Alexander von Siebold
Encyclopedia
Alexander George Gustav von Siebold (August 16, 1846 – January 1911) was a German translator and interpreter active in Japan during the Bakumatsu period and early Meiji period
. He was the eldest son of noted Japanologist
Philipp Franz Balthasar von Siebold.
, where he eventually married and had three sons and two daughters. With the signing of the Japan-Netherlands Commercial Agreement, one of the unequal treaties
ending Japan’s national isolation policy
in 1858, von Siebold returned to Japan, bringing the young Alexander with him. Living in Nagasaki
, Alexander rapidly became fluent in the Japanese language. When his father obtained a position as a foreign advisor to the Tokugawa shogunate
, father and son travelled to Edo
(modern-day Tokyo), where they resided with Prussia
n Consul. However, in Edo was far from safe, with sonno joi
ronin
frequently attacking foreigners, and after the British consulate was attacked and burned, father and son returned to Nagasaki. Soon afterwards, Alexander obtained a job as official interpreter for the Imperial Russian Navy
in Nagasaki.
In 1862, Alexander was appointed official interpreter to the British consulate in Edo despite his youth (he was only 15 years old at the time), and despite the fact that English was not his native language, whereas his father, unable to secure a new appointed, departed back for the Netherlands, where he died four years later. Much of the foreign affairs negotiations with the Tokugawa shogunate were still conducted in Dutch,a nd in cases where English was necessary (such as the negotiations pertaining to the Namamugi Incident
, Alexander was assisted by Ernest Satow.
Alexander assisted British consul Edward St. John Neale
during the Anglo-Satsuma War
and was based on the flagship
during the conflict. He later accompanied the European task force during the Bombardment of Shimonoseki
and the negotiations for opening the port of Hyogo to foreign settlement and trade in 1864.
When Tokugawa Akitake
was sent to visit the 1867 World Fair
in Paris, France, Alexander accompanied him. With the Meiji Restoration
, Tokugawa Akitake was ordered back to Japan, but Alexander stayed on in Europe and returned to Japan a year later in 1869 as an advisor to the Empire of Austria-Hungary
. He was subsequently ennobled with the title of baron
by Franz Joseph I
In August 1870, he resigned from the British Consulate. However, the new Meiji government found use for his talents, and he was sent to London and subsequently to Frankfurt to make arrangements for Japanese students in those countries and to hire foreign advisors in all areas of expertise to come to Japan. He also arranged for Japan’s participation in the Vienna World Expo of 1873
. He returned to Japan in November 1872, but was sent back to Europe again in February 1873 to late 1874 to render assistance to Sano Tsunetami
.
In May 1875, he became official interpreter for the Ministry of Finance. On the death of his mother in 1877, he returned to the Netherlands on six months leave, but was ordered to visit the Exposition Universelle
and to assist in commercial negotiations in Berlin. He returned to Japan in October 1881, but was sent back to Germany to assist Inoue Kaoru
in Berlin in negotiations with the German government over treaty revisions in October 1881. The negotiations were protracted and ultimately unsuccessful; he left Berlin in 1882, moved to Rome in 1884, returned to Japan in 1885, and moved to London in 1892 to assist Aoki Shūzō
in the successful conclusion of the 1894 Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Commerce and Navigation
. In August 1910, he was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasures
(2nd class).
He died on the French Riviera
in January 1911.
Meiji period
The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...
. He was the eldest son of noted Japanologist
Japanology
Japanese Studies is a term generally used in Europe to describe the historical and cultural study of Japan; in North America, the academic field is usually referred to as Japanese studies, which includes contemporary social sciences as well as classical humanistic fields.European Japanology is the...
Philipp Franz Balthasar von Siebold.
