Nagasaki Naval Training Center
Encyclopedia
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...
, until 1859, when it was transferred to Tsukiji
Tsukiji
Tsukiji is a district of Chūō, Tokyo, Japan, the site of the Tsukiji fish market. Literally meaning "reclaimed land," it lies near the Sumida River on land reclaimed from Tokyo Bay in the 18th century, during the Edo period....
in 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...
.
During the Bakumatsu period, the Japanese government faced increasing incursions by ships from western nations, intent on ending the country's two centuries of national seclusion
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...
. These efforts cumulated in the landing of United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Commodore Commodore 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 navies of the western nations.
History
Netherlands
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...
settlement of Dejima
Dejima
was a small fan-shaped artificial island built in the bay of Nagasaki in 1634. This island, which was formed by digging a canal through a small peninsula, remained as the single place of direct trade and exchange between Japan and the outside world during the Edo period. Dejima was built to...
in Nagasaki, where maximum interaction with Dutch naval technology would be possible. Nagai Naoyuki
Nagai Naoyuki
, also known as or , was a Japanese samurai and Tokugawa retainer during the Bakumatsu and Meiji periods.-Early life:Nagai Naoyuki, or as he was first known, , was born in the Nukada district of the Okutono Domain by a concubine to . Noritada, while head of a collateral branch of the Tokugawa, was...
was appointed the first director with a first class of 37 cadets from the various hatamoto
Hatamoto
A was a 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...
with fealty directly to the Shōgun
Shogun
A was one of the hereditary military dictators of Japan from 1192 to 1867. In this period, the shoguns, or their shikken regents , were the de facto rulers of Japan though they were nominally appointed by the emperor...
, and 128 cadets sent from the various feudal han (16 from Satsuma Domain, 28 from Fukuoka Domain
Fukuoka Domain
The ' was a Japanese domain of the Edo period, located in Chikuzen Province .-List of lords:*Kuroda clan, 1600-1871 #Nagamasa#Tadayuki#Mitsuyuki#Tsunamasa#Nobumasa...
, 15 from Chōshū Domain, 47 from Saga Domain
Saga Domain
Saga Domain was a han, or feudal domain, in Tokugawa period Japan. Largely contiguous with Hizen Province on Kyūshū, the domain was governed from Saga Castle in the capital city of Saga by the Nabeshima clan of tozama daimyō...
, 5 from Kumamoto Domain
Kumamoto Domain
The was han or a Japanese feudal domain that was located in Higo Province apart from Kuma District and Amakusa District and part of Bungo Province . It was also known as...
, 12 from Tsu Domain, 4 from Fukuyama Domain
Fukuyama Domain
The ' was a Japanese domain of the Edo period, located in Bingo and Bitchū provinces.-List of lords:*Mizuno clan, 1619-1698 #Katsunari#Katsutoshi#Katsusada#Katsutane#Katsumine*Tenryō, 1698-1700...
and one from Kakegawa Domain
Kakegawa Domain
' was a Japanese feudal domain of the Edo period, located in Tōtōmi Province. Kakegawa was primarily a Fudai domain. It was centered at Kakegawa Castle in what is now Kakegawa, Shizuoka.-History:...
).Katsu Kaishū
Katsu Kaishu
was a Japanese statesman, naval engineer during the Late Tokugawa shogunate and early Meiji period. Kaishū was a nickname which he took from a piece of calligraphy by Sakuma Shōzan. He went through a series of given names throughout his life; his childhood name was and his real name was...
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.
Royal Dutch Navy officers were in charge of education, the first being Pels Rijcken
Pels Rijcken
Gerhard Christiaan Coenraad Pels Rijcken was an officer of the Dutch Navy and a politician. As an officer, Pels Rijcken reached the rank of Vice-Admiral...
(from 1855 to 1857), and the second Willem Huyssen van Kattendijke (from 1857–1859). Western medical science was taught by J. L. C. Pompe van Meerdervoort
J. L. C. Pompe van Meerdervoort
Johannes Lijdius Catharinus Pompe van Meerdervoort was a Dutch physician based in Nagasaki, Japan...
. The curriculum was weighed towards navigation and western science
Rangaku
Rangaku 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, 1641–1853, because of the Tokugawa shogunate’s policy of national...
. The center was also equipped with Japan's first steamship, Kankō Maru
Kanko Maru
The was Japan's first steam warship. The ship was a 3-masted top sail schooner , with an auxiliary coal-fired steam engine turning a side paddlewheel...
given by the King of the Netherlands
William III of the Netherlands
William III was from 1849 King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg until his death and the Duke of Limburg until the abolition of the Duchy in 1866.-Early life:William was born in Brussels as son of William II of the Netherlands and...
in 1855. It was later joined by the Kanrin Maru
Japanese warship Kanrin Maru
Kanrin Maru 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 , by the Shogun's government, the Bakufu...
and the Chōyō
Japanese warship Choyo
was a warship of the Imperial Navy during the Boshin War. She participated to the Naval Battle of Hakodate in 1869, where she was sunk on May 11 by the rebel warship Banryū. She suffered a huge explosion after being hit, in which 73 sailors died, although her captain Nakamuta Kuranosuke...
.
The Nagasaki Naval Training Center provided not only samurai
Samurai
is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
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 . 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 machinery imported from Europe.
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
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...
. The third class of 1857 has 26 cadets. The future Admiral Enomoto Takeaki
Enomoto Takeaki
Viscount was a samurai and admiral of the Tokugawa navy of Bakumatsu period Japan, who remained faithful to the Tokugawa shogunate who fought against the new Meiji government until the end of the Boshin War...
was one of the students of the Nagasaki Training Center. The Training Center was closed in 1859, and education transferred to Tsukiji Naval Training Center in Edo, where the Kankō Maru was also sailed by a Japanese-only crew.
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 Dutch 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
Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1869 until 1947, when it was dissolved following Japan's constitutional renunciation of the use of force as a means of settling international disputes...
but also promoters of Japan's shipbuilding and other industries.