan, a pig farm with 80 hogs brought in from the United States, and a dairy farm, together with factories for the production of butter and cheese. He also planted a number of experimental lots to research the types of crops most suited to Hokkaido's climate, and also built Hokkaido's first horse race track. With the assistance of Louis Boehmer, who discovered native

hops Hops are the flowers (also called seed cones or strobiles) of the hop plant ''Humulus lupulus'', a member of the Cannabaceae family of flowering plants. They are used primarily as a bittering, flavouring, and stability agent in beer, to whic ...

in Hokkaidō, he established a successful beer brewery, the forerunner of modern Sapporo Breweries. Dun is also deemed responsible for initiating government policies to eradicate

wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the grey wolf or gray wolf, is a canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, including the dog and dingo, though gr ...

with

strychnine Strychnine (, , American English, US chiefly ) is a highly toxicity, toxic, colorless, bitter, crystalline alkaloid used as a pesticide, particularly for killing small vertebrates such as birds and rodents. Strychnine, when inhaled, swallowed, ...

and hunting for bounties, which drove the Hokkaidō wolf to extinction by 1895. He was a close friend, and eventually brother-in-law, of the explorer and naturalist Thomas Blakiston.

United States envoy to Japan

After a visit to the United States in 1883–84, Dun was appointed the Second Secretary of the American Legation in Tokyo. In October 1883, Mrs. Dun (Tsuru) died. Dun considered resigning but at the end of the year married again, to a woman named Yama Takahira. Dun was later promoted to First Secretary. Finally, in 1892, Dun was appointed as United States envoy to Japan, arriving back in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

on July 14, 1893, serving in that post until July 2, 1897. US Embassy Tokyo During his tenure, the

First Sino-Japanese War The First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 189417 April 1895), or the First China–Japan War, was a conflict between the Qing dynasty of China and the Empire of Japan primarily over influence in Joseon, Korea. In Chinese it is commonly known as th ...

took place, and Dun made efforts to negotiate peace, using the American diplomatic service as a conduit for the Japanese and Chinese governments to send messages and conduct negotiations.

Oil company representative

After 1897, Dun was the Japanese representative of the

Standard Oil Standard Oil Company was a Trust (business), corporate trust in the petroleum industry that existed from 1882 to 1911. The origins of the trust lay in the operations of the Standard Oil of Ohio, Standard Oil Company (Ohio), which had been founde ...

company. Dun was notable for advocating involvement of Standard Oil in the Echigo oil fields, which eventually resulted in a failed investment of over 8 million yen. He died at his home in Tokyo in 1931. His grave is at Aoyama Cemetery in

. His former home in Hokkaidō is now preserved as a memorial museum.

References

External links

Edwin Dun : reminiscences of nearly half a century in Japan, circa 1919
Dun's autobiography in which he describes life on a farm in central Ohio, the events that led to his journey to Japan, and his life in Japan.
Guide to the Dun family papers
housed at the University of Kentucky Libraries Special Collections Research Center * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dun, Edwin 1848 births 1931 deaths 19th-century American diplomats Ambassadors of the United States to Japan American expatriates in Japan Foreign advisors to the government in Meiji-era Japan Foreign educators in Japan People from Chillicothe, Ohio Burials at Aoyama Cemetery