Biography
After his father was deported from Japan in 1826, he settled in Leyden, in the NetherlandsNetherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, where he eventually married and had three sons and two daughters. With the signing of the Japan-Netherlands Commercial Agreement, one of the unequal treaties
Unequal Treaties
“Unequal treaty” is a term used in specific reference to a number of treaties imposed by Western powers, during the 19th and early 20th centuries, on Qing Dynasty China and late Tokugawa Japan...
ending Japan’s national isolation policy
Sakoku
was the foreign relations policy of Japan under which no foreigner could enter nor could any Japanese leave the country on penalty of death. The policy was enacted by the Tokugawa shogunate under Tokugawa Iemitsu through a number of edicts and policies from 1633–39 and remained in effect until...
in 1858, von Siebold returned to Japan, bringing the young Alexander with him. Living in Nagasaki
Nagasaki
is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Nagasaki was founded by the Portuguese in the second half of the 16th century on the site of a small fishing village, formerly part of Nishisonogi District...
, Alexander rapidly became fluent in the Japanese language. When his father obtained a position as a foreign advisor to the Tokugawa shogunate
Tokugawa shogunate
The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the and the , was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city, Edo, which is now called Tokyo, after the name was...
, father and son travelled to Edo
Edo
, also romanized as Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of the Japanese capital Tokyo, and was the seat of power for the Tokugawa shogunate which ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868...
(modern-day Tokyo), where they resided with Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
n Consul. However, in Edo was far from safe, with sonno joi
Sonno joi
is a Japanese political philosophy and a social movement derived from Neo-Confucianism; it became a political slogan in the 1850s and 1860s in the movement to overthrow the Tokugawa bakufu, during the Bakumatsu period.-Origin:...
ronin
Ronin
A or rounin was a Bushi with no lord or master during the feudal period of Japan. A samurai became masterless from the death or fall of his master, or after the loss of his master's favor or privilege....
frequently attacking foreigners, and after the British consulate was attacked and burned, father and son returned to Nagasaki. Soon afterwards, Alexander obtained a job as official interpreter for the Imperial Russian Navy
Imperial Russian Navy
The Imperial Russian Navy refers to the Tsarist fleets prior to the February Revolution.-First Romanovs:Under Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich, construction of the first three-masted ship, actually built within Russia, was completed in 1636. It was built in Balakhna by Danish shipbuilders from Holstein...
in Nagasaki.
In 1862, Alexander was appointed official interpreter to the British consulate in Edo despite his youth (he was only 15 years old at the time), and despite the fact that English was not his native language, whereas his father, unable to secure a new appointed, departed back for the Netherlands, where he died four years later. Much of the foreign affairs negotiations with the Tokugawa shogunate were still conducted in Dutch,a nd in cases where English was necessary (such as the negotiations pertaining to the Namamugi Incident
Namamugi Incident
The was a samurai assault on foreign nationals in Japan on September 14, 1862, which resulted in the August 1863 bombardment of Kagoshima, during the Late Tokugawa shogunate...
, Alexander was assisted by Ernest Satow.
Alexander assisted British consul Edward St. John Neale
Edward St. John Neale
Edward St. John Neale was a British Lieutenant-Colonel and Diplomat who was active in Asia in the 1860s. He was the Chargé d'affaires of Great Britain in Japan in 1862-1863. Neale, who had been stationed in Beijing from 1860 as Secretary of the Legation following the settlement of the Second Opium...
during the Anglo-Satsuma War
Bombardment of Kagoshima
The Bombardment of Kagoshima, also known as the , took place on 15–17 August 1863 during the Late Tokugawa shogunate. The British Royal Navy was fired on from the coastal batteries near town of Kagoshima and in retaliation bombarded the town...
and was based on the flagship
Flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, reflecting the custom of its commander, characteristically a flag officer, flying a distinguishing flag...
during the conflict. He later accompanied the European task force during the Bombardment of Shimonoseki
Bombardment of Shimonoseki
The Battles for Shimonoseki refers to a series of military engagements in 1863 and 1864, fought to control Shimonoseki Straits by joint naval forces from the Great Britain, France, the Netherlands and the United States, against the Japanese feudal domain of Chōshū, which took place off and on the...
and the negotiations for opening the port of Hyogo to foreign settlement and trade in 1864.
When Tokugawa Akitake
Tokugawa Akitake
was a younger brother of the Japanese Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu. He was born in Komagome, Tokyo, as the 18th son of Tokugawa Nariaki. Initially lord of Aizu, he became lord of Shimizu before his departure for France.-Biography:...
was sent to visit the 1867 World Fair
Exposition Universelle (1867)
The Exposition Universelle of 1867 was a World Exposition held in Paris, France, in 1867.-Conception:In 1864, Emperor Napoleon III decreed that an international exposition should be held in Paris in 1867. A commission was appointed with Prince Jerome Napoleon as president, under whose direction...
in Paris, France, Alexander accompanied him. With the Meiji Restoration
Meiji Restoration
The , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, Reform or Renewal, was a chain of events that restored imperial rule to Japan in 1868...
, Tokugawa Akitake was ordered back to Japan, but Alexander stayed on in Europe and returned to Japan a year later in 1869 as an advisor to the Empire of Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
. He was subsequently ennobled with the title of baron
Baron
Baron is a title of nobility. The word baron comes from Old French baron, itself from Old High German and Latin baro meaning " man, warrior"; it merged with cognate Old English beorn meaning "nobleman"...
by Franz Joseph I
Franz Joseph I of Austria
Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I was Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia, King of Croatia, Apostolic King of Hungary, King of Galicia and Lodomeria and Grand Duke of Cracow from 1848 until his death in 1916.In the December of 1848, Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria abdicated the throne as part of...
In August 1870, he resigned from the British Consulate. However, the new Meiji government found use for his talents, and he was sent to London and subsequently to Frankfurt to make arrangements for Japanese students in those countries and to hire foreign advisors in all areas of expertise to come to Japan. He also arranged for Japan’s participation in the Vienna World Expo of 1873
Weltausstellung 1873 Wien
]The Weltausstellung 1873 Wien was the large World exposition was held in 1873 in the Austria–Hungarian capital of Vienna. Its motto was Kultur und Erziehung ....
. He returned to Japan in November 1872, but was sent back to Europe again in February 1873 to late 1874 to render assistance to Sano Tsunetami
Sano Tsunetami
Count was a Japanese statesman and founder of the Japanese Red Cross Society. His son, Admiral Sano Tsuneha, was a leading figure in the establishment of the Scout Association of Japan.-Biography:...
.
In May 1875, he became official interpreter for the Ministry of Finance. On the death of his mother in 1877, he returned to the Netherlands on six months leave, but was ordered to visit the Exposition Universelle
Exposition Universelle (1878)
The third Paris World's Fair, called an Exposition Universelle in French, was held from 1 May through to 10 November 1878. It celebrated the recovery of France after the 1870 Franco-Prussian War.-Construction:...
and to assist in commercial negotiations in Berlin. He returned to Japan in October 1881, but was sent back to Germany to assist Inoue Kaoru
Inoue Kaoru
Count , GCMG was a member of the Meiji oligarchy during the Meiji period Empire of Japan. As one of the senior statesman in Japan during that period, he had a tremendous influence on the selection of the nation's leaders and formation of its policies.-Early years:...
in Berlin in negotiations with the German government over treaty revisions in October 1881. The negotiations were protracted and ultimately unsuccessful; he left Berlin in 1882, moved to Rome in 1884, returned to Japan in 1885, and moved to London in 1892 to assist Aoki Shūzō
Aoki Shuzo
was a diplomat and Foreign Minister in Meiji period Japan.-Biography:Viscount Aoki was born to a samurai family as son of the Chōshū domain's physician in what is now part of Sanyō Onoda in Yamaguchi Prefecture)...
in the successful conclusion of the 1894 Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Commerce and Navigation
Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Commerce and Navigation
The signed by Britain and Japan, on July 16, 1894, was a breakthrough agreement; it heralded the end of the unequal treaties and the system of extraterritoriality in Japan. The treaty came into force on July 17, 1899....
. In August 1910, he was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasures
Order of the Sacred Treasures
The is a Japanese Order, established on January 4, 1888 by Emperor Meiji of Japan as the Order of Meiji. It is awarded in eight classes . It is generally awarded for long and/or meritorious service and considered to be the lowest of the Japanese orders of merit...
(2nd class).
He died on the French Riviera
French Riviera
The Côte d'Azur, pronounced , often known in English as the French Riviera , is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France, also including the sovereign state of Monaco...
in January 1911